Thirty eight million reasons for Mexico to show up
Every week I read dozens of stories about the relationship between the United States and Mexico. Few of them ask the uncomfortable question. This week, Travis Bembenek, the CEO of Mexico News Daily, asked it: why hasn't Mexico engaged its people in the United States the way India has engaged its own?
His comparison is hard to ignore. India's prime minister has made ten trips to the United States since 2014. He has filled Madison Square Garden in New York and a football stadium in Houston with Indian Americans, and his message to them is always the same: remember us, and invest in us. There are about 5.6 million Indian Americans.
There are roughly 38 million Mexican Americans. That is close to 30% of the population living in Mexico itself. Yet, as Travis points out, Mexico's presidents have rarely come here to spend time with us. President Sheinbaum has visited twice in more than two years, both times for the World Cup.
I read his piece as a migrant, as a fronterizo and as someone who has spent a career working on both sides of the line. It struck a nerve, because I know exactly what he is describing.
We are not a footnote
The Latino Donor Collaborative estimates that U.S. Latinos produce $4.4 trillion in economic output. If we were a country, we would be the fourth largest economy in the world, and about six in ten of us have roots in Mexico. Mexicans in the United States sent more than $60 billion home in 2025.
But Travis makes a point that deserves more attention. Net migration from Mexico to the United States has been essentially flat for nearly two decades. That means many Mexican Americans today are second or third generation. Many have not been to Mexico in years. Too many know the country only through headlines about cartels and violence.
That is a loss for both countries. There are tens of thousands of Mexican American business owners who could be selling to Mexican customers, buying from Mexican suppliers and building companies that work on both sides of the border. Most have never been asked.
Why I admire what Mexico News Daily is doing
What I appreciate most about Travis and his team is that they did not stop at naming the problem. They are doing something about it. They write business newsletters for the chambers of commerce that connect our two countries, publish data driven intelligence reports about modern Mexico and produce MND Kids, a bilingual news service that helps Mexican American children learn about the country their families come from. A Spanish edition and a podcast for the Mexican American community are on the way.
That is the kind of work that changes perceptions one reader at a time. It is also the work I try to do every week in The Power Courier: tell the story of our 40 million with facts, not fear.
What comes next
Mexico does not need to copy India. But it does need to show up. A president who spends time with Mexican American business leaders in Phoenix, Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston would send a powerful message: you are part of Mexico's future, not just its past.
Those of us on this side of the border have a responsibility too. We can be curious about modern Mexico. We can visit, invest and build. The relationship between our two countries will be decided, in part, by whether 38 million people decide it is theirs.
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