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This paper, based on qualitative interviews realized between 2014 and 2022 with 36 Central American migrant women captured by drug cartels when they transited through Mexico, aims to examine the different repertories used by criminal organizations to capture, exploit, and subject the victims to a condition of sexual slavery. It is concluded that criminal groups have developed four different repertories, which aim to tame the body and mind of the slaves to achieve total submission: kidnapping, deception, recruitment in the country of origin and extortion. Inside these organizations the roles of victim and perpetrator are interchangeable, and enslaved women are not always passive victims, but some rescue themselves using both astuteness and brute force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the experiences of vulnerability and the development of resilience in trans women and gay men from Central America who transited through Mexico to the United States between 2017 and 2020. Based on interviews conducted in a shelter for lgbt+ migrants in Tijuana, it is shown that vulnerability is expressed in acts of violence and discrimination by authorities, criminal organizations, and other migrants, in response to the sexual orientation and gender identity of trans women and gay men. In contrast, resilience developed thanks to the support provided by networks of the lgbt+ community itself in the form of chosen families and civil society spaces. From this, it is observed that even within vulnerability, mobility enables the development of resilience through new ways of living gender and sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper investigates the impact of the international trade on employment of the northern border states of Mexico and its integration with the economy of the United States during 2007-2020. In order to analyze the effect of commercial penetration on the evolution of employment in the region, a dynamic panel model is used to estimate the effect of exports and imports. The results indicate that at the level of total exports there is no clear correlation of the penetration of exports on employment in the region. In contrast, the penetration of manufacturing exports and imports showed a positive and statistically significant effect on manufacturing employment in the northern border region of Mexico. The coefficient of average manufacturing wages showed an inverse coefficient suggesting that the employment dynamics are limiting the growth of wage income. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to examine what are the methods used by Mexican drug cartels to recruit migrant smugglers and which are the activities carried by former migrant smugglers in these organizations. A qualitative methodology was used, consistent in the realization, between 2011 and 2015, of interviews with 107 migrant smugglers (105 men and 2 women). This paper concludes that after 2013, there has been an increase of recruitment of migrant smugglers by drug cartels without coercion, and that the activities carried out by them are increasingly violent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literature review is presented about the returning migrant students in the educational system in Mexico, which included both research papers and other types of academic texts, available from 2006 to 2018, and around this population. The revision allowed to identify the research methods and the thematic issues: a typology of these students based in variables such as age, nationality and migration status, the conditions upon the access to and the needs that arise during their permanence in the educational context. Also an educational profile emerged, based on information about their psychological traits, their previous linguistic and schooling experiences, as well as aspects related with the school coexistence and the social integration. Although the existent research is useful to know their characteristics and needs upon the return, studies that inquire aspects such as the relationship bilingualism-academic development, in the different educational levels, are still scarce and thus necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A literature review is presented about the returning migrant students in the educational system in Mexico, which included both research papers and other types of academic texts, available from 2006 to 2018, and around this population. The revision allowed to identify the research methods and the thematic issues: a typology of these students based in variables such as age, nationality and migration status, the conditions upon the access to and the needs that arise during their permanence in the educational context. Also an educational profile emerged, based on information about their psychological traits, their previous linguistic and schooling experiences, as well as aspects related with the school coexistence and the social integration. Although the existent research is useful to know their characteristics and needs upon the return, studies that inquire aspects such as the relationship bilingualism-academic development, in the different educational levels, are still scarce and thus necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the value of schooling for students of elite high schools in Mexico City. The study begins by documenting the fact that these students' academic performance is poor in comparison to students of similar socio-economic status in other countries, and on the basis of their results in standardized national tests. Clearly, such unsatisfactory academic performance by these students, who attend private institutions with a wealth of resources, cannot be attributed to financial hardship and a resulting lack of educational opportunities. This work explores the hypothesis that, for young students from this social circle -- who enjoy vast inherited wealth -- educational merit and talent do not play a key role in their conception of life or professional development. To support this hypothesis, this study explores the value placed on schooling both by parents and the directors of elite private schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to construct a