UTEP President Receives Mexico's Highest Decoration for Foreign Nationals
EL PASO, Texas, Dec. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon selected UTEP President Diana Natalicio to receive the Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca (Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle) at a ceremony on Monday, Dec. 12, at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C.
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The Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca is the highest decoration awarded by the Mexican government to foreign nationals whose work has benefited Mexico and Mexicans.
"I am deeply honored to receive this recognition from President Calderon for our contributions to provide access and excellence to thousands of talented Mexican and Mexican-American students at UTEP," President Natalicio said. "I'm especially pleased to receive this award from distinguished Ambassador of Mexico to the United States Arturo Sarukhan. UTEP highly values our longstanding collaborations with sister universities and research centers across Mexico, and we are very proud of our many Mexican and Mexican-American alumni and students."
Sarukhan presented President Natalicio with the award. In a letter announcing the award, he praised her for her commitment to provide access to outstanding higher education to young, talented Mexicans who commute to The University of Texas at El Paso every day from Juarez, Mexico and for her visionary policy of facilitating the enrollment of a large majority of Mexican-American students.
"The Mexican Government fully recognizes the promotion of bilingualism but moreover, of the concept of 'binationalism' that you have actively carried out throughout your long and distinguished academic career," Sarukhan wrote. "Under your leadership, UTEP stands today as a paradigm; as a true binational, multicultural and diverse university that genuinely understands the dynamics and certainly, the needs of a third entity known as the Mexico-U.S. border."
The Orden Mexicana del Aguila Azteca was established in 1933. Previous recipients include former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, former U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, former President Dwight Eisenhower, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, poet Gary Soto, and philanthropist and founder of Starkey Lab William F. Austin.
SOURCE University of Texas at El Paso
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