Edna Madera decided to skip out on the President’s State of the Union address to learn more about Mexico and United States’ relations from author, professor and columnist Jorge Castaeda.

Madera was not alone.

About 125 students, faculty, administrators and community members listened intently at the Student Center Auditorium Tuesday to hear Castaeda’s speech about the problems facing the two countries.

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I came here because I was ready to learn more about a subject that I wasn’t extremely knowledgeable about, Madera, a freshman in art and metalsmithing from Franklin Park, said. I knew that if I wanted to hear the President talk, I could watch the news and they would have the important parts of his speech.

Castaeda spoke of Mexican-U.S. relations and said the United States sees Mexico as an extraordinarily important country.

The relation with Mexico has become central. The reason is because there is trouble, Castaeda said. The pool of problems is more than it used to be. Before you couldn’t get away with a crime, but now you can get away with one.

What has worked so well, so long does not work anymore.

Castaeda said if you are in Mexico and you are breaking into an ATM you will not get caught because the person who is hired to catch you is breaking into one two blocks down.

Castaeda said that outside countries find it easier to smuggle drugs into Mexico because it is easier to pass their border control than the United States’. He said that once you get drugs to Mexico, it is much easier to get them into the United States because of all the free trading going on between the two.

Castaeda said that trade between the two countries has boomed, and the North American Free Trade Agreement is opening the doors for immigrants into the United States.

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The problem with NAFTA is that it pushed the U.S. border south, Castaeda said. Trade now between the two countries has risen to $200 billion in exports and imports.

Ironically, Castaeda observed that Mexico is more unfair and unequal today than it was before.

There is a bigger gap between rich and poor, intelligent and unintelligent, and white and brown, he said.

Castaeda said that the United States has been slowly moving to eventually take over Mexico and make it work under them.

The current U.S. attitude of micro-management will soon run into a wall, he said. The costs are enormous. Mexico is a hard country to run.

The U.S. feels that Mexico is too important to be handled by Mexicans. The U.S. is realizing that running Mexico is a great task. The U.S. is trying to take over the Mexican government. It is too big of a mouthful for the U.S. to take it over.

Castaeda’s lecture was sponsored by the Morton-Kenney Public Affairs Lecture series that brings political speakers to SIUC campus that deal with national and American relations.

David Werlich, chairman of the History Department, was a part of the board that brought Castaeda to SIUC and said that he was surprised with the turnout of students considering the President’s State of the Union address.

We were very pleased with the turnout, Werlich said. This is probably the most we have had for a Morton-Kenney Lecture.

I was surprised at the turnout because these are the same people that are interested in the State of the Union address.

Madera said that Castaeda delivered his speech in a way that was easy for everyone to understand.

I think Castaeda really helped me understand the problems that Mexico is facing, Madera said. He brought up a lot of facts from the past and compared them to the facts of today. That really helped me understand the problems that both countries are facing.