particular approach to human research ethics with respect to research practices carried out by teacher trainers and their students in communities in Mexico and Bolivia. It presents the theoretical elements of research ethics and the categories generated on the basis of answers from 79 teacher trainers to an open question on protective factors that should be considered with regard to study participants. The question is part of a qualitative questionnaire administered between March and June 2015. The study concludes that when asked about protective factors, teachers are able to clearly state key aspects of research ethics, although their core focus is on training new basiclevel education teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper seeks to describe and comprehend the motivations of teacher-researchers in two public state universities in Mexico to participate in knowledge and technology transfer processes. Ten subjects interested in knowledge transfer processes were considered for this study; in-depth interviews were conducted to understand their readiness to produce and transfer knowledge. The results reveal that subjects develop a disposition and the skills to seek changes in social reality based on values such as altruism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides one perspective for studying college students by focusing on working conditions and their relationship with the type of institution: public or private. The study explores differences in labor market integration among graduates based on the university where they studied, uisng the following indicators: speed of incorporation, consistency between education and employment, and working conditions. The database analyzed was taken from the PROFLEX survey, conducted in nine institutions in Mexico -six public state universities and three private elite universities. The results show that graduates from private higher education institutions appear to enjoy better working conditions in terms of salary, job stability, and positions held. However, their labor market integration is slower compared to their counterparts from public schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Hondo transboundary river basin is a territory shared by Mexico, Guatemala and Belize. There is not enough information about mechanisms of cooperation in water issues in the river basil and the reasons that prevent this process. Nevertheless, we know about the existence of factors of conflicts that limit the cooperation. This article describes the factor of conflicts and their bonds with the cooperation around die water. The construction of the analysis was based in the grounded theory, with the use of the semi-structured interviews and the participant observation as tools of data collection. The data obtained was analyzed by a codification of information based on: the anthropic conflicts, their relation with the cooperation and the institutional paper as part of die factors of conflict. For the location of key stakeholders and the elaboration of interviews, it was necessary to take advantage of a hemerographic analysis and the existing relations as a result of a previous work in 2003, besides applying the technique of "snow ball" to identify new key stakeholders. The paper tries to highlight how existing potential anthropic conflicts in the river basin may affect processes and attempts for cooperation in water issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the prestigious Mexican historian, Miguel León-Portilla, the Yumans of Baja California were not Indians of warfare, but rather Indians of peace. In the opinion of this researcher, it was because lived in the fossilized-paleolithic stage that these Indigenous groups did not present any kind of resistance against the European colonization, making possible their easy domination and posterior diminishment or assimilation. This paper questions these advancements not only because of their lack of technical precision, but also because they obscure the role of agency that these Indians played during the missionary period. On the contrary, this paper endorses Edward Spicer's (1962) assertion that resistance was present even among those groups that were not seriously engaged in significant fights against the Spanish conquerors. In the particular case of the Yuman people, this is a resistance challenging the Pueblo Indio project and its related implications in terms of sedentary lifestyle, agricultural economy and the adoption of a scheme of central authority. As we know, these patterns were opposed to those observed among the Yumans as nomads, hunters and gatherers, organized into a segmentary lineage system. Moreover, the kind of resistance described in this paper constitutes what James C. Scott (1990) refers to as the hidden and daily life transcripts, such as ingenuity, intelligence simulating ignorance, and irony, as well as, those economic and social practices studied by Jan Rus (1995), which include mobility and appropriation of the missionary site, all with the intention of perpetuating the presence of these Indigenous people and make possible their social reproduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the basis of indexes taken from easily measurable variables, this paper takes a look at both the gains and setbacks of Mexican society in its fight for gender equality and its relation to human development. The object of this paper is to show the possible future tendencies in this context, insofar as opportunities arise for both men and women to both fully develop their capacities and to take advantage of the same within their surroundings. The case study focuses on the municipalities of the northeast region of Mexico, formed by the states of Nuevo Leon and Tamaulipas, for the years 1995, 2000 and 2005. A reduction in the inequality gap in health, education and income is observed, although the condition of women is still far from being on a par with that of men, especially where resources for a dignified life are concerned. The most noticeable gap between men and women is related precisely to the limited access and control of resources that allow women to make their own decisions regarding their lives and consequently, their empowerment is