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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES

BERKELEY DAVIS IRVINE LOS ANGELES RIVERSIDE SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO

UCLA
MERCED SANTA BARBARA SANTA CRUZ

March 4, 2012 To Whom It May Concern

RE: Dr. Olga M. Lazin-Andrei Dear Professor: I am pleased to recommend Olga Lazin to you in the highest possible terms. Dr. Lazin specializes in writing and teaching history of Los Angeles as it relates to California's role and its place in the world history since 1910. She is making major contributions to enhance scholarly writing as well as to improve
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university teaching by moving beyond the idea that Los Angeles history is only a history of riots. Lazin has become a leader among historians of Los Angeles, serving as a key member of PROFMEX, the Worldwide Consortium for Research on Mexico. Further, she has developed highly successful professional sessions to compare Global Regions in such places as Mexico City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Bucharest. To advance our knowledge about Mexico and the world, Lazin has developed her: - first book (now in press) that shows, among other things, Mexico's contribution to free trade and world philanthropy.
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- second book (now well into the writing stage) that reveals California's contribution to world food and agriculture. Each of these works contain major breakthroughs for scholarship as Lazin articulates new aspects of Mexico's national history and its impact on other countries. Dr. Lazin has also extensive knowledge of Mexicos colonial and post-colonial history. Lazin's Writings on Free Markets, Philanthropy, and the Rise of Civil Government Assisted by Civic Society's Foundations and NGOs In her first book, due in early 2004, Lazin draws on her extensive
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research in two hemispheres to develop her concept of Decentralized Globalization: Free Trade, Philanthropy and Civic Society From the Americas to the New Europe. This book (jointly published by the University of Guadalajara Press and UCLA Program on Mexico) shows how the free flow of ideas and goods throughout the world gained force in the twentieth century to reshape possibilities for development. Lazin's case studies include Mexico and Romania, which since the 1990s seek finally to change their constricting statist legal systems inherited from Roman and Spanish Law as well as the Napoleonic Code. Funding by
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foundations such as Rockefeller and Soros (whose corpus comes from the profits of free trade) has done much to establish the civic society in Latin America and Eastern Europe; and civic society has helped set the agendas for and also to monitor civil government, which seeks to reorganize. Lazin's Decentralized Globalization sees free markets as having helped U.S. foundation leaders such as Rockefeller, Soros, and Gates to help end restrictive statist control of information and communication in Latin America and Eastern Europe, areas which historically have lacked effective civil society. She shows how U.S. foundations have sought to build civic society to offset the power of highly centralized and unresponsive civil governments that prevent the rise of the innovation
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that is so required to complete in the modern world. In writing the first book to ever deconstruct and develop the schema needed to show how U.S. foundations operate as the largest pool of non-profit funds in the world, Lazin examines the genius of U.S. 501(c)(3) legislation. That legislation, previously difficult to fathom, serves as the basis to fund civic society to do what government is unable to do owing to bureaucratic obstacles. Lazin provides the first clear method for helping foundation and NGO leaders around the world understand the workings of U.S. 501(c)(3) legislation, which so many countries seek to emulate in order to follow the U.S.-Mexican model for cross-border philanthropy.
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Lazin examines the complexity in the organization of U.S. foundations to find three types as having emerged in the USA as "models" for the world: - Rockefeller Foundation (the first U.S. foundation), which exemplifies the centralized nonprofit organizations operating worldwide under a Board of Directors in the United States; this model includes such foundations as Carnegie, Ford, Pew, Hewlett that are organized to coordinate with government and international agencies as well as make grants to NGOs; - Gates Foundations and Turner Foundations that are Centralized in the personalities of their founders;

- Soros Foundations, that are decentralized under their National Boards of Directors in 33 countries around the world; El Paso-Jurez Community Foundation that has a bi-national board of directors For all of these models, Professor Lazin provides the new view needed to help students of comparative history understand how philanthropy has come to serve as basis for civic society. Foundations and NGOs, the organs of civic society, benefit from the fact that governments trust their citizens to convert their tax payments to tax donations--the donations needed by foundations and NGOs to do what government does not do. It is the provision for tax-deductible
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donations that makes decentralized globalization possible. Within this setting, Lazin reveals how Mexico has worked with the United States to develop the first and only international model to support cross-border philanthropy. She is the first to identify and delineate this new relationship. She contrasts the U.S. Mexico relation with that of the European Union countries, EU which in now expanding to 25 separate laws, one for each member country, thus hampering international cooperation by private donors, who too often are constrained by incompatible laws regulating foundations. The EU will soon have 25 separate standards. With regard to problems and possibilities of free trade, Professor Lazin is the first (and only) scholar
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to compare systematically the provisions for NAFTA and the European Union as they have had impact on Mexico. She clearly shows which sectors are winners and losers in the pact. Lazin shows that Mexico has become the world leader in signing FTAs (Free Trade Agreements) in order to provide an export base to its partners in the European Union and APEC as well as North America, South America. (Mexico is the only country in the world to have signed FTA agreements with NAFTA and the European Union as well as to serve as lead country in APEC, which in 2003 met in Mexico.) Mexico is of interest to countries worldwide that seek to join FTAs. Its experience in protecting itself (with varying degrees of success) against the unilateral imposition of
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U.S. rules in international trade and the ironies therein was commented upon to Lazin when she opened the PROFMEX Office in Moscow in 1994. Her Russian hosts only half jokingly restated Porfirio Daz famous maxim in the following terms: "'Fortunate' Mexico, so far from God, so close to the United States."

