Tijuana Innovadora: “The Mexican Diaspora”
By Adina Moloman
Sources: http://www.tijuanainnovadora.com, UT San Diego, El Economista
Tijuana Innovadora event took place at the Tijuana Cultural Center and offered numerous panels, conferences, workshops, exhibits, seminars, etc. Tijuana Innovadora third edition seeked to celebrate Tijuana’s potential in a variety of fields, but this event focusing mainly on the cooperation between the United States and Mexico and how the San Diego-Tijuana border can be an example of bilateral collaboration.
The 11-day Tijuana Innovadora conference is a great experience, each day offers something different for the audience, where a large number of speakers (between 200 and 300 speakers) are sharing their success stories. The organizers are surprising its public with the presence of big personalities in their fields such as: César Millán (“Dog Whisperer”), Adrián Fernández, car racer, Elsa Ávila, alpinist; José Andrés, spanish Chef; Ana Fussoni, journalist and fashion expert; Ron Huldai, Tel Aviv Mayor; Dr. Roberto Trujillo, “the Mexican that cures cancer”; Rosario Marín, former Treasurer of the United States; Rudy Giuliani former New York City Mayor; Bill Richardson, former New Mexico Governor.
Many of the personalities that shared their stories are part of the Mexican Diaspora and is important to know their stories to recognize and understand the contributions of Mexican immigrants to the United States and to Mexico also and to the entire world in some cases. There is a growing political power of Latinos in the United States, that’s why the event is trying to look for solutions to establish strategic alliances that benefit residents on both sides of the border.
During the event Mexican academics shared a panel that focused on Mexican migration to the United States, the importance of the large volume of remittances that immigrants send home and the Mexican migration potential for the US also.
While Tijuana Manufacturing sector, dominated by foreign companies manufacturing in Mexico, is still the main driver of the city economy, there are a growing number of local entrepreneurs from a variety of fields and a rising number of startups that are trying to make an important economic change in the city. So, the event is also about that if we count more than 60 exhibits around the city and the independently organized events, including culinary competitions, fashion events, a software hackathon and TEDx Tijuana.