marginal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between economic development and the entrance of women into the labor market. In particular, it reviews the links between female labor force participation [FLFP] and several variables associated with development —economic structure, income level, poverty, inequality, marginalization, human development and other specific gender indicators. This essay analyses the case of municipalities in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua. Based on empirical study, a causal relationship framework between FLFP and the development of regions is proposed. This paper concludes that women's participation in the economy has a significant impact on development; therefore, regions must formulate public policies that create more opportunities for the incorporation of women into the labor market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses a possible solution to low graduation rates in higher education, and particularly postgraduate students, given that for every 10 students that complete their course programs in Mexican higher education institutions, only 2.9 graduate. There are a number of reasons for this, notably student inconsistency and a lack of support from institutions. A thesis is an argumentative discourse that requires systematic intellectual support based on models of this nature. Toulmin’s heuristic model of argumentation was chosen in order to organize, around a subject of research, mental representations that are, at the outset, disorganized and vague. The experience with four classes in a residency of the master’s program in the School of Psychology of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), and analysis of student graduation from 2012 to 2015, produce a promising model for increasing graduation rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the classification methods for mathematical problems in textbooks (Fan & Zhu, 2000) and strategies used to solve problems (Fan & Zhu, 2007), this paper reports the results of an analysis and classification of the type of mathematical problems and problem-solving strategies in a sample made up of the five most widely-used mathematics textbooks for the first year of junior high school in the 2013- 2014 school year in Mexico. It is concluded that the textbooks focus on providing a comprehensive range of problems that, for the most part, do not allow multiple problem-solving strategies, whereas others can be solved using an algorithm or direct procedure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the development of children's understanding of metaphors and the type of part-whole relationships they are capable of establishing when solving puzzles. The study was carried out with 30 students from a federal elementary school in the state of Querétaro, Mexico: 10 second-year students, 10 fourth-year students and 10 sixth-year students. They were asked to answer four metaphorical puzzles and explain what information they had taken into account to arrive at their answers. The results show that: a) children's understanding of metaphors increases with their school year, and b) participants from higher years tend to establish more comprehensive and coherent part-whole relationships than students from lower years, which allows them to better understand metaphors in puzzles. The results confirm findings by Calderón (2012) and Calderón, Vernon and Carrillo (2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work offers an analysis of the development of the concept of educational justice in Mexico from the mid 1970s to the first decade of the 21st century. Based on a perspective underpinned by conceptual history and hypotheses on the externalization of the compared education approach, this paper highlights a reemergence and sedimentation of the concept of educational justice during the 1990s, both in academia and official discourse. This is explained in part by growing social and educational inequalities and the externalization of national discourse, which have fostered an original hybridization that points towards a renewal of optimism in schools, and the possibility of more just - or simply less unjust - societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We offer an ethnographic description of the circulation of vegetables on the border between Mexico and Guatemala. These goods move from one country to the other through ant-style piecemeal trafficking on misdirected paths: they enter constantly as contraband in small quantities, using tolerated border crossings. The objective is to show how the interactions between the border actors involved construct a local order that is different from that of the State's normative parameters. An order is founded on a series of unwritten rules that govern the practices of crossing, thereby creating an "interpretive community." This paper clarifies why the operating personnel from different levels of the Mexican government charged with overseeing trade are not outside of this community but rather compose an important part of it and how the State is empirically constructed within it, starting from the idea that the State is not an all-encompassing and coherent entity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental education (EE) seeks to cultivate a sustainable mindset in citizens in the hope that this will result in better environmental care in their surroundings. This paper identifies municipalities with the greatest and poorest academic results in EE-related subjects in the National Assessment of Academic Achievement in Schools (ENLACE), and a system of indicators of urban environmental sustainability was used to assess environmental conditions. By using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient, a significant link was found between the two variables, as it was found that Delegación Cuauhtémoc, the Federal District, the municipalities of Toluca (State of Mexico) and Cajeme (Sonora) achieved the highest scores both in EE-related subjects and in the environmental indicators, whereas the municipalities of Lázaro Cárdenas (Michoacán), Asunción Nochixtlán (Oaxaca) and Ometepec (Guerrero) scored lowest, both in related subjects and in the sustainability indicator