Lazin's writings on Mexico's Two Green Revolutions for the world. In yet another breakthrough in Mexican studies, Lazin's research identifies Mexico as the source of the world's Two Green Revolutions. The first arose when outgoing President Lzaro Crdenas sought help in

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1940 from U.S. Vice President Elect Henry A. Wallace, who enlisted the Rockefeller Foundation to establish the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat (CIMMYT). Development of the first Green Revolution was sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, upon which she touches in her first book and fully presents here in her second book. Lazin uncovers the previously unknown struggle led by CIMMYT's Norman Borlaug to develop from Japanese dwarf wheat a hearty hybrid that revolutionized yields. Borlaug tells in his oral history interviews with Lazin how Mexico organized this shipment of wheat and seeds to India and Pakistan, saving these countries populations from famine in the mid and late 1960s.
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The oral history interviews by Lazin put her at the top of the craft in capturing memoirs that would otherwise be lost to posterity. She follows Borlaug through his battles to develop Double-Protein Corn, a splendid account which she complements with an incisive analysis of the successes of CIMMYT as it fostered research centers around the world to grow, for example, rice and potatoes with high-yield, high-quality characteristics. Lazin also captures the failure of CIMMYT's International Advisory Board which, led by a "nutritionist" from Stanford University, fought Borlaug's agriculturists to shut down CIMMYT's work to develop Double-Protein Corn, seen by nutritionists to be a "hopeless goal." The history of how Borlaug persevered by moving his Mexican
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team to Africa with Japanese foundation funding offers splendid insight into how Mexicans provided the civic leadership to reform international bureaucracies, which can be as obtuse as national bureaucracies. CIMMYT reformed itself and invited Borlaug and his Mexican team back to Mexico. In Lazin's view, where the First Green Revolution achieved high yields in such crops as wheat, rice, potatoes, and corn by using problematic inputs such as herbicides, pesticides, and chemicals, the Second Green Revolution, is based on reduced and more targeted usage of those inputs. Further, the Second Green Revolution is based on conservation of water and appropriate elimination of contaminants. And, as Lazin is showing, the 'invention" of Double-Protein Corn is the basis
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for reducing the high-carbohydrates diets that cause weight gains and diabetes among the poor. Further, Lazin presents the previously unknown history of Mexico's private sector GRUMA corporation, which beginning in the late 1940s invented the healthy tortilla by adding protein, vitamins, and minerals and doing so hygienically to provide a demand for higher quality corn being developed by CIMMYT. Here again, Lazin was able to convince the leader of this industrial aspect of the Green Revolutions, Roberto Gonzlez Barrera, to record his oral history, answering her incisive questions and debating hypotheses questioning his role of having used government subsidies. Lazin shows how Gonzlez Barrera donated much of his profits to fund Mexico's Institute of Nutrition, thus reaching
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the goal of enriching the tortilla be become a healthier and "greener" basic food. In developing her oral history interviews with the leaders of these two revolutions, Dr. Lazin, has "created" new oral sources and records of great value for Mexican and comparative history. Research on the proposed Combination of the Social Security Account of U.S. and Mexican Workers; and the Case of Mexican Los Angeles Dr. Lazin has written a book: ISBN of my book: 970-27-0713-4 La Globalizacin Se Descentraliza: Libre Mercado, Fundaciones, Sociedad Cvica y Gobierno Civil
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en las Regiones del Mundo Por Olga Magdalena Lazn She is currently coordinating UCLA research and survey on Greater Mexican Los Angeles, which she has defined as ranging from Ventura to Ensenada, and from the Pacific Coast to Riverside. In her capacity as Coordinator, Lazin has brought together Mexican and Chicano researcher for their first joint project. Professor Lazin is working closely with Mexico's Minister of Treasury Francisco Gil and with U.S. Social Security under a grant from the California State Legislature. Linkage of Baja California to California
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Taking into account the above two projects and the fact that Fabin Nez, the in-coming speaker of the California State Assembly, was born in Tijuana, Professor Lazin has taken the lead in providing transfer of technology from California to the State of Baja California. Transfer of technology is defined broadly to include research in the social sciences. These latter three activities have only been finalized as of this month, and to her credit, Lazin did not mention them in her letter of application to you because she waits to take credit only when possible projects become fully real ones. I am pleased to say that her baseline work has now become finalized in very important research for the
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State of California and the U.S. Government as well as for Mexico and its citizens, for example, in Greater Los Angeles. Teaching Lazin has been brilliantly coteaching with me in 2008 and 2007, History 160, History 161, and Seminars on Latin American Stats. She has also taught 2 courses on her own at UCLA Extension. Lazin's students appreciate hearing her first-hand accounts of how history is "rediscovered" and researched. Professor Lazin recounts her interviews with the leaders and searches in their records for the "details" that lead to her fresh interpretations. Leaders such as Antonio Villareigosa, Borlaug and Gonzlez Barrera themselves need help in organizing their own histories in which they
