I walked into the Hotel Quinta Real on Wednesday morning at 7:55 a.m. not knowing what to expect of my first Rotary meeting in Mexico. I tried to be professional and early, but not too early, as “Mexican time” tends to run on a later clock than the United States (it is a stereotype of the Latino culture that they take their time coming to meetings and events). Fortunately, I saw other Rotarians walking in at the same time, so it looked like I estimated about right.
At the meetings for my sponsor Rotary club in South Carolina, the Lake Murray-Irmo Club, we meet in a room at a somewhat casual community center at 7:30 a.m. on Wednesdays. Breakfast is informally served – we go up and help ourselves to the typical southern meal of eggs and biscuits. About ten minutes is allowed for mingling and eating, and then the meeting usually begins around 7:40.
Here in Monterrey, the meeting time was at 8:00 a.m. but the meeting didn’t begin till about 8:30, after a delicious and much more formal breakfast. Because we were in a hotel, the breakfast was all catered to us at the table. The first course was tropical fruit served in a cocktail glass, and afterwards we had some kind of fancy egg-white dish, decorated with asparagus and a tomato and a few different Mexican sauces; it was delicious!
The meeting began around 8:30 with the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance:
¡Bandera de México!
Legado de nuestros héroes,
Símbolo de la unidad
de nuestros padres
y de nuestros hermanos,
te prometemos ser siempre fieles
a los principios de libertad y justicia
que hacen de nuestra Patria,
la nación independiente,
humana y generosa,
a la que entregamos
nuestra existencia.
**Disclaimer: I found this on Wikipedia as the Mexican Pledge of Allegiance, so I assume that is what they were saying. This is the translation Wikipedia gives:
Flag of México!
Legacy of our heroes,
Symbol of the unity
of our parents
and of our siblings,
we promise you to be always faithful
to the principles of liberty and justice
that make of our Homeland,
the independent,
humane and generous nation,
to which we dedicate
our existence.
Whereas in the U.S. we place our hands on our hearts for our Pledge, in Mexico they put their hand in a salute form over their hearts.
The rest of the Rotary meeting ran very similar to the Lake Murray-Irmo meetings. First there were some announcements, and then they had a guest speaker, who spoke about a program he runs to improve the world’s perceptions of Mexico. He gave several examples of how far along Mexico is in regards to things such as education, compared to various other countries. Very impressive.
One thing that was very different from the Lake Murray-Irmo club (and I assume most clubs in the U.S.) is that the attendance was all male. I learned afterwards that the Rotarians’ wives meet separately once a month to do their own activities.
I also learned that the main service activities that the club does are 1) raising money for the university hospital here, since most patients at that hospital are low-income, and 2) bringing purified water to some rural areas that don’t have access to it. Wow!
The Rotarians were all very kind and hospitable, and I hope to attend more of their meetings. I also plan on attending the meetings of other Rotary clubs in the area. I’ll keep you updated!
Here are some photos from the meeting, taken by photographer Salome Martinez (note: the only woman there, other than me, was an invited guest for the day):
Here is an abridged biography of Dr. Carlos Canseco González. The full one can be found at http://www.rotaryfirst100.org/presidents/1984canseco/bio.htm:
Dr. Carlos Canseco González was born on March 17, 1921, in México City, México. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from the National University of México. He then went on to complete a specialty in Allergology at Northwestern University in Chicago, Illinois, and a second specialty in Clinical Immunology at the University of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania...
...From 1950 to 1952, he served as Chair of the Allergogology Services at the Autonomous University of Nuevo León. He then co-founded the Monterrey Football Club, joined Rotary International, and became President of the Rotary Club of Monterrey. He also raised funds for the purpose of building the first Children’s Hospital in Monterrey....
...In 1984, Dr. Canseco González became President of Rotary International. During his tenure, he proposed a program to eradicate polio. Rotary International and the World Health Organization began planning for the most ambitious program in its history – to immunize all of the world’s children against polio. The plan required collaboration with international, national, and local health agencies and took shape early in Dr. Canseco González’s year as RI President when he appointed the Polio 2005 Committee. He invited Dr. Albert Sabin, developer of the oral polio vaccine, to serve as a special consultant to the committee. The program for eradication of polio continues to this day. During his term as President of Rotary International, Dr. Canseco González worked diligently to form new Rotary Clubs. Rotary International experienced an increase of 978 new clubs and 45,000 new members.
Rotary’s pledge of US $120,000,000 to fund its PolioPlus program was announced in October 1985 at the 40th anniversary of the United Nations. This ambitious commitment was well received by the global public health community. Within three years, Rotarians had more than doubled their fundraising goal, donating US 247 million.
Dr. Carlos Canseco González will go down in history as the Rotary International President who launched, in 1985, the PolioPlus Program with the goal of raising $120,000,000 to provide enough vaccine to rid the world of polio by the Centenary of Rotary in 2005...
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