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About Us
Who We Are
Mexa Institute is an independent, non-partisan, non- profit organization, which studies the role of Mexican-origin and Hispanic communities in the United States.
Mission
To help combat prejudices which create an erroneous and biased perspective on the Mexican-origin and Hispanic communities in the United States.
What We Do
To generate and disseminate objective information about Mexican-origin and Hispanic communities in the United States through data and statistics.
Vision
To achieve full integration of the Mexican-origin and Hispanic communities into American society.
Mexico has not found a way to relate to its communities abroad, located mostly in the United States, our neighbor and the main economic and political interlocutor. Nor has it developed a strategy that defines its role in the relationship with the powerful neighbor to the north.
What at first was the massive exit of Mexicans towards the American Union, has become a community destined to play a transcendent role in the society of that country and in the Mexican one; it could be the first line of defense of the interests of Mexico and the axis of the relationship with the United States.
This community develops under conditions of inequality and has less access to health and education services, compared to other population groups, so their participation in the economic and political life of the United States is below its potential.
It is time to end up with mistaken and obsolete perceptions of Mexicans in the United States, who point to their return, or who continue to emigrate in large numbers, when that population is practically the same for 10 years; It is not enough to give them the right to vote in elections in Mexico, particularly when the procedure is tortuous; Celebrate the increase in remittances is another serious error, because these resources do not derive from any government program.
If Mexico was unable to establish conditions to prevent their migration, today it has a moral obligation to empower them so that they can access the same opportunities as the rest of the society in which they chose to live. The challenge is enormous, but it should be of the greatest interest to the two countries because these women and men are the future of the United States and Mexico.
Our team
We study Mexican and Hispanic communities throughout the United States.
The founder and president of Mexa Institute, Jorge Santibanez is a human migration scholar and, more specifically, an expert of Mexican communities in the United States. Dr. Santibanez’s migration expertise has led to collaborations as a consultant with the governments of Mexico, Spain and France, as well as organizations such as the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. Dr. Santibanez served as president and researcher at The College of the Northern Border (Colegio de la Frontera Norte, COLEF) and as a public servant in Mexico as the head of the Educational Policy Planning and Evaluation Unit (Unidad de Planeación y Evaluación de Políticas Educativas) division of the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública, SEP.)
Dr. Santibanez has taught classes and given lectures at institutions such as the College of Mexico (El Colegio de Mexico), Paris Institute of Political Studies, the King Juan Carlos University (Universidad del Rey Juan Carlos), the University of California, the University of Southern California, New York University, the American University, and others. He has written editorials for print media, radio and television. Dr. Santibanez holds a degree in mathematics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM) and a Doctorate in Mathematics, Probability and Statistics from Louis Pasteur University (Université Louis-Pasteur) in Strasbourg, France.
Economist by training with a post-graduate degree in Regional Development. She specializes in migration, education and labour markets. She works on survey design and data processing and analysis of Mexican and US public databases. In Mexico, she worked both as an academic and public servant in charge of the Office of Information Analysis and Education Policy Studies (Dirección de Análisis de Información y Estudios de Política Educativa) of the Ministry of Public Education (Secretaría de Educación Pública.) In the US she works with non-profit organizations on behalf of the Mexican and Hispanic communities.
Oscar Gomez works with non-profit organizations in the United States on behalf of the Mexican and Hispanic community. In Mexico, he worked as an adviser in the Office of the President and as a coordinator of public opinion projects in the private sector. Mr. Gomez holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the Hertie School of Governance in Germany, as well as a degree in Political Science from the Center for Research and Teaching in Economics (Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, CIDE) in Mexico.
Saul Salazar writes about migration and electoral processes. He specializes in geographic information systems and database management.Mr. Salazar was the director of strategic projects for the Undersecretary of Planning and Evaluation of Education Policies (Subsecretaría de Planeación y Evaluación de Políticas Educativas) within the Ministry of Public Education in Mexico. Saúl graduated with a degree in Economics from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla and has a Master’s in Regional Development from Colegio de la Frontera Norte.
Alonso Santibañez works with non-profit organizations on education, health and civic engagement projects on behalf of the Mexican and Hispanic communities in the United States. In Mexico, he worked as a consultant to international organizations and as a project manager in the fields of poverty, health and education. Mr. Santibañez earned his Master’s in Public Policy at the Hertie School of Governance in Germany and is a graduate of the Colegio de México with a Bachelor’s degree in International Relations.