For nearly three decades, the Institute of the Americas on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla has promoted discussion and debate on public policies in the Western Hemisphere. The Institute’s workshops improve the professional skills of mid-career journalists, civic leaders, scholars, government officials, teachers, NGO representatives and public policy professionals. They also serve as effective catalysts for social change. Discussions and presentations are in Spanish or translated from English. Last year the workshops attracted 150 Latin American and Caribbean participants. Sponsors included U.S. embassies,multilateral institutions, private companies and national governments.

You'll hear the latest research and opinions from public, private and academic experts working in the region. Then you'll head for the U.S.-Mexico border and Tijuana where you can see firsthand the massive flow of trucks, cars and people that make San Diego-Tijuana the world’s busiest border crossing. But that’s not all. We’ll host social events, too, so you can meet the vibrant people who live and work in our border region.

At the Institute of the Americas, we conduct our workshops in Spanish and they are designed especially for Latin American participants. You’ll meet journalists, legislators, non-profit leaders, academics, researchers, government officials and company executives from countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Peru and Nicaragua.

About 130 professionals from twelve Latin American and Caribbean countries participated in nine summer workshops in La Jolla during 2009 on subjects such as science journalism, public health, freedom of expression and violence against journalists, investigative journalism, pandemics and climate change.

The Institute also offered for a third year workshops on the geopolitics of energy, migration policy and innovation against poverty.

The Institute’s intensive workshops serve as effective catalysts for professional growth and social change.

“We’re happy when our visitors go home with doubts about certitudes they believed when they arrived here,” said Lee Tablewski, director of the Institute’s professional workshops.  “They take away a vision of new possibilities from other places that will enrich their work and professional friendships that will breed new collaborations.”

Migration Policy Workshop Spotlights Policies of Several Nations

For a third summer, the Institute gathered policy makers, scholars and journalists to discuss migration in their own countries and to study migration in the U.S. with experts offering a wide variety of perspectives.

“This year, I was impressed especially with the presentation by our two workshop participants from Ecuador of its problematic, progress and possible solutions to address its outflow of citizens and inflow of foreigners and, more recently, returning migrants,” said workshop director Isabel Escalle.  

Sonia García Alvarado, an advisor to the assistant secretary of foreign relations for migratory affairs, and Mónica Maldonado Aguirre, a scholar at the Centro de Planificación y Estudios Sociales (CEPLAES), a highly respected think tank in Quito, represented Ecuador.  Their participation was made possible by a grant from the Andean Development Bank (CAF).

The workshop had one bittersweet highlight: Dr. Wayne Cornelius, the founder of the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies and the Center for U.S.-Mexico Studies, both at UCSD, opened with the final talk before his retirement.

Other highlights included conversations with Cecilia Romero Castillo, the commissioner of Mexico’s National Migration Institute; human rights advocate Víctor Clark Alfaro and Lilia Velásquez, the migration attorney known as “The Flame of Justice” for her vigorous defense of migrant rights.

The workshop included a private tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry at the border with Tijuana to understand the point of view of those tasked with enforcing U.S. migration laws.   According to Escalle, “Our participants were extremely knowledgeable but I was surprised that even they had misconceptions about  how migration is dealt with in the U.S.”

Workshop on Innovative Strategies to Reduce Poverty

We all agree that poverty plagues our region, that the gap between rich and poor is widening despite globalization. But what can be done to improve the lives of millions in Latin America and the Caribbean?

We’ll meet with experts, government officials, business leaders and representatives of NGOs who have built successful anti-poverty programs. They’ll help us come up with new ideas for developing realistic community-level programs to create jobs and reduce poverty. We’ll talk with specialists about micro-credits and training programs and we'll have sessions with leaders who can explain how they’ve helped people in their communities take control of their economic lives.

For nearly three decades, the Institute of the Americas on the campus of the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla has promoted discussion and debate on public policies in the Western Hemisphere. The Institute’s workshops improve the professional skills of mid-career journalists, civic leaders, scholars, government officials, teachers, NGO representatives and public policy professionals. They also serve as effective catalysts for social change. Discussions and  presentations are in Spanish or translated from English. Last year the workshops attracted 150 Latin American and Caribbean participants. Sponsors included U.S. embassies, multilateral institutions, private companies and national governments.