Correa: US attitude to Mexico. Mexico attitude to US. That is the elephant in the room.

Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

WASHINGTON, D.C. U.S. Rep. Lou Correa of California says the elephant in the room that no one talks about is the United States’ attitude towards Mexico and Mexico’s attitude to the U.S.
Correa was a panelist at the Mexico Institute’s 10th Annual Building a Competitive U.S.-Mexico Border Conference, held recently in Washington, D.C.
The panel was titled “The Border from the Congressional Perspective.” It featured three members of Congress from the border: U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, U.S. Rep. Greg Stanton of Arizona, and Correa.
The panel moderator was IBC Bank’s president for Eagle Pass, Hector J. Cerna.
Cerna asked Correa to talk about a bill he had introduced about infrastructure at land ports of entry.
Correa responded: “I think there's a bigger issue here and I think it's the elephant in the room that we don't talk about, which is the attitude that we have towards Mexico and Mexico as towards the US. We're all interdependent.”
Correa pointed out that his grandfather came to the U.S. from Mexico around 1900 to work on the railroads.
“When you grow up you think you're the only odd duck with these characteristics. Then you find out everybody in the room (is the same). Orange County, California Republican Orange County… three quarters of the population (is Mexicano). We forget the historical connection.”
Correa asked, where does the border start and where does it end.
“Those relationships, those economic relationships, are deep and interdependency is the lifeblood of Mexico's economy. And now the US,” Correa said.
“We’re going to build a border wall. It has been built since the days of Clinton. It's a bad thing because it sends the wrong message, which is us versus them. But it's going to be built.”
Correa said Mexicanos, Latin Americans, Central Americans, don't want to be Americans. But they want the American Dream.
"We talk about the Chinese, the Russians. We can compete with them one-on-one. But it's up to us to figure out that roadmap. Work out a free trade agreement with China. Are you kidding me? Have we been asleep at the wheel in the United States? Then, only complain about what is going on in our own backyard,” Correa said.
“It’s our attitude. We're more focused on Europe, Asia, until we see a fire in our backyard. Then that's when we want to figure out, why did it start?”
Correa said the first thing to do is take care of business. He said the first order of business is understanding the importance of the relationship with Mexico and the rest of the Americas.
“USMCA is going to provide a tremendous opportunity to kick the tires, to see what's been working and what has not been working and to modify it and to begin to have that as a blueprint for the rest of the Americas in terms of trade,” Correa said.
“I've been talking to other countries south of the border. They want in. They want to work with us, as they should. And, ultimately, I've talked about what we need to do as a nation. We want to be leaders. Let's be leaders. We should have a Marshall Plan to restart the economy south of the border.”
Border Security? It is very important, Correa said. “But how you address it, the fundamentals is even more important and we are not talking about it. And I'm going to tell you, we are the reflection of our constituents. You have to help us plow the field, change the narrative. The narrative should be the bigger picture. Where are we going to be 10, 15, 20, 30 years? We can do better than we've done. This is not the US his fault. This is not Mexico's fault. It's all our fault.”

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