If you are like me, it will come as a surprise to learn that parallel San Antonio delegations totaling 50 local leaders traveled at the end of September on official business to Monterrey, Mexico’s second largest city and the country’s industrial capital. San Antonio and Monterrey have had a sister city relationship for 70 years.
How often does the mayor of San Antonio, along with other public officials, leave the country unannounced on official business?
No media were informed of the planned visit, even though Mayor Ron Nirenberg, UTSA President Taylor Eighmy, Alamo Colleges Chancellor Mike Flores and a number of prominent business and chamber leaders were in the delegations. Even stranger, there were no post-trip press conferences or even news releases. Nada.
I happened to see a page on the UTSA website showing Eighmy and Tec de Monterrey Rector David Garza signing agreements that extended the two universities’ long-term collaborative relationship and announcing a new joint graduate degree in cybersecurity. That followed a visit earlier in September by Mexico’s Ambassador to the United States Esteban Moctezuma Barragán to UTSA’s Global Initiatives office that also went uncovered in local media.
The only media coverage of the San Antonio delegation’s time in Monterrey, other than the Tec de Monterrey website, came in El Financiero, Mexico’s equivalent to The Wall Street Journal. The lead photo of its coverage shows Flores and officials of Universidad TecMilenio after they inked a deal that will bring Mexican nursing students here for studies that will prepare them for jobs with the Methodist Healthcare System, a significant step in addressing the critical shortage of nurses in San Antonio.
I still don’t know much more about what took place in Monterrey, but I do know San Antonio, UTSA and the Alamo Colleges missed important opportunities to showcase our continuing ties to Mexico.
One UTSA official told me the university did not publicize the trip out of security concerns, but I find that misguided. While it’s not safe for tourists to cross the border to party, or travel on roadways in parts of northern Mexico controlled by the cartels, air travel and security in the major cities of Mexico is not an issue.
As a matter of fact, new nonstop flights from San Antonio to two more Mexican cities, Querétaro and Torreón, were recently announced. Weekly, there are now 85 nonstop flights to Mexican cities, including Mexico City, Monterrey, Guadalajara, León and Cancún. Those wouldn’t exist if Mexico and Texas were not such important trading partners. Laredo, less than three hours south of San Antonio on Interstate 35, is now the busiest inland port in the United States.
There is no better example of cross-border business than H-E-B, which now operates nearly 80 stores in Mexico. Its business there is thriving.
One reason for the lack of media coverage is that Greater:SATX, the private-public nonprofit dedicated to growing quality jobs in San Antonio and the region, typically conducts its business with stealth. And it was the catalyst for what started small but quickly grew into two large delegations, one focused on business and government relations, the other on higher education collaborations.
Most of Greater:SATX’s recruitment of companies looking to relocate or expand operations here happens beyond public view. Only when a deal closes does it go public. That happened on Oct. 13 when JCB, the Great Britain-based industrial and agricultural equipment manufacturer, joined local officials here to announce plans to build its second and largest U.S. advanced manufacturing plant on San Antonio’s South Side. The plant will generate 1,500 new jobs.
So when Greater:SATX decided to take a delegation to Monterrey, it happened without any media alerts. In retrospect, San Antonio lost a good opportunity to showcase the 70th anniversary of its sister city relationship with Monterrey and our growing economic, educational and cultural ties there.
Greater:SATX CEO and President Jenna Saucedo-Herrera told me the so-called South Texas Triangle that extends from San Antonio to Laredo and the Rio Grande Valley down to Monterrey is a target-rich environment for economic development. Such opportunities were the subject of a recent commentary published by a trio of authors in the San Antonio Express-News affiliated with organizations included in the traveling delegations.
Even routine visits by San Antonio elected officials and business, education and cultural leaders are important, even if they do not result in significant announcements. Effective relationship building requires frequent exchanges. I just regret that in a growing city with a shrinking media presence there were no English-language media reports on developments.
