The mayors of Jocotepec, Jalisco and Plymouth, California formally sealed ties of friendship and cooperation between their respective communities at a ceremony held Friday, February 21 at the doorstep of Jocotepec’s Municipal Palace.
Following eight months of gestures by public officials from both cities, Juan O’Shea Cuevas and Peter Amoruso fixed their signatures to a twinning agreement outlining aims to foster mutual support and collaboration in commercial, social and cultural matters of common interest.
Among the honored guest witnessing the pact were Plymouth’s city manager Jeffrey Gardner, finance director Rick Sanders, city councilman Jon Colburn and John Lubenko, representing the local Rotary Club. Mexican dignitaries included Francisco Javier Hernández, director of municipal development for the nation’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Jalisco state legislators Avelina Martínez Juárez and Jesús Palos Vaca, and Jocotepec first lady Lilia Olmedo Navarro.Following the formalities the event took on a lighter tone as O’Shea presented Amoruso with a giant key to the city of Jocotepec, and the Plymouth mayor returned the favor with a commemorative cap and bottle of wine as tokens from his home town. A short performance by the Son de Mexico dance troupe of San Juan Cosalá brought the ceremony to a festive close.
“This is the first time that we have with twinned with another city, and how great that it is an agricultural community in California with which we have so much in common,” O’Shea said in a brief chat with the Reporter. “We cultivate berries here and they grow grapes and produce regional wines.”
Amoruso noted that Jocotepec is also Plymouth’s first sister city. He said that he and his party were enjoying their first-time travel experience in the interior of Mexico and introduction to the area’s friendly people. “We have been escorted to the berries fields and taken out to dine at local restaurants where we discussed possibilities of arranging for the exportation our wines.”