By Bianca Byrd and Carlos Garcia
Currently, more than 1,000 U.S. cities in all 50 states are linked with over 1,600 foreign cities in 117 countries.
After World War II, cities around the world started affiliating with one another. These international relationships were called Sister Cities, and they gained popularity when President Dwight D. Eisenhower proposed the People-to-People program in 1956. The goal was to involve people and organizations in personal diplomacy.
The U.S./Mexico Sister Cities Association officially began the Sister City relationship between Oxnard, California and Ocotlan, Jalisco, Mexico in 1964. The purpose of the affiliation is to promote goodwill, friendship, mutual respect, and understanding between the people of both countries through a program of exchanges and visitations on a personal level.
“The objective is for us to know the people in Ocotlan better and to see what their wants and needs are and they to know us better to see what we do and what our needs and wants are and how we mutually could help each of our cities and communities grow politically as well as culturally, educationally and economically,” member of the Oxnard Sister City Committee Andres Herrera said to VIDA Newspaper.
Every summer, the Oxnard Committee visits Ocotlan on even numbered years and Ocotlan visits Oxnard on odd numbered years. Members are encouraged to participate in visitation activities that last from 5 to 6 days. Visitors are provided with lodging, meals, and transportation during the official days of their visitation, while airfare, side trips, and attendance at the U.S./Mexico Sister Cities Conference are at participants’ own expense.
When describing the members involved in the program’s exchange, member of the Oxnard Sister City Priscilla Herrera describes them as gracious. “There is nothing that they wouldn’t do for you, they are so gracious to accept us into their homes and when they come here we reciprocate and we are as gracious as we can be and just welcome them,” Priscilla Herrera said to VIDA Newspaper.
Sister cities engage in cultural and social programs, educational and artistic excursions, and renewing friendships while exploring cultural differences and similarities.
“We’ve exchanged in sports and in music, we send musical groups and they also send us musical groups and one of the relationships we have with the members of Ocotlan is with one of the family’s there, they have their own school. We were able to establish our youngsters to go and attend their school as well as some of their youngsters to come over here and attend some of our schools,” Andres Herrera said to VIDA Newspaper.
However, the exchanges don’t stop there, these interactions also exist within corporations to make both cities better.
“We’ve done those kinds of exchanges and then we’ve also sat down with the business people from the biggest importer there and we’ve had discussions on best practices relative to human resources and technology here in Oxnard and Ocotlan,” Andres Herrera said to VIDA Newspaper.
The Oxnard committee also works with Ocotlan to obtain medical equipment, donate library books, assist in fundraising, provide cultural exchanges, organize friendship baseball tournaments, and donate fire trucks and rescue equipment when possible.
“It’s a lot of sharing best practices, resources, challenges and opportunity and experiences, that’s how we benefit one community to the other. It’s really a community-to-community partnership where each of us takes from each shared experience,” former council member for the City of Oxnard and current speech therapist Dorina Padilla said to VIDA Newspaper.
The Oxnard committee holds membership meetings in private homes and conducts yard sales, holiday parties, and other activities to raise funds to support the sister city activities.
“Another way they can get involved is they can host a family or if anybody that has extra room in their home to host some of our sister city members, they can definitely be a host. Any business entity in the city that is willing to showcase their business or become involved, we’re very much open to that as well,” Padilla said to VIDA Newspaper.
The community is invited to become members of the organization by attending the visitation from August 2 – 8 this year. Call Priscilla Herrera at 805-443-1419 or send an email to prisherr@aol.com for more information.