Latin American Initiative

KEY PEOPLE

Erika de la Garza, Program Director, Latin American Initiative

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

Notwithstanding recent backslides in some countries, the last two decades have marked a historical movement toward democracy throughout Latin America. Today the continent faces the task of consolidating the central elements of democratic governance while addressing growing economic disparity and social fragmentation.

The mission of the Latin American Initiative at the Baker Institute is to provide a forum which fosters a better understanding of the cultures, economies, histories, and contemporary affairs of past and present Latin America. Through its main programs—the Americas Project and the U.S.–Mexico Border Project—the Latin American Initiative brings together leading stakeholders from government, the private sector, academia and civil society to exchange their views on pressing issues confronting the region. Additionally, this initiative sponsors regular forums addressing political and economic aspects of U.S. policy toward Latin America.

The Americas Project

We share a hemispheric space in the Americas that increasingly requires multinational attention to convergent interests and concerns. These include trade and structural reforms, the flow of capital and labor within the region, growing intraregional trade, shared consumer tastes and marketing, challenges to the order of law, and a common concern for the environment. The need to manage the growing interdependence among the American countries is creating a new and quite different policy climate.

The Americas—particularly the developing nations of Latin America—occupy an increasingly vital position on our world’s economic, political, cultural, and social map. From Mexico to Venezuela to Chile, these emerging countries are assuming a vital presence on the world’s stage.

The Americas Project is a collaborative venture uniting the resources and expertise of Rice University’s James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and the Organization of American States.

This undertaking is designed to create a leadership forum where emerging economic, political, and cultural pacesetters throughout the Western Hemisphere can engage in dialogue on important topics of hemispheric consequences. The Americas Project brings together approximately 15 fellows selected competitively from the various countries of the Western Hemisphere. They represent some of the region’s brightest and most promising, rising young leaders.

The U.S.–Mexico Border Project

The focus of the U.S.–Mexico Border Project is on immigration and other sensitive and critical issues along the U.S.-Mexico border. The scope of this program is to define problems, organize scholarly task forces to conduct research studies, formulate proposals, and engage politicians at the highest levels of government in the United States and Mexico. Because border issues include drug trafficking and security as well as immigration, the policy issues are acutely relevant not just to Houston and Texas but to the rest of the nation as well. The integrated overview of the border region which the U.S.–Mexico Border Project is undertaking is aimed to address problems that are currently the source of serious tensions between two close neighbors. The ultimate goal of this program is nothing less than to reduce tensions, improve quality of life, and establish a working partnership between two great nations. The U.S.–Mexico Border Project is funded primarily by the Houston Endowment. Program plans include task forces and a conference at the Baker Institute on border issues. The program will collect input from academicians in Mexico who might be potential participants and from Mexicans who live and work on the border in order to expand the program’s perspective and encourage grassroots involvement.

PUBLICATIONS
2008: Medellín v. Texas: Why It Matters to You
Aug 18 2008

Erika de la Garza
2007: What Holds Back the Second Generation? The Intergenerational Transmission of Language Human Capital Among Immigrants
Aug 09 2007

Aimee Chin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics; Does Reducing College Costs Improve Educational Outcomes for Undocumented Immigrants?
Jan 01 2007

Aimee Chin, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Chinhui Juhn, PhD, Henry Graham Professor of Economics, Department of Economics
2006: Baker Institute Policy Report 34: Americas Project - 2006 Report
Dec 01 2006; Effects of Low-Skilled Immigration on U.S. Natives: Evidence from Hurricane Mitch
Jan 30 2006

Adriana Kugler, Mutlu Yuskel
2005: Baker Institute Policy Report 27: Americas Project - 2004 Report
Mar 01 2005
2004: Baker Institute Policy Report 25: The Americas Project 2003 Report - Proyecto de las Americas Informe 2003
Sep 01 2004
2003: Latin American Survey (Part of Study 22)
Oct 01 2003; Baker Institute Policy Report 22: The Political Consequences of Economic Turmoil in Latin America
Oct 01 2003; Baker Institute Policy Report 22 Addendum: State of the Latin American Political Economy
Oct 01 2003
2001: Baker Institute Policy Report 16: The Americas Project 2000
Jul 01 2001
1998: Baker Institute Policy Report 9: The Americas Project 1998
Nov 01 1998
1997: Study 5: The Americas Project
Dec 01 1997; Baker Institute Policy Report 5: The Americas Project: Free Trade and Reforms in the Hemisphere
Dec 01 1997

EVENTS

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Latin American Initiative