Miguel Basáñez, Mexico’s new ambassador

Chatted about behind the scenes — but unofficial until just recently — is the news that Fletcher professor Miguel E. Basáñez is Mexico’s new ambassador to the U.S.  Professor Basáñez wrote to the community last night to bid us a temporary farewell.  I asked his permission to share his message via the blog, which previously featured him in the Faculty Spotlight series, and he graciously agreed.  He wrote:

It is both with joy and sadness that I write to let you know that I have been officially approved as the next Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., which forces me to bring to an end a golden page in my life — seven wonderful years at Fletcher.

It will be a joy, an honor, and a privilege for me to serve my country as its Ambassador.  As you may know, Mexico is the country where the largest community of expatriate Americans live — over 1 million strong — for good reason.  Mexico remains a very safe country for foreign visitors.  Not to mention, we boast beautiful beaches (Cabo, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun), world-famous archaeological sites (Chichen Itzá, Teotihuacán, Palenque), and a wealth of charming colonial towns (Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende, Querétaro).  I hope that you will consider friendly and beautiful Mexico in your future travels.

As Ambassador, I will also be working to represent the large and diverse community of Mexicans who live in the United States.  Historically, economic conditions in Mexico have made it difficult for our country to retain its raw, uneducated — yet extremely talented — youth, who have worked hard and succeeded in the U.S., adding greatly to the economy.  These immigrants (who now number 35 million people) now produce economic output of $1.5 trillion, a number which if added to Mexico’s GDP, would raise Mexico from 14th to 7th in world GDP.  I look forward to working on their behalf to the best of my abilities.

Yet it is with sadness that I say goodbye to Fletcher, where I have deeply enjoyed my interactions with the faculty and staff, learning about their academic endeavors and life experiences.  Most of all, I have enjoyed teaching here at Fletcher, where I have found the brightest and most intellectually engaging students any professor could wish for.

At Fletcher, I was able to realize my life’s work as a mathematician of culture, based on public opinion polls from around 100 countries every five years since 1980.  My years of study and research on culture culminates in my book, A World of Three Cultures, which will be published in the late fall of this year by Oxford University Press.  I hope you will agree to allow me to host a book launch event at Fletcher at the end of the fall semester.  It would seem only appropriate to hold the event at the place that has been my academic home for the past seven years.

I would very much like to return to Fletcher when I end my service as Ambassador, so that I can share with students both my academic work on culture and my experiences as Ambassador.

I wish you all the best, and I hope to see you in Washington, DC.

Coincidentally, the nominee for the position of Ambassador to Mexico from the U.S. is a Fletcher graduate, Roberta Jacobson, F86.  Assuming she is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, what a nice coincidence to have a swap of members of the Fletcher community for these two very important positions!