Remarks in Los Angeles at a Mexican fiesta Given in His Honor by President Lopez Mateos.

Buenas tardes, mis amigos. President Lopez Mateos and Mrs. Mateos, Secretary Rusk and Mrs. Rusk, Governor Brown and Mrs. Brown, Mayor and Mrs. Yorty, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:

There is in this arena this afternoon the spirit of Hidalgo and Jefferson, of Juarez and Roosevelt. On your visit to this country several years ago, Mr. President, you told the Mexican people before you departed your homeland that you were setting out on a crusade without adversaries and you would appeal to this country with your heart and mind.

This Nation responded to you then as it does today.

On your return to Mexico, you told your Chamber of Deputies that the friendship between the United States and Mexico is a force in Mexico's international policy. This is so, you said, not because of geographic reasons, but because of mutual respect of what is right.

You have a way, Mr. President, of stating the truth simply and clearly: respect for what is right, respect for what is just, respect for the other man's opinion and the other man's view. So I would remind you and all of those present this afternoon that our future, the future of this hemisphere, indeed the future of the whole world, are tied to those truths. Our mutual respect for what is right has brought Mexico, the United States, and the other free American Republics into a union of freedom for the benefit of all.

The Alliance for Progress, born in this hemisphere, is a collective war on poverty in this hemisphere. The war on poverty and its somber allies, misery and disease, and illiteracy, is a war that the free American Republics must win. If we don't win, humanity fails. And there is no more valiant leader in this war against poverty than the great President of Mexico, Adolfo Lopez Mateos.

Mexico is in a hurry, for the years do not wait, and the centuries past are silent witness to the endurance of the enemy. Mexico fights poverty. The campaign against this foe of all mankind is nowhere more vigorous than in Mexico. President Lopez Mateos has demanded victory. He will accept nothing less.

I think that you should know that one quarter of the Mexican budget, 25 percent of the total budget, is being expended in Mexico today for better education in Mexico. Highways are being constructed throughout the nation. Housing is being built for those who have none, and better housing is being built for those who have some. The President has called on private enterprise to join the fight, and business has responded to his call. Mexico is on the march. The direction of that march is upwards. The tempo is swift. The outcome is sure.

The Alliance for Progress still remains the best hope for unified action, but it is not surprising that the Alliance for Progress has not come into its full activity in its 2 1/2 years. In the words of President Lopez Mateos, real gains do not come overnight. But if this night has been long, the streaks of the dawn are already visible.

One reason for this buoyancy is the cooperation between Mexico and the United States. I am so proud that I can truthfully tell you today that we live together in peace and harmony, with justice our guide and reason our companion. We have agreed on the Chamizal settlement, and we plan to meet at the Chamizal territory in September and October and have a celebration that we want to invite all of you to attend.

There is no bridge that we cannot cross, there is no difference that we cannot resolve. We are dedicated, Mexico and the United States, to the ageless principles of freedom within the law, opportunity with progress, and justice with compassion.

The greatest gift of Mexico