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INSIDE ARCHIVE


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UW-Green Bay, CL 815
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E-mail: matzken@uwgb.edu

Rev. May 13, 2008

 

At Tijuana, Cruz bridges barriers to good planning

More than 50,000 commuters cross the international border daily between San Diego and Tijuana for work, shopping and school.

When UW-Green Bay Prof. Marcelo Cruz was called in to help with ongoing transit improvements, the issue was cultural. He had to figure out how to get Mexican and American planners to cooperate for best results.

“In American culture, you don’t mix business and pleasure,” he says. “In Latin culture, you fuse the two. You socialize with your workmates and you work with your workmates.”

Cruz is a specialist in urban and regional development, particularly in ethnic identity and land use. On an occasional basis over four years, he has consulted with Tijuana and San Diego transportation planners to build an understanding of cultural differences while they built new road and rail infrastructure connecting two cities in two countries.

Work schedules were much different, with Americans working 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Mexicans working from morning until late evening with a long mid-afternoon break to be with family. Also, Americans lean heavily on contract law while Mexicans tend to favor handshake agreements with people they know.

“These are the kinds of cultural aspects I was brought in to get together and to break those barriers,” Cruz says.


Click here to download a PDF file of the entire May 2008 issue of Inside magazine.