Cities’ leaders talk exchange

NEWPORT COAST — When Newport Beach and Ensenada officials dined together Friday while hundreds of sailboats began their annual race from here to the Mexican city, it was more than just a social occasion.

“Now we can have a cultural exchange, an economic exchange, a developmental exchange and a student exchange,” said Ensenada’s medical services director Dr. Jorge Alberto Saenz Flores. “Kids [from Ensenada] can learn English and the others can come learn Spanish.”

Saenz Flores was subbing for Ensenada Mayor Cesar Mancillas, who had to miss the get-together with Newport Beach Mayor Steve Rosansky and other local leaders to tend to an emergency in Ensenada.

Saenz Flores presented Rosansky with a bottle of wine from Ensenada’s wineries to celebrate the sister-city relationship between Newport and Ensenada and the annual race.

The two cities have shared 60 years of camaraderie because of the Newport to Ensenada yacht race, which began at noon Friday. But the two didn’t officially become sister cities until last year.

“We are so glad to have this relationship between these sister city communities in Newport Beach and Ensenada,” Saenz Flores said.

Saenz Flores said the relationship between the two cities has grown stronger throughout the six decades of the race. Ensenada is the third official sister city for Newport Beach — Ensenada has five sister cities, including Newport.

Newport Beach Sister City Assn. chairman Leonardo Flores has hosted these soirees for three years, as he tries to develop the Ensenada committee.

Flores grew up in Mexico City but spent many summers of his youth at a summer home his father owned in Ensenada.

“We want to increase tourism and business between the two cities and for that we need people interested — dynamic people with an international mind, people who like to work on a good project,” Flores said.

The sister-city program gives Newport residents a chance to broaden their horizons.

“It helps us become more multicultural…. It adds to the spice of life,” he said.

The committee is looking for anyone, but especially young professional people, interested in forging ties between the Mexican city and their home, Flores said.

For more information or to sign up for the sister city association, call (949) 760-6616.