results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the results-based management (rbm) proposal promoted by the Mexican federal government and how this proposal has been applied. This article presents the theory of management according to its results and its effects on competitiveness and well-being. This article analyzes the conceptual elements of the model and the manners in which this model has been instituted both conceptually and operationally in Brazil, Mexico, and the Mexican state of Baja California. Principal findings include the need to strengthen institutional capacities for rbm to enhance competitiveness and well-being at the government level, internalize a vision of strategic change, and prioritize cultural change to generate efficient transparency, accountability and anti-corruption controls by a transversal focus based on the elements of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with knowledge related to the Day of the Dead explicitly expressed and conveyed through free elementary school textbooks, as knowing what is being passed on to children about this aspect of Mexican identity will uncover new ways of preserving traditions. The assessment was carried out using an instrument that indicated the kind of information contained in the pages of textbooks. The instrument used the Delphi method with help from experts in the field, which revealed the quantity and type of content included. The research found a lack of information about this cultural event in texts aimed at teachers, parents and elementary school students. This points to a deficiency in communication regarding this characteristic of Mexican culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes processes of interaction, tension, conflict and economic interests in one of the major border areas between Mexico and Guatemala. Informal transborder trade involves several actors who have been building these processes pursuant to agency initiatives. From a conceptual perspective, supported by the dialectical relationship between the notions of a border the behavior of transborder actors, it is concluded that in the study area, an informal border-trade integration process has developed and its actors transcend the border, rendering that border permissive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to analyze first drafts of a coaching service to schools (SATE, for its acronym in Spanish) in the context of current educational reform in Mexico. To this end all legal documents and various program documents that have been released throughout 2013 and 2014 relating to basic education were analyzed. The paper is organized in three sections. The history of this type of service in Mexico is presented first; the second section includes information on the SATE as included in the legal documents of the current educational policy. In a third section some comments on what have to be taken into account for the proper implementation of a service of this nature are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the importance of word frequency lists in regulating the language used in school textbooks, as well as the frequency of their use in various fields of knowledge. Basing each word on the classical definition found in the Royal Spanish Academy Dictionary, our aim is to present the 5,000 most frequently used words in the official textbooks for elementary and middle school education in Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper Hypothesis Biased Technological Change is applied for Mexican workers services sector, belonging several Mexican regions. Economics Census microdata, 1998, 2003 and 2008 are used. Hypothesis is proved with technological gaps, under consideration of different index and result statistics consistency by taking account panel analysis. Mayor wages differences at 2008 year were find out between Capital region and South one, about five hundred percent on 1998 year; but it was lower on 2008, two hundred percent. This result is in correspondence with diminishing technological gap, perhaps caused by economic crisis impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies about the demand of productive factors of the Maquiladora Industry have focused in the labor demand. Such literature has advanced in two directions: specifying dynamic models of labor demand; or deriving the demand of productive factors from production functions that assume constant returns to scale, functional separability or certain substitution patterns among them. In this paper we estimate a translog production function without imposing a priori these restrictions. Our objective is to determine whether there is evidence supporting those assumptions. In particular, we analyze the hypotheses of constant returns to scale, and the different forms of functional separability in a three inputs production function. We use data that combines annual time series (1990-2006) with cross section of nine economic sectors of the Mexican maquiladora. We find no evidence supporting the assumptions that have been used in previous studies of factor demand. Specifically, we find evidence of decreasing returns to scale, and that the elasticities of substitution between the productive factors are all different. The estimated elasticity of substitution between labor and capital is below one; between labor and materials fluctuates between 1 and 1.5; whereas the elasticity of substitution between capital and materials is above 2. