The magazine that analyzes the power of Mexican municipalities in the economy, governance and Mexico's relationship with the world.

Mexico receives a consequential flow of private resources from its diaspora. The municipal challenge is not to redirect them, but to build the conditions in which the share families choose to invest can become local activity, jobs, and a more durable economic base. A remittance that sustains a household is also development A remittance used for food, medicine, rent, or school is not money misused; it is a household safeguard. The mistake begins when public debate treats consu

Remittances prove that the connection endures. The municipal challenge is to turn that relationship into investment, knowledge, markets, and verifiable projects without treating migrants as a public-sector cash reserve. Remittances are not territorial policy Remittances are evidence of family stability. In 2025, Mexico received US$62.47 billion; from January through April 2026, another US$19.68 billion arrived, 2.6% more than a year earlier, according to Banco de México. They

The 3rd Brilliant Minds Festival By Enrique Michel Velasco 2026 opened a cultural, humanist and binational agenda to rethink Mexico’s relationship with its migrant communities. Mexico does not end at its border. It also lives in every migrant community that preserves its language, its culture, its symbols and its family memory far from the national territory. That was one of the central ideas that marked the 3rd Brilliant Minds Festival By Enrique Michel Velasco 2026, held at

Mexico continues to treat its diaspora as nostalgia, when it should treat it as strategic capital. That is the failure. Millions of Mexicans outside the country sustain households, finance consumption, pay for education, build homes, activate businesses, and keep the economy of hundreds of municipalities alive. But Mexico has still not built a serious architecture to turn that force into territorial investment. The Mexican diaspora is not only identity. It is economic pow

Mexico has a second foreign policy. It was not born in a foreign ministry. It was built by millions of Mexicans who work, pay taxes, send money, open businesses, vote, defend their identity, and negotiate every day with schools, banks, hospitals, unions, companies, and governments beyond the national territory. That is the uncomfortable truth, the Mexican diaspora already operates as a parallel diplomacy. The problem is not that Mexico lacks global influence. The problem

Speaking of the Mexican diaspora as merely a network of family support is no longer sufficient. Today, it is an economic, political, and technological actor with the capacity to influence Mexico’s public discourse and to build bridges with its trade partners across the Americas, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Oceania. The scale makes this clear: Mexico remains one of the world’s largest recipients of remittances, while the International Monetary Fund projects moderate economic gro

For years, the relationship between Los Angeles and Guadalajara was viewed almost exclusively as a story of migration, nostalgia, and remittances. That perspective is no longer sufficient. Today, we are looking at a binational corridor with the real capacity to generate value across four layers at once: identity, creative industries, cultural trade, and investment. This is no longer just about Mexicans in California and people from Guadalajara connected to their communities i

For decades, the Mexican diaspora was largely viewed as a source of remittances and a consular issue. That perspective is now outdated. Today, Mexico’s local governments face a far broader asset: a transnational network of talent, investment, political influence, cultural consumption, and business connections that can strengthen the country’s position with partners across the Americas, Europe, and Africa. The scale of this phenomenon speaks for itself. In 2023, 10.9 million M

For years, the so-called State 33 was treated in Mexico as a sentimental metaphor: a beloved community, valuable for remittances, visible during political campaigns and often absent from the hard design of foreign policy. That approach is no longer sufficient. Today, the Mexican diaspora operates as a strategic actor in diplomacy, not only because of its size, but because of its ability to connect markets, universities, local governments, technology networks and political cap

On North America’s economic map, the border has ceased to be a dividing line: it is now a platform. The rise of the Mexican diaspora in the United States—through business, professional, and community networks—is fueling the creation of de facto “special economic zones”: preferential tax and customs regimes, strategic trade facilities, and foreign-trade zones that connect capital, talent, and supply chains on both sides of the boundary. The question is no longer whether the di