Gruma/Mission Foods decided to support the creation of this center because it saw a huge opportunity to contribute to improving Texas-Mexico relations, and it found that throughout the long history of economic, social, political and family relationships between the two regions there had been no academic program dedicated specifically analyzing this important relationship.
"Today, Gruma-Mission Foods is contributing US$4 million dollars to the creation of The Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center, whose fundamental objective is to discuss and improve the strategic relationships between Mexico, Texas and the United States," the businessman added.
"We are very proud to be a part of this important initiative," said González Moreno to the Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, the President of Southern Methodist University in Texas, Gerald Turner, authorities, academics and students at SMU, as well as businesspeople on both sides of the border.
In addition, through The Mission Foods Texas-Mexico Center, students and academics at the Edwin L. Cox School of Business at SMU – whose participation is valuable in economic and business programs in favor of the Texas-Mexico relationship – will strengthen their ties with companies on both sides of the border, and will have help in developing and offering innovative research and ideas that add up to the strengthening of bi-national relationships.
The results of the educational center's main activities will be made public through specialized and academic publications, reports and white papers, and the research programs will be created in collaboration with Mexican higher education institutions suggested by the Secretary of Foreign Relations, the Secretary of Public Education, the National Board for Science and Technology, and the Consulate General of Mexico in Dallas.
It should be remembered that Texas was a key piece in the history of Gruma's international expansion, as it was there that Gruma's first corn-grinding mill outside of Mexico was built at the start of the 1980s, which then led to the creation of Azteca Milling, one of its subsidiaries in the United States.
Today Gruma-Mission Foods has sales of more than US$2 billion in the United States, which is more than 50% of its sales worldwide, for which reason the Mexican multinational at all times drives and supports actions that result in a better understanding between the two countries.
Source: Gruma-Mission Foods