Mexico Working Group

Working Group from 2005-2006
About Us

The raison d’étre of the Mexico Working Group is to increase links between Alberta and Mexico, and promote cultural understanding between our two peoples.  Every activity undertaken by the Mexico working group will adhere to the ultimate goal of creating a positive long term impact in both communities.

Mexico is fast becoming one of Alberta’s most important trading partners, and through immigration and travel our cultures are penetrating each other as never before.  It is in the public’s interest to build the requisite social infrastructure between our two peoples so that we reap the benefits of our contacts as much as possible.

Our Projects 

We are creating a documentary film that will be a comparative study of the relationship between police and community in Edmonton and Mexico City.  We will conduct interviews with police officers and civilian officials, both active and retired, journalists, community members, community activists and academics, and attempt to obtain live footage of the police forces in operation.  The first phase of the project will be carried out this semester in Mexico City, and pending its successful completion, the second phase will be carried out in Edmonton in the next semester. 

The final product will be bilingual, when the dialogue is in English there will be Spanish subtitles, and when the dialogue is in Spanish, there will be English subtitles.  Once completed, the film will serve as an educational resource for both communities that serves to enhance and link their respective dialogues about the relationship between police and people.

By contrasting two extremely different communities we hope to identify and highlight important differences in attitudes, civil society, methodology, training, mythology and history that will facilitate our communication to the public about the relationship between the police and the community.  We believe that ultimately the police force should work in the public interest by maintaining peace and protecting human rights in our communities.  We hope that our documentary film will be a piece lucid investigative journalism that will enhance the dialogue in our communities about how the police should serve the public good

Speakers Series

We will be hosting a speakers series with the Department of Political Science, The Faculty of Arts, The North American Mobility Program and APIRG entitled, North America: From Turtle Island to the Partnership for Security and Prosperity.  Possible topics may include unity and diversity in North America’s Aboriginal peoples or a discussion on the North American Free Trade Agreement.  This series, running on a bi-weekly basis will be broadcast to other educational institutions via Web-CT. 

The first of 14 lectures scheduled for Thursday, September 22, 2005, 3:30-5:00, in Tory Basement 45, U of A, is entitled THE ORIGINS: UNITY AND DIVERSITY IN NORTH AMERICA’S ABORIGINAL PEOPLES.  The speakers on this topic will be Dr. Jack Corbett from Portland University and Isabel Altamirano, University of Alberta PhD candidate.

The session will explore contemporary challenges to the preservation of Aboriginal cultures in North America and how the continent’s aboriginal people have been affected by the creation of nation states.  You will also discover how aboriginal people initiated North American integration through corridors of cultural influence, traveling north and south for the purposes of trade, intermarriage, war and celebrations prior to the creation of nation states. 

Volunteer Needed

The Apirg Mexico Working Group is looking for a volunteer web designer to design a website for the “Our North America: From Turtle Island to the Security and Prosperity Partnership” speakers series.