SACRAMENTO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today welcomed Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto to Sacramento, where he hosted a luncheon in the President’s honor at the Stanford Mansion and then convened a meeting with Mexican and Californian officials to further strengthen the bilateral partnership and build on actions taken during the Governor’s Trade and Investment Mission to Mexico last month.
“The history of Mexico and California and our Spanish heritage is long and it’s deep and it continues,” said Governor Brown. “The past is only prologue to an even brighter future in the days and years ahead.”
Following the meeting between top government officials from California and Mexico, Governor Brown and President Peña Nieto joined a brief ceremony to witness the signing of an agreement between California and Mexico to strengthen cooperation on tourism between Visit California and the Mexican Ministry of Tourism. President Peña Nieto later delivered an address before a Joint Convention of the California State Legislature at the California State Capitol.
Yesterday, Governor Brown joined President Peña Nieto at a gathering of hundreds of Mexican and Mexican-American leaders in Los Angeles.
President Peña Nieto’s trip to California follows the invitation Governor Brown extended when Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Jose Antonio Meade Kuribreña visited Sacramento last month. The invitation was accepted the following week when Governor Brown met with President Peña Nieto in Mexico City during the Governor’s Trade and Investment Mission to Mexico.
Agreements with top government officials to expand collaboration between California and Mexico on climate change, higher education, energy and trade were also signed during the Trade and Investment Mission. Additionally, during the trip Governor Brown convened Mexican and Central American religious and diplomatic leaders to discuss immigration and signed a letter of intent with Mexico’s Secretary of Labor and Social Welfare to help protect the rights of Mexican migrant workers in California.
Since taking office Governor Brown has signed the Dream Act, which allows top students who are on the path to citizenship to apply for college financial aid, AB 60, which extends the legal right to drive on the state’s roadways to millions more Californians and a number of other bills to enhance school, workplace and civil protections for California’s hardworking immigrants. Yesterday, Governor Brown, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris and legislative leaders announced legislation to provide legal services to unaccompanied minors arriving in California from Central America.
Photo Captions can be found below:
1.) Governor Brown greets President Peña Nieto at the Stanford Mansion
2.) Governor Brown and President Peña Nieto witness signing of tourism agreement by Mexican Secretary of Tourism Claudia Ruiz Massieu and California Travel and Tourism Commission Chair Mike Rossi
3.)Governor Brown toasts President Peña Nieto at luncheon
4.)Governor Brown and President Peña Nieto with Oakland Military Institute Color Guard
5.)Governor Brown introduces President Peña Nieto at Joint Convention of the California State Legislature
Photo Credit: Justin Short, Office of the Governor. For high resolution copies of these photos, please contact Danella Debel, Office of the Governor at Danella.Debel@gov.ca.gov.
A copy of the agreement signed today by Mexican Secretary of Tourism Claudia Ruiz Massieu and California Travel and Tourism Commission Chair Mike Rossi can be found here.