Back in the early 1900’s our President Porfirio Diaz said; “Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States”. So that is how I started my conversation when I wanted to ask a question to Condoleezza Rice, former US Secretary of State, about US-MX politics, she smiled.
Last July while I was attending Stanford Graduate School, part of the daily conversations with my colleagues in sunny California was the US Presidential campaign. Seventy people from twenty-seven different countries and many different industries such as Technology, Hospitality, Manufacturing, Agriculture and many others were part of the Stanford Alumni. Part of the program was to build strong teams and relations in the ones debates and discussions took place every day, from business to politics anything that could affect in any way our innovation process.
Today, two days before Inauguration day millions of people seems to be in a collective bad dream, but actually it is NOT a bad dream. It is actually happening! I still look back to the Institutional Change Lecture brilliantly given by Condoleezza Rice as part of the Stanford program. At the beginning Condi (as people called her in an amicable way) mentioned “Don’t be afraid to ask any questions, I give classes to 14 years old so I already had been asked anything”. I raised my hand, introduced myself and asked the uncomfortable question; “Hi Condi, my name is Miriam Gonzalez. I come from your neighbor country Mexico. Now that we know it is not a joke anymore and we see it could be real that Donald Trump wins the Presidential race. What do you think could happen to all the agreements and all the strong relations both countries have been building over the last few decades?” Condoleezza in summary mentioned that the founders of The United States of America knew something like this could happened so they were very smart and divided the power in different areas so no President can decide by himself. All initiatives have to go through specific channels and everything needs to be approved.
At that time it felt like a comforting answer but today when we know the majority in the Congress and Senate belongs to the Republican Party my next question is; Will the Congress and Senate oppose to non-logical initiatives coming from the Oval office or will they surrender and accept anything to please their President?
In two days we will start seeing the answers to my question!
When I hear Mr. Trump slogan “Make America Great Again”, many things come to my mind but let’s clarify (one more time!) one important fact. America is not just a country, USA, America begins in Kaffeklubben Island and ends in Tierra de Fuego, it is the entire continent of America. So Mr. Trump, yes, millions of fearless citizens will be working together to achieve their dreams and continuing Making America, the continent, great!