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to develop an analysis of mitigation and adaptation strategies in the transport sector in the city of Mexicali, Baja California, Mexico. Based on the methodology of the Programs of Action on Climate Change (PACC), we analyzed the Mexicali emissions inventory and generated a diagnosis. Once we analyzed the current situation, we studied mitigation strategies such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), the smog check, new importation legislation for used cars, biofuel production, the promotion of loweremission vehicles and urban planning. On adaptation strategies vehicle recycling and the use of non-moto-rized transport were studied as an alternative of sustainable mobility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents advances in understanding the influence of Mexican education on the perceptions of the adult population regarding their health. The analysis forms part of the OECD conceptual model for understanding the connections between education and social—but not economic—outcomes. Data from the 2006 National Survey on Health and Nutrition is employed to build a logistic model. The study confirmed the idea that people tend to feel healthier as their educational level rises, regardless of their economic condition, ethnicity, age, gender or whether they reside in a rural or urban area. The findings also showed that education is the single most positive influence on the perception of feeling healthy, more so even than economic situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper studies educational inequality in Mexico, examining educational differences between the country's states. To carry out this analysis, an adaptation of the statistical measure known as the Gini coefficient was used. The results show marked differences between Mexican states with regard to education. There are large inequality gaps between the states in Mexico that have persisted over time despite the fact that the data indicate that education has become more equal in all of the country's states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a study whose object was to describe the experience and results of an online training program for professors in Mexican business schools, aimed at developing information and communication technologies skills. The training program was developed using the CUDI network for Internet 2 videoconferencing, and the SAKAI learning platform for the management of educational interventions. The results show the opportunities and difficulties encountered in the development of a teacher training program of this type and identify the characteristics of the profile of a teacher who did effectively benefit from this experience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological change has meant that organizations require workers with higher qualifications, development, implementation and adaptation of technology looking to stay at the forefront in international competitiveness. The aim of this paper is to analyze the changes that have occurred in regional labor markets in Mexico on occupational and wage and identify to what extent these changes may have resulted from technological change and if this behavior is spatially homogeneous. The information source is made up of microdata from the National Survey of Urban Employment (Employment Survey) 2000-2004. The empirical analysis -considering workers officiating at high and low technological intensity and applying a Mincerian income function with different classification criteria: education, sex, age groups and regions during the period indicate that there have been significant changes in the Mexican labor market as a result of biased technological change, as it provides statistical evidence indicating the existence of a higher wage premium for subordinates in the technological area, and different effects at the regional level, encouraging more to the border. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides an overview of some of the gains and constraints in the process of construction of a knowledge society in the state of Morelos, Mexico, focusing mainly on the development and use of ICT and on the role of institutions of higher education (IES- acronym in Spanish). To this end, documentary and field research methods were applied; interviews were conducted with experts and a case study from the Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos [Autonomous University of the State of Morelos] is reported. The following conclusions were highlighted: a) while Morelos has made significant progress in scientific and technological matters, challenges remain in order to be able to even speak of a knowledge society; b) the fact that institutions of higher education have ICT does not necessarily mean that they have adequately appropriated them and employ them to improve their processes; and c) institutions of higher education need to generate outreach programs that engage with the region so that technological developments are translated into benefits for the people of Morelos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a theoretical discussion of the university. The principle of autonomy serves as a guideline for examining the political role of the university, divided as it is between service to the state, to society, to the professional marketplace and to science that is created as a value in itself. In it the principle of autonomy is reconstructed, beginning with an instrumentalist view of the relationship between university and state and continuing with a study of the transformation processes in the university, which would be unintelligible without taking into account the intervention of political variables such as pressure from state interests, student activism and academia. It acknowledges a stage in the building of the educational project in which there is an acceptance of specifically political statements. Finally it attempts to develop a comprehensive conception of the university that explicitly admits the coalescence of the political with the social whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the prospect of economic recovery and the comovement of regional and national economy with a focus on business cycles theory in 1997-2010. We estimate the trend and cycle of composition of growth in each entity with the Hodrick-Prescott filter and an autoregressive model, using employment data. The evidence shows that Nuevo Leon has the capacity to return to its trend growth, but Baja California and Chihuahua has less possibility. Finally, short-term dynamics of these economies shows that the degree of synchronization with the national economy seems to play for the recovery of growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper evaluates the importance of infrastructure on economic growth for the Mexican northern border municipalities. From the growth literature, we know that infrastructure, besides other factors, has been pointed out as a key factor in the long run perspectives of regional