The mafia Mexico does need

As Latinos, Mexicans are very warm and friendly people. It's no coincidence that we are the country with the most international treaties in the world.

"It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." Confucius

When we talk about the word "mafia" in a country that experienced 2017 as one of the most violent years in modern history, it's evident that some internal fibers make us uncomfortable. However, the word "mafia" can also have a very positive connotation. A great example of this is the "Paypal Mafia," a group of 14 tech entrepreneurs with different skills who decided to collaborate to grow together in their businesses. After the sale of Paypal to eBay for $1.5 billion, they have continued to generate a huge number of companies that are literally transforming the world, creating what the Mexican president of Endeavor, Fernando Fabre, calls a "business multiplier effect." Within this entrepreneur mafia, of which 6 are billionaires, we find the 3 founders of YouTube, Reid Hoffman founder of LinkedIn, Elon Musk of Tesla, Solar City, and SpaceX, as well as Peter Thiel, the first investor in Facebook, among several others.

I understand that an example of entrepreneurs from California with access to international capital and high technological knowledge may sound very distant. But there is a current example of a positive Mexican mafia that has achieved enormous success and impact on the world, I'm referring to the Mexican Film Mafia. A group of Mexicans in the film industry who have decided to leave behind the crab mentality to unite the skills of different brilliant minds that have supported each other and succeeded together. Among the members, we find "The Great Friends of Cinema," directors Alejandro González Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón, and Guillermo del Toro, accompanied by the multi-award-winning photographer, Emmanuel "Chivo" Lubezki, as well as the 2 "Charolastras" Diego Luna and Gael García, with Salma Hayek, the Mexican actress who broke ground in Hollywood.

Together achieving what few in history have achieved, (representing only a part of a new generation of contemporary Mexican Golden Cinema formed by many more highly talented artists), this group of Mexican artists accumulates 60 artistic awards together, including 9 Oscars, thanks in large part to their collaborations as a team and great friendship. Another example of positive mafias is found in the earthquake of September 19, where while some public officials did everything possible for the provisions to carry their photograph or party image, society far exceeded the government's efforts by helping and collaborating to save lives much faster and more efficiently than the government itself with platforms like Verificado19s that through Twitter, WhatsApp, and its website, managed to unite key information so that all Mexicans could help each other during the earthquake. What if we take this type of technology to other government sectors where there is information bureaucracy and society can participate in detecting and proposing solutions to problems in Mexico? What if we could enable all 125 million citizens, (based on the estimate of 100% of Mexican inhabitants with access to the Internet that will exist between 2022 and 2025), to report on country problems and propose simple solutions using technology like a cell phone, WhatsApp, or Twitter? Mexicans, as Latinos, are highly warm and friendly people. It's no coincidence that we are the country with the most international treaties in the world; that could be our greatest advantage in a hostile context with the president of the neighboring northern country.

What if as friends, family members, citizens, and inhabitants, we learned to collaborate together as positive Mafias? Can you imagine what, as Mexicans, with a spectacular demographic bonus (where the average Mexican is 27 years old and the majority of the population is in productive age), we could achieve if we decided to unite, form groups, and grow together improving our beautiful and beloved country together? The Mexico we want can only be built by all of us together!