Ladies and Gentlemen...

...the President of Mexico, Felipe Calderon

Here is an installment of the speech given by Calderon to the Mexicans in Chicago on February 12, 2007:
How are my friends in Little Village of Chicago, Mexicans, dear friends?

I am pleased to be here this afternoon, even though it is a very cold afternoon. At least for us who are not accustomed to the cold outside, we soon see that where our people are, where there are Mexicans, we feel the warmth of the people.

I feel at home because I know that I am with all of you.

It is a great honor for me to be with you today; a great honor because you have suffered much; because you have faced great adversity.

I know that you have risked your lives to give opportunities to your children, to your families. I know that each of you has a tale of heroism and pain.

A tale of heroism because it is not easy to leave your homeland, your home, your country; and cross the border risking all.

A tale of heroism because every year more than 400 Mexicans die trying to cross the border, perhaps more than in any other part of the world.

It is also a tale of sadness because I know that for each one of you, each of the millions, for each of the millions of Mexicans living in the United States, there is a mother you will never see again, there are children far away, there are brothers you have not been able to return and greet personally.

I know that each of you has left behind a small town or big city that has lost its best people.

When they tell me that the government of Mexico wants to increase migration (to the United States), attacking and criticizing our defense of the migrants living here, I tell them they are wrong.

Because I know that Mexico loses with every migrant our most valiant people, our strongest, our boldest. Because I know with every migrant a family is separated.

I come here to Chicago, to Illinois, because I know my responsibility as President, especially during those most difficult times of misunderstanding, of harassment, of blatant discrimination in some cases, my job is to echo the voices of all Mexicans, the voice of all Mexico, saying, “We are with you.”

We are truly a Mexico that is here with you, supporting you, helping you, understanding you.

I also know, friends, that my role as President is to work very hard so that migration is not the only option for our people in the future, that migration become a decision one can take or leave, not the only alternative in life.

When they ask me the precise reason for this phenomenon, it seems to me we should not fool ourselves. The economy of the United States and the economy of Mexico are absolutely complementary. One is capital intensive, such as this one. The other is manual labor intensive. Such is Mexico.

And I have always said that, of necessity, work and capital complement each other; that we are like the left shoe and the right shoe. One must wear them both at once in order to walk.

And that since the worker has sought capital from investment here in the United States, we are looking for investment and capital in Mexico in order to generate jobs there; good paying jobs for Mexicans so that we don’t separate our families and our communities.
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More to come another day. (It was a long speech.)