A delegation from Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, will visit their sister city, Benicia, July 2-7, with a focus on learning more about how this area handles environmental issues and paving the way for a student exchange program.

Among the dignitaries planning the trip from central-east Mexico are the city’s Council Member Olga Martinez, who will represent Mayor Jaime Allende on the trip, said Pepe Arteaga, secretary of the local Benicia-Tula Sister Cities Association.

Other members of Tula’s Council who will travel to Benicia are Paciano Calva and Humberto Reyes.

Accompanying them will be the vice president of the Tula-Benicia Sister Cities Association, Rogelio Gonzalez Paredes, and his wife, Maria de la Luz Martinez; Tula-Benicia Sister Cities members Petra Ballesteros and Jose Luis Roderiguez, who is also traveling with his wife; and Victor A. Gonzalez.

They’ll be guests of local Sister Cities members Mike and Jenny Roetzer, John and Jude Potter, Heidi Peeler and Phillip Gallagher.

The Mexican delegation will be in Benicia during its two-day Independence Day celebration, from the Torchlight Parade on July 3 to the Picnic in the Park and the stroll down First Street July 4 to see the city’s fireworks display.

After their arrival at San Francisco Airport, where Arteaga, historian Elena Munoz and Maria Bitagon, past association president, fundraising coordinator and community liaison, will greet them, the Tula delgation will ride to Benicia City Hall.
Association Vice President Leslie McBride will present a plaque to Paredes, who also will address the reception.

Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson will read a welcome resolution, after which the Tula visitors will be introduced to their host families.

Because those from Tula have asked in particular to learn more about how Benicia and other Bay Area cities address environmental concerns, their first full day in Benicia will include a tour of Recology in San Francisco. After lunch, they’ll visit Valero Benicia Refinery, the Port of Benicia and historic areas of Benicia, City Hall and Benicia Yacht Club before the parade.

Before delegates join Benicians for more Independence Day activities July 4, they will attend a ceremony at City Park at which Emily Wolfe will present them with soccer uniforms, Benicia Fire Department Division Chief K.C. Smith will present fire equipment and John Potter will give the delegates computers — all gifts to be taken back to the residents of Tula.

After a friendship breakfast at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, the delegation will travel to Green Valley and Wooden Valley to visit wineries and a farmers market, then spend the rest of the day with their hosts.

The visitors will tour the Benicia Historical Museum the afternoon of July 6 before attending a farewell dinner at the museum, where more gifts will be exchanged between the Benicia and Tula sister cities’ organizations and city officials.

The Tula representatives will fly home from San Francisco on July 7.

Their trip is being sponsored by Valero Benicia Refinery, Underground Construction Company, Republic Services, Benicia Rotary Club, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Randy’s Mexican Bar and Grill, Benicia Main Street and the city of Benicia.

“Tula and Benicia have been sister cities for about 30 years,” Arteaga said Tuesday.

Last year, former Mayor Warren O’Blennis was awarded a lifetime membership in the Benicia-Tula Sister Cities Association for his initiative in joining the two cities together. Arteaga has called O’Blennis “the main force to have a sister city program.”

That was in 1979, when Arteaga was on Benicia’s Waterfront Planning Commission and volunteered to scout Mexico for a city with characteristics similar to Benicia’s. The city that was eventually chosen was Arteaga’s birthplace, Tula.

At the time, O’Blennis appointed Jesse King and Howard Jenkins as goodwill ambassadors to visit Tula, and they backed Arteaga’s choice when they returned. O’Blennis and Tula Mayor Hector Buitron Maldonado signed a proclamation July 4, 1979, that linked Tula and Benicia as sister cities.

The next year, O’Blennis and more than 30 Benicia delegates went to Tula for the first official visit, during which they also started the first Benicia-Tula student exchange.

In 2008, 25 students and their teachers came to Benicia.

Also that year, Buck Kamphausen, another lifetime association member, was instrumental in obtaining a $5,000 matching grant awarded to the association from Valero Benicia Refinery.

Kamphausen, who owns Skyview Memorial Lawn, RM Auctions and USA World Classic Car Museum. was determined to send a medical van to Tula. In 2008, he and others convinced Medic Ambulance to donate equipment to accompany the van, Bitagon said.

Later, he would refurbish and donate a fire truck to Benicia’s sister city.

Both vehicles join in Tula’s own Independence Day Parade in Mexico each year.

Sister Cities President Carla Schaefer said in return, Benicia receives Tula students in an exchange program that benefits both cities.

Tula also gave Benicia a painting that hangs in City Hall, as well as a statue that is a replica of an Antlantean statue — tall sculptures that top a pyramid dating to the time the Tula area was the capital of the Toltecs. At the time, the area was called Tollan.

When Benicians travel to Tula, about 40 miles north of Mexico City, the reception they receive is top-notch, Bitagon said.

“They give us their goodwill,” she said. “We’re treated like diplomats. We’re treated with diplomacy and respect.”

In fact, when Benicia last sent a delegation, led by Patterson in September 2012, they were welcomed by a four-member mariachi band that is considered “the best in the state,” Bitagon said.

“They bring in their culture,” she added.