http://youtu.be/-oqi_zzpFAg
For three decades and counting, Las Cruces and Ciudad Lerdo have shown their respective countries the meaning of friendship.
At a recent Las Cruces City Council meeting, officials from Lerdo, Durango, Mexico and its Sister Cities Committee signed an international agreement renewing “understanding, friendship and peace between the two cities and two nations."
While the relationship began in 1982, it was formalized with Sister Cities International in 1989.
The organization traces its roots back to 1956. During a Cold War-era summit on citizen diplomacy, President Dwight D. Eisenhower created the People-to-People Program.
Eisenhower, who served in both World Wars, saw it as a way to promote peace and strengthen relationships abroad through educational, cultural and humanitarian activities.
That’s led to exchange opportunities such as trainings by Las Cruces police officers and firefighters, performances by Lerdo artists and learning English and Spanish in each other’s homelands.
Lerdo Mayor María Luisa González Achem said she hopes to introduce some of the programs she learned that Las Cruces offers back home. Karla Walton with the Las Cruces City Manager's Office translated for Achem during her visit.
“They actually want to try and copy some of the models and implement them in Lerdo. So that is what, you know, she is taking with her. She is especially excited about the senior programs, about sustainability and more specifically about solar panels. She thinks that is something that they can implement over there," González Achem said via Walton.
Dr. Hale Huber has been involved with the Las Cruces Sister Cities program for 25 years. Huber, who also formed a committee in 1995 with Nienburg, Germany, said exchanges with other countries can benefit cities that share similar demographics.
“It is positive to have a sister city relationship with a city of about the same size as your city, like Las Cruces, about 100 thousand people with a similar type economy, with agriculture and with a river that flows part of the year and other similar aspects," Huber said. "And they also grow a lot of pecans and they grow chile so there’s a lot of similarities.”
While Sister Cities is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization, the political timing of the ceremony isn’t lost on either city’s delegates.
Huber said the exchange was first scheduled for April 2019. That month, President Trump threatened to shut down the border to reduce crossings by Central American migrants seeking asylum. Huber said that forced the cities to postpone the trip.
“The fear was if the mayor and the city council from Lerdo was in Las Cruces and President Trump closed the border, they could be stuck for an undetermined amount of time here in Las Cruces or on this side of the border," Huber said. "And so, with this fear caused by President Trump, Jose and I agreed to cancel the exchange that was all arranged."
Mayor González Achem said the delegation has to respect Trump’s policies on immigration, from “Remain in Mexico” to the recently introduced “third country” rule.
The rule states if migrants seeking asylum enter a third country on their way to the U.S., they must first apply for refugee status in that country.
"As a delegation they have to respectful of any president and the policies that they are implementing, and that she's fully aware that, you know, it's also up to them to do programs and create jobs in their own country to prevent immigration and to make sure that the citizens who are coming... that they have opportunities in their own countries to grow and prosper," González Achem said via Walton."But they have to respect what the U.S. government is doing."
Dr. Jose Frias is president of Lerdo Sister Cities but got his start on the board in Las Cruces. Frias said he’s seen the sisterhood grow during his time working with different mayors and councils. But in that time, political tensions between their respective countries have also grown.
“I understand that many people is not happy knowing that what the President wants to do with the border. But beside that, and in fact, this visit has shown that there’s no walls, there’s nothing to avoid people from different countries and different cities to get together and be really friends," Frias said.
The visit featured speeches from both delegations along with the presentation of a Sister Cities plaque and a tour downtown.
Huber said the program is one resource for the U.S. to bolster its relations with Mexico and countries around the world. Regardless, the enduring bond between Lerdo and Las Cruces is solid enough, he said, to withstand the actions of President Trump.
“I mean, it’s like we look beyond Trump. We look beyond the insanity that we’re dealing with now to the future without Trump where the relationships between our country, Mexico and other countries can be normalized and the borders can be such that it allows for exchange and communication and interchange between us and other countries," Huber said.
If the past 30 years are any indication, fellowship is a valuable ambassador.
