Why Focus on Latin America?
By: Patricia Talley de Tucker

When Americans talk about “globalization” and “international affairs” we often think of our relationships with countries like China, Russia or Iran. We seldom think about our next door neighbors in Latin American, except for news reports of illegal immigration or drug problems.

Mainly due to language barriers, Americans know very little about Latin Americans and their customs and cultures. Mexico is our next door neighbor, yet we know very little about the Mexican people and their rich history and culture.

Why focus on Latin America? Because Christ says, “Love thy neighbor. ” Our international peace efforts should begin with our next door neighbors!

And, our neighbor is in trouble. Recently, the US government classified Mexico as equivalent to Pakistan for high risk of government failure. If the Mexican government fails, it is predicted that there will be over 2 million people fleeing the country for the USA, to add to our current immigration problem. Additionally, according to the British Broadcasting Network, since NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), over 1 million Mexican farmers have lost their farms and fled north due to the distribution of cheaper USA-subsidized corn.

The illegal alien situation along with drug traffic will likely create bad tensions and relationships between the people of our two countries. So, on both sides of the boarder, we must inform and educate to build and ensure a peaceful future.

This section of our website will focus on articles to educate readers about the religious practices and cultural customs of our neighbors in Latin America and about our outreach programs there. For example, in Mexico, the people define religious denominations as “Catholic” or “Christian. ” They ask the question, “What is Methodist? ”