Minister Alejandro Negrín Muñoz is the Director of the Instituto Cultural de Mexico (Cultural Institute of Mexico) in Washington D.C. He graduated in Latin American Studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (1983), and received a Master’s Degree in International Relations from the Ortega y Gasset Institute in Madrid (1998).

Minister Negrín Muñoz is a member of the Mexican Foreign Service. He was born in Mexico City, on November 11, 1959. Between 2002-2004 served as Deputy General Director of the United Nations System at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Mexico. From 1998 to 2001 he was part of the Human Rights staff at the Permanent Mission of Mexico to the United Nations and other International Organizations in Geneva. From 1995 to 1998 he served at the Mexican Embassy in Spain as Counselor for Economic Affairs. In 1994 he was Chief of Cabinet of Undersecretary “B” of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During 1993 he worked at the Office of Economic and Cooperation Affairs of the Mexican Embassy in Canada. From 1989 to 1993 he worked at the Office of Political and Multilateral Affairs at the Mexican Embassy in Venezuela. From 1986 to 1988 he was Foreign History Researcher at the Institute of Investigations “José María Luis Mora” in Mexico City. From 1983 to 1986 he headed the General Council for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Since 1998 he has participated as a member of Mexican delegations to numerous conferences and international meetings, including the United Nations General Assembly and the United Nations Social and Economic Council. He has published books and articles about the regional history of Mexico in the XIX century, and about Mexico’s foreign relations for a number of institutional publications such as the Instituto de Investigaciones José Luis Mora, Foro Internacional of El Colegio de México and Revista Mexicana de Política Exterior.

Germán Alberto Jaramillo Gallego

The distinguished career of Jaramillo as a film and theater actor and director came to the attention of international critics after his nomination for Best Actor at the 57th Mostra Internazionale d´Arte Cinematografica in Venice (2000) for his performance of the grief-stricken Fernando, the main character in Barbet Schroeder’s Our Lady of the Assassins (book and script by Fernando Vallejo); this film received the Festival´s Medaglia d´oro della Presidenza del Senato (The President of the Italian Senate’s Gold Medal). The same year Schroeder´s film was awarded Best Foreign Film at the Havana Film Festival, and the following year became an official selection for the Sundance, Telluride, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle and Los Angeles Latino Film Festivals The Village Voice selected it as one of the best 40 films of 2001. The film Sin Amparo (No Shelter), in which Jaramillo also starred, received Colombia´s 2000 National Film Award, and it is scheduled to debut internationally at the Huelva Film Festival in Spain. His film career includes The Man Who Killed and Ate the Thing He Loved directed by Michael Stone (presented at the 2002 Columbia University Film Festival). Currently he is working on a project with producer Rodrigo Guerrero (Maria Full of Grace), and director Andy Baiz on two films to be shot in Colombia in 2005.

Jaramillo was born in the city of Manizales, Colombia, in 1952. He moved to where, in 1973, he co-founded the Teatro Libre de Bogotá, the first repertory theater company-owned playhouse and actor’s training center in that country, which opened its doors to the public in September of 1980. His extensive theater repertoire includes works by Shakespeare, Ramón del Valle Inclán, Bertolt Brecht, Murray Schisgall, Jairo Anibal Niño, Esteban Navajas, Reynolds Andújar, and Jorge Plata’s award-winning play La Agonía del Difunto (The Agony of the Deceased); Jaramillo gave 3,000 performances in the leading role of Agonía’s Agustino Landazábal, besides starring in two different Colombia TV productions of the same play (1980 and 1986). He now lives in New York City where he directs the ID Studio Theater and works for Alianza Dominicana Theater Company, Inc.