Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I recently had the honor and pleasure of visiting Mexico City as part of a larger delegation from the University of Texas that included President Jay Hartzell, Provost Sharon Wood, other UT deans and UT alumni. The trip was graciously organized by Texas Global, and the University was the guest of honor at La Feria Internacional del Libro de las Universitarias y los Universitarios 2023, known popularly as FILUNI. This academic book fair for publishers in Latin America is hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and attracts more than 35,000 participants from 10 countries.

In our Fine Arts delegation, I was joined by Professor David Stuart, the Miró Quartet, Professor Nathaniel Brickens and his Trombone Choir, as well as other faculty members.

During our visit, we celebrated the University’s deep connections in Mexico. We held lively, focused meetings and facilities tours with our counterparts in Mexico, including representatives from the arts and culture scene, leadership for the National Center for the Arts and academics from Mexico’s national universities.

Texas Exes hosted an incredible reception at the National Museum of Anthropology, and we were treated to a private tour of La Sala de Aztec (the Aztec Calendar Stone) by our own Professor Stuart, author of King and Cosmos: An Interpretation of the Aztec Calendar Stone.

The Miró Quartet performed and offered clinics and performances at UNAM. Our Trombone Choir, led by Professor Brickens, performed alongside their Mexican counterpart. The performance included a piece developed at UT this past spring with Marcia Medrano Serrano, a 2023 COMEXUS Fulbright-García Robles visiting chair.

While these ceremonial events were fantastic, I’m most excited about the many serious conversations we had with our Mexican partners about how we may deepen our connections and build further upon these relationships in the future.