Global vision

Only after earning a law degree, a master’s degree in
public policy and a master’s degree in law did Alfonso
Galindo learn that to really effect change in his native Mexico, he
would have to abandon the political path in favor of an academic
one.

Since his appointment as UCLA Representative to Mexico in 2003,
Galindo has helped envision and administer countless projects
focused on promoting a more global vision at Mexican universities
as part of the UCLA in Mexico initiative, launched by Chancellor
Albert Carnesale in May 2003.

The UCLA in Mexico program is committed to widening the scope of
academics at Mexican universities and promoting a global approach
to academics ““ a view which academic study in Mexico has
lacked, Galindo said.

“We’re trying to expand our educational model to
Mexican institutions that have asked for our support,” he
said.

Galindo cited the successes of interdepartmental programs at
universities like UCLA that have given students the opportunity to
take a less traditional path to their degrees and allowed them to
pursue a broader, more comprehensive education ““ one more
fitting for today’s global atmosphere.

One such interdepartmental program is UCLA’s newly
launched global studies program, which served as the model for the
foundation of a graduate program in global development studies at
the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, one of the
projects to emerge out of the UCLA in Mexico initiative.

“We provided the academic template for the program,”
said Geoffrey Garrett, vice provost and dean of the UCLA
International Institute. Garrett was involved in the implementation
of the global studies program at UCLA, as well as the graduate
program at UABC.

Interdepartmental programs are scarce at Mexican universities,
which take a more traditional approach to fields of study.

“This is a new innovation into the Mexican university
system,” Galindo said, adding that this innovation is just
another component of UCLA in Mexico’s effort to modernize the
Mexican university system.

The program at UABC, which will begin in fall 2005, offers both
a master’s and a doctoral degree, officially granted by UABC
but in cooperation with UCLA and the University of Paris. Students
take most classes at UABC but are also required to pass some
courses at a foreign institution. The first students will attend
UCLA summer session in 2006.

In the program’s inaugural year, Galindo expects that
most, if not all, students will be of Mexican nationality and that
the majority of courses will be conducted in Spanish ““ though
applicants must demonstrate proficiency in English ““ but he
envisions the program going in a more international direction.

“It looks like it’s going to be a real
success,” Garrett said.

Other projects Galindo has spearheaded under the auspices of the
UCLA in Mexico initiative have included lecture series and
conferences with legislators in both Mexico and the United States,
commissions on issues affecting Mexico such as trade, migration and
human rights, and postgraduate courses at various Mexican
universities.

For Galindo, the UCLA in Mexico program has personal
implications.

He had dreams of pursuing a career in politics, hoping to change
what he saw as a lack of communication between Mexico and the rest
of the world, as well as within the country, that has resulted in a
misunderstanding of Mexico by the rest of the world.

“I realized there was a very unfortunate division in the
way people view Mexico,” Galindo said, referring to the
different perceptions of the country by outsiders as well as by
Mexicans.

He was shocked, he said, by the differences between the
perspectives of Americans, Mexicans and Chicanos.

“People are not really listening to each other,” he
said.

This lack of communication and compromise has contributed to
Mexico’s political and economic stagnation, he said.

But Galindo said he was disillusioned by Mexican politics.

“With the leadership we have today, I don’t see that
we could really go anywhere,” he said.

Galindo realized he had to change his approach to helping Mexico
move forward. He saw that politics in the United States, though far
from perfect, was marked more by a vision of a better nation than
by politicians’ personal agendas. This characteristic, he
believed, grew out of the United States’ inclusive
educational philosophy.

“Here, people work together because they’re educated
to work together,” he said.

Galindo credits his experiences at different universities in the
United States and Mexico with enabling him to better link the
institutions involved in the UCLA in Mexico program.

During his educational career, he said, he “learned how to
link universities.”

Though he has already worked as a professor in Mexico, his goal
is to do so in the United States. Galindo, currently classified as
a staff member at UCLA, is pursuing a Ph.D. in history at UCLA
while administering the UCLA in Mexico projects.

The UCLA in Mexico initiative grew out of the foundation built
in the 1970s by history Professor James Wilkie, who is currently
chair of the UCLA Program on Mexico, a division of the UCLA Latin
American Center.

Wilkie realized the importance of establishing an academic
relationship with Mexico, Galindo said.

“It is an honor to build on the strong foundations of the
Program on Mexico,” he said, adding that without
Wilkie’s work, the UCLA in Mexico initiative might not have
been possible.

But Galindo said, despite Wilkie’s long-standing
commitment to fostering an academic relationship with Mexico, the
effort had limited funding and support until recently.

Now, with the support of the chancellor’s office ““
particularly of Executive Vice Chancellor Dan Neuman, who attended
UABC’s global development studies launch ceremony in Tijuana
““ the program has been able to flourish, Galindo said.

He added that the global approach to the initiative is another
recent development in educational policy, as previously most such
programs were focused on regional study. But, he said,
globalization has made that model obsolete.

Galindo himself represents one of the components of the new
educational model. Traditionally, he said, research on other
countries would typically be conducted by Americans. But as Galindo
demonstrates, now it is more common for foreign-born academics to
research their own country in the United States.

Through his work, Galindo hopes to adapt Mexican universities to
globalization, thereby advancing Mexico’s political and
economic systems, as well as promoting a better worldwide
understanding of Mexico.

“Mexico will only attain progress if we Mexicans learn to
work as a team, focusing on the progress of our country,” he
said.