growth. Nevertheless, and within this thematic context, works that use a disaggregated analysis down to the level of the municipality are still scarce, which in the case of the northern border constitutes a scenario of much relevance given the development model adopted by the Mexican economy in recent decades. Empirical models results indicate that the municipalities of Piedras Negras, Nogales and Torreon maintain a positive relationship between physical infrastructure and growth. In the case of other municipalities like Tijuana, its elevated population growth inhibits a proper infrastructure allocation, although the positive effect induced by infrastructure on growth remains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although knowledge contributes to the creation of intellectual capital, and there are studies to measure it in European universities, in Mexico little has been generated on the subject. The aim of this paper is to propose a model constructed on the basis of an analysis of trajectories of intellectual capital at a Mexican public university, with the goal of demonstrating that the element which most strongly influences it is the human capital devoted to teaching. We reviewed previous research, observed the correlations between the components of intellectual capital, and developed the model. We obtained evidence to determine that the human capital devoted to teaching influences the human capital devoted to research, as well as the structural capital, and to a lesser degree, the relational capital. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper offers an analysis of the situation presented by environmental education at the high-school level, by means of a case study done in the municipality of Campeche. There was performed exploratory research which combined quantitative and qualitative methods to diagnose high-school students' level of environmental culture, as well as the type of environmental education they receive. The results indicate that students have a low level of environmental awareness, and lack the necessary knowledge and skills with which to make environmentally-friendly changes in their lifestyles. Although they show an interest in environmental issues, both their institutional context and their teachers' low level of qualification operate as factors that discourage the students. The results allowed us to identify windows of opportunity for environmental education in the light of the students' positive attitudes, their interest in learning sustainable practices, and the importance of the school as a source of information on the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Between July of 1891 and May 1892, the Mexican Land and Colonization Company, a British enterprise with a concession over the major part of Baja California's wastelands, laid 27 kilometers of rail of what was to be known as the Peninsular Railway with the expectation of opening up lands to cultivation and settlement, and attracting investment. But the train's starting point was San Quintin, a shallow bay ill-suited to becoming an important shipping port and, as far as the tracks had been built, led to nowhere. However, the objective of this paper is not to analyze the reasons for which the railway project did not come to a happy termination. Rather, it focuses on the controversies and conspiracies which surrounded its construction, arising from the struggle between the United States and Great Britain for predominance in Mexico's far northwest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyzes the importance of an approach on local environmental management regarding the quality of air in the Mexicali and Imperial Valley region. The paper discusses that the absence of a strategic approach in the environmental local policy will enhance the air pollution in the region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mexico's business structure has been characterized by the presence of microenterprises, particularly those averaging two workers, representing 65% of establishments in 2008 and 18% of employment. This makes them important for equity and welfare improvement of their members. This paper analyzes the performance of a group of 227 microenterprises in the state of Baja California, by the use of a practical application of the concept of learning curve arranged to incorporate returns to scale. The results indicate that in 48% of cases there is evidence of learning processes and 58% exhibited increasing returns to scale. This allows evaluating the development potential of these microenterprises and the design and implementation of proactive programs that encourage their learning and consolidation in the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper explores the role a regional Mexican television channel has in the maintenance of cultural identity and cultural links with their home city of former Monterrey, Mexico, between inhabitants who migrated to Houston, Texas. Through interviews it was possible to identify some strategies for TV viewers to reinforce their sense of belonging to their former local community and avoid their emotional distancing from it and deal with the border. The cases described here show how some people search their identity as Mexican-Americans and the role this TV signal can play, along with the dynamics the border impose on them. The study concludes that in addition to the initial social and familiar networks that facilitated the arrival of newcomers, the availability of "Canal 12" helps to understand a community in a transnational setting as a manifestation of the conditions of border relations and the continuity that this bi-national space provide to maintain strong cultural and symbolic ties with their home region in Northeast Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to present an experiment of mixed evaluation (summative/formative) of questions formulated by students in a distance-education environment carried out in the Total Quality Management course in the B.S. degree in Industrial Engineering offered by Mexican public universities. Questions generated by students were evaluated using a specially-designed quantitative tool: Matrix Observation of four criteria with binary scoring. The experiment