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have lead the way in making discoveries in Mexico. That the history she is establishing in the consciousness of the Mexican reality makes students a part of the discovery, rather than passive observers of "historical knowledge," which too often seems distant and without emotion. With regard to lecturing, Lazin is highly effective in organizing complex materials to make sense. She works closely with students to develop their writing and speaking skills. Especially teaching Los Angeles History at Cal State University Dominguez Hills. Her seminars on Los Angeles multicultural communities are as highly effective as are her large lecture classes. She provides outlines and handouts that keep the students continuously involved.
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One of Lazin's strengths is incite students to debate issues, to provide a fair balance in presenting all the opinions on the topic at hand, and to invite the appropriate speakers at just the right moment in her courses in order to highlight the complexity of major issues. When teaching about FTAs, for example, she invites such a business leader as Jos T. Molina (Chair of the UCLA Council on Mexico), and Dolores Huerta (Labor Union leader), to speak both of the positive and the negative issues which the United States has faced and which Mexico's "off-shore" industry now faces. Thus, Lazin is able to raise in lectures, as she does in her books, positive issues in the rise of FTAs (mentioned above) as well as the negative (such as the conundrum in which manufacturing seeks ever lower production costs as it moves
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from country to country la WalMart, reducing the jobs in the USA that are needed to provide purchasing power for the masses.) Lazin emphasizes the fact that Mexico, which won in-bond industrial jobs to assemble exports to the United States during beginning in the 1960s, has seen some of those jobs move on to Central America and China--thus reaffirming the need for much of Mexico's labor to move north across the border. She shows how outmigration is linked to cycles in Mexican production as gaining from introducing higher stages of production, then losing when other countries catch up in those stages. In her teaching, then, Lazin is constructing fresh perspectives on ethnic Mexican history as it has changed through time, with repercussions for the Mexican
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population in the United States; and she is developing her analysis of Greater Mexican Los Angeles, which ranges from Ventura to Ensenada. Lazin uses film very effectively either to enhance her lecture courses to present Mexican film history as important in its own right. Here again she is noted at UCLA for inviting Mexican film directors, producers, actors, and critics to her courses and conferences. In her undergraduate and graduate seminars, Dr. Lazin shows her expertise in tracing the history of global themes. As an expert in Mexico and Globalization, Professor Lazin's books and teaching leads us to understand how "dependency theory" was born in Romania in the 1920s and shifted to Brazil and Chile during the 1940s. This model
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came to prevail in Mexico until the mid-1980s, when it was rejected in favor of opening to the United States and Canada. Chile has signed FTAs with Mexico and the United States, hoping to ward off the Brazil's overwhelming economic might in South America. Indeed, Brazil seeks to establish the South American Free Trade Area to off set the power of NAFTA plus Chile. Professional Activity Having served PROFMEX in Romania, Hungary, Spain, and France (where she was the representative during 1991-1992), Lazin was ideally suited to open the PROFMEX Office in Moscow. She speaks many languages and is at home in many cultures. She resided briefly in Canada, Costa Rica, and Guatemala;
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and has lived for long periods in Mexico City as well as the provinces. Lazin organized the 1996 PROFMEX Conference in Morelia, Michoacn, sponsored jointly by the Mexican National Association of Universities and the State Government. In the meantime, Lazin has served as researcher and Managing Editor of the PROFMEX web journal Mexico and the World (www.profmex.com). In this capacity, Lazin determines the eligibility or articles sent to the Journal and she has the responsibility to obtain the required peer reviews. She also oversees the book review section, and edits submissions prior to having them posted.
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Lazin had been very active in the American Historical Association, organizing the session on comparative world regions at the 2003 AHA meetings in Chicago. For her young age in terms of academia, she has wide experience in bringing scholars together for professional development in many countries. Conclusion Dr. Lazin is among the top 5 students with whom I have worked during my years at UCLA. She writes important books and articles. Her book on Decentralized Globalization is a major breakthrough. She lectures with great articulation, and she is superb in leading discussions as well as helping students prepare for exams. She takes pride in bringing students
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into her research, and she is expert in helping them read with understanding, develop their paper topics, and write and rewrite their works. She is committed to making on-going contributions to her profession, and her roles are numerous and noteworthy. For all of the above reasons, then, I strongly recommend that Dr. Lazin be appointed to your teaching position in History with emphasis on History of Los Angeles. Daily she is making new breakthroughs in research and teaching, as well as publishing. Sincerely, James W. Wilkie UCLA Professor of History 405 Hilgard Ave Latin American Center
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Chair, UCLA POM President, PROFMEX Tel. (310) 454 8812

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