Promoting understanding and community building: the Mexico Forum at UChicago

Mario Venegas, MPP Class of 2025, writes about how he built community with other LatinX students on campus, and how they successfully organized the first Mexico Forum, bringing experts to discuss issues and challenges facing Mexico.

Being from Mexico, it was especially important for me to have access to a Mexican—and broader Latin American—community when choosing a graduate program. Since I was eager to discuss and widen my perspective on the policy challenges faced by my country and region, I decided to join two student organizations during my first month at Harris: Latin American Matters (LAM) and the University of Chicago Mexican Association (UCMA). 

The second-year students who were part of UCMA mentioned how one of their goals for last year was to organize a Mexico Forum at the University of Chicago. Their idea was to invite experts to have conversations on different issues and challenges facing Mexico. I didn’t know that as UChicago students we had access to the resources to make this happen, but we did and  after a few months of hard work, UCMA members successfully organized the first Mexico Forum at UChicago. 

With the support of UChicago’s Katz Center for Mexican Studies and the Pozen Center for Human Rights, the Mexico Forum hosted five panel discussions on trade, human rights and security, economic growth, political outlook, and the Mexico-US bilateral relationship. Panel participants included Ambassador Reyna Torres, Consul General of Mexico in Chicago; Roberto Velasco Álvarez, Chief of the North America Unit of Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Ministry; Valeria Moy, Instituto Mexicano para la Competitividad (IMCO) Executive Director; and Santiago Levy, former President of the Latin American and Caribbean Economic Association, among other distinguished figures. 

Since I’m passionate about crime and security policy, I oversaw the organizing and conducting of the panel discussion "Toward a comprehensive framework for human rights and security in Mexico." It was a privilege to interview and talk to two experts I’ve always admired: Alina Bitrán, Innovations for Poverty Action’s Senior Research Manager, and Pedro Gerson, an Assistant Professor focusing on criminal and immigration law, and then-Director of Human Rights Practice at the Pozen Institute. 

The Mexico Forum also helped me truly appreciate the resources that Harris and UChicago make available to support their students in achieving their academic and professional goals. I wanted to broaden my understanding and perspective on the policy issues faced by my country, and, through UCMA, I was able to help organize a whole forum with distinguished speakers to do exactly that. If you are coming to Harris or UChicago, I definitely recommend having a clear goal for your academic pursuits, finding a community with similar interests, and making good use of all available resources!