showed: (1) how is it possible to enrich the evaluation process, and formalize students' skills hardly recognizable with traditional forms of assessment; and (2) how the teacher-student interaction can be increased significantly by the technique mixed evaluation of questions in reverse, i.e. by the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article contributes to the understanding of one the links of the global economy through a historical peculiarity: the "Pulga del Puente del Papa", or flea market in the city of Monterrey, Mexico. This market is a case of "popular globalization". merchandise manufactured in distant countries and utilized in others, is sold in the "Pulga del Puente del Papa", to be reused by local consumers. The aim of this paper is to reconstruct the historical process of consolidation of this market, and to demonstrate that it is a "commercial device" that persists precisely because it is inserted into the "global chain of merchandise". Within this framework, we ponder the interaction between local and global process across the Mexico-U.S. border. Not only do we trace the market's history, we describe its principal characteristics and provide examples of the commercial dynamics and international circuits through which the "Pulga del Puente del Papa" is supplied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows a descriptive analysis about the characterization of the consumption's pattern in Mexico and Sonora, by determining how much money is spent in households and the proportion that those intended to consume on goods and services. Income level is considered to account for such classification. A comparison between the patterns of consumption is made for Mexico and Sonora in 2005, by emphasizing on food expenditures and some specific food products such as vegetables; including tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers. The study also performs a look into the spending behavior in Mexico from 2000 to 2006, by contrasting the hypothesis of Modigliani and Friedman (Dornbusch, 2004; Camacho, 2000) and the mathematical formulation of Campbell and Mankiw (1989) on the assumption of the society's consumption. It finally outlines a series of proposals for future studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Baja California produce industry is notice by its strong export orientation production. Never less, in the past few years some products have been associated to food safety outbreaks in the United States, its main market, affecting its competitiveness and market share, driven produce growers to the adoption of standards as a mean to stay in the international market. The paper focus in the role of adoption of International standards in the firms as part of a competitive strategy that implies a technological change in order to comply with the certification requirements. A descriptive statistical analysis is conducted as well as a discriminate analysis in order to explain the factors that are involved in the firms that present technical innovation (adoption of standards) to achieve competitiveness and those that don't improve their productive process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tamaulipas presents a long tradition of rural migration to the United States in search of farm employment. Until the eighties, Tamaulipas' undocumented workers crossed the border easily. However, starting in the nineties, as a result of a restrictive migration policy centered exclusively on the "supply-side", crossing the border has become difficult. As a result, most immigrants are using the services of "smugglers". This paper analyses the impact of the militarization of the frontier on the emigration of Tamaulipas' illegal rural workers seeking farm jobs in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the profile's structure kept by earners of remittances in Mexico. A micro-econometric study of the individual factors is carried out in order to understand both, the behavior and the profile of them for households and regions in Mexico. In doing so, we use the 2000 and 2005 National surveys of household income and expenditure (-ENIGH- for its acronym in Spanish). The hypothesis guiding this research is that experience and skills of emigrants with their social capital endowments outline a different pattern between the earners of remittances located at distinct Mexican regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify the existence of convergence, absolute as much as conditional, in municipalities that make up the state of Sonora. Based on the methodological work of Mankiw, Romer and Weill (1992), who consider the first model of Solow (1956) and extend it to include human capital, evidence shows that there is no tendency for poor municipalities to grow more quickly than rich municipalities, which means that there is no process of convergence —either absolute or conditional— in the municipalities of Sonora, regardless of the level of development by which these municipalities are classified: municipalities with high, average or low development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The scholar drop out is not an individual decision. It is conditioned by contextual factors which are identified and analyzed in this research paper among high school students. A survey was applied to 147 high school students to know their family situation, scholar history, reasons why they drop out and their future plans, among other relevant reasons. The results indicated that 86% of the surveyed students abandoned the school between the first and the third semester. Their grade average during the last semester studied was 7.49. The main reasons of the desertion of these students were: economic factors, failure in some subjects, and the lack of interest in their studies. 93% of the participants were not satisfied with the academic level they reached. Nonetheless, they did not plan to resume their studies. The results demonstrated the necessity of an intervention model based on educational policies with higher incentives to add to the school system, flexibility of the transit among subsystems and restructuration of the communication network among the principal actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]