Eduardo Saverin, Eduardo Castro, and Eduardo Guendelman

I have written about three men who have the same first name as I do. Eduardo Saverin, Eduardo Castro. and Eduardo Guendelman.

I've only crossed paths with one of them; Guendelman is a physicist as I am. He gave a lecture in Taxco, Mexico, about physicists in industry, which I attended to. Castro was in the news recently, because of the Wal-Mart imbroglio in Mexico. Now the third Eduardo was in the news. It seems that he is going to get out like a bandit!

Mr. Saverin made me ask myself a question: Where is he from? It seems to me that the question applies to myself and all these eduardos.

He was born in Brazil; Castro in Ecuador, and Guendelman in Mexico, like myself.

But where is he from?

He is living in Singapore right now, Castro and I in the US, and Guendelman in Israel.

Obviously I cannot speak for all these people, who I do not know personally.

Where am I from?

I feel Mexican American, my children are as American as apple pie, and my wife is American.

When I was at Lucent, one of our managers, Manny Marques, told us that one was as Mexican American, as one wanted to feel. I agree with him. I explain here, why the US is the best place for me to be.

My current view has to do with professor Daron Acemoglu's work.

Together with his colleagues at Harvard and MIT, he discovered what makes a country succeed. The institutions he calls Inclusive, are the clue. We have, at least two countries, with this kind of institutions right now. Great Britain and the US.

After the Glorious War of 1688, the English workers got more rights that any workers anywhere in the World. It seems that the European Plague of the Middle Ages, left them with more power. Landlords were not able to bring slaves, or serfs from other parts, and the rest is History.

In Jamestown, Virginia, a similar process happened. No slaves, no gold, and no silver, so the Europeans couldn't pull a Cortes maneuver, like in my country of Mexico; again, the rest is History.

This narrative rings true to me.

I only have two choices right now. Leave my family here and go back to Mexico, or stay.

Today I read the sad story of a scientist like me, who disappeared from his house in Puebla a month ago. He teaches at the same University where I taught for eighteen years.

Who needs that?