At the risk of offending some Mexican friends, the northern city of Monterrey, Mexico, was not love at first sight for me. I vividly remember my first trip there, almost 30 years ago. I had recently been hired, fresh out of college, and the company I was working for had a quality problem with some product that had been sold to a customer in Monterrey. It was the middle of summer, the heat was unbearable, and nobody wanted to go — so they sent me to go check things out.
I assumed that the meeting would be held in our customer’s offices, and so I dressed accordingly (which was a full suit and tie back in those days). The meeting started off in their air-conditioned offices, but the customer then encouraged me to go see the extent of the problem firsthand in their warehouse. I accepted and was driven about thirty minutes away to an industrial park outside of town. As I was escorted into a massive warehouse, I quickly realized that it was NOT air-conditioned. Imagine the scene — temperatures in the upper 90s, me wearing a full suit, and spending hours opening pallets of dusty boxes to inspect the product inside. By the time the day had ended, I think I had lost 5 pounds from sweating so much, my new suit was a sweaty, dirty pulp, and I swore I never wanted to return to Monterrey. I didn’t see any reason to go back to the hot, dry, dusty industrial city again.
But come back I did, and frequently. Over the following 25 years, I estimate that I returned to Monterrey well over 50 times, each time learning to like it a little more. But when the pandemic came and I left the corporate world, I stopped going. I did not visit again until this past week — the first time in six years. The American Chamber of Commerce of Mexico graciously invited me to their annual members meeting for the Northeast chapter and I jumped at the chance to go check out the city after a long absence.
Of course, I have read a lot about Monterrey’s boom over these past years in Mexico News Daily. Foreign direct investment (FDI) has poured into the area. The population has increased dramatically — nearly doubling in the past 30 years to 5 million-plus people — and it is now the second-largest metropolitan area in the country. For perspective, the Mexico City metro area has grown over 30% while the Guadalajara metro area grew roughly 70% in that same time period. Equally impressive is the infrastructure boom of highways, trains, bridges, subways and more.
The governor of Nuevo León, the state in which Monterrey is located, is Samuel García. Samuel is a 38-year-old, supremely confident, ambitious politician who is not a member of the Morena political party. I first heard him speak two years ago at a meeting of businesspeople in Mexico City. He essentially told the audience that the rest of Mexico was getting left behind as Monterrey was racing ahead, while imploring them to come invest in Monterrey.
And in many ways, he is right. The state has taken in a significant share of the country’s FDI since the pandemic. An infrastructure boom is transforming the city. The airport, already much larger, is still expanding and rapidly adding flights to destinations across Mexico, North America, and even Europe and Asia. The city already has three subway lines and is currently building three monorail lines. Highways and train lines are being built to better integrate trade between the region and the United States. Dams have been built to address the water scarcity problem. New office and condo towers are going up everywhere, including what will be the second-tallest building in the Americas. It’s all pretty damn impressive.
Many of our readers might be thinking, “Ok fine, but why would I ever want to go there?” My simple answer: To get inspired by the energy of what the people are accomplishing there, as well as be awed by the beauty of the mountains surrounding the city. People from Monterrey are very proud of their heritage and their mountains — and rightly so. They do not allow themselves to be so encumbered by the bureaucracy of the federal government. They are excited about the business opportunities ahead of them. They view themselves as the Texas of Mexico: part of Mexico, yet fundamentally different.
As the state economy minister, a bright young woman named Betsabé Rocha, reminded the AmCham meeting crowd: “The giant beer brewer Cervecería Cuauhtémoc had extremely humble beginnings, starting by making ice.” Her message was clear: that the people and companies of Monterrey have massive ambition and abilities to evolve and grow. Her message was also inspiring, as were many others at the meeting. It was fascinating to see so many women leaders presenting and attending, especially given Monterrey’s reputation for having a machista culture.
After the AmCham meeting, I met with Tatiana Cloutier. My timing was perfect. Tatiana started the week as the head of the Institute for Mexicans Abroad, working directly for President Claudia Sheinbaum. But that changed by the end of the week as Sheinbaum announced that Tatiana was stepping down to run for the governor of Nuevo León in next year’s election as a candidate for the Morena party. Over a lunch of tostadas and soft drinks at a humble local restaurant, we talked about why she wanted to run for governor.
Tatiana didn’t deny that Monterrey and the state were booming economically. She was clearly proud that it was attracting new residents from across Mexico, companies from around the world, and building impressive infrastructure. But she talked at length about her concerns that the boom was leaving too many in the middle and lower classes behind. In her words, too many Regios (as people from Monterrey are called) are seeing a rapidly increasing cost of living with a lack of focus on issues that matter most to them. Issues like improved security, water availability, education, bus routes, etc. In my very unscientific study talking to a dozen or so working-class locals, I heard similar concerns.
Monterrey is a city on the move. A few days in the San Pedro area of the city will most certainly leave you inspired by the transformation and ambition of the city and its people. The views of the surrounding mountains will leave you awestruck — such beautiful nature so close to such a major city. The political future of the region will be fascinating to watch: if Tatiana is successful in bringing Morena leadership to a state that has yet to embrace a governor from the party, or if the state will continue to chart its own independent path.
As I returned to the airport in an Uber, I chatted with the driver, a recent immigrant to Mexico from Belarus. He told me he was on vacation a few years ago in Playa del Carmen and fell in love with his now wife, who is from Monterrey. They married, moved to the city two years ago, and just recently had a baby girl named María Elena. He proudly showed me photos of her on his phone. I asked him how life was. His answer: “Monterrey has been good to both me and my family.”
A proud immigrant to a booming city.
I encourage you to go check out what is now Mexico’s “second city.” You won’t regret it.
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for nearly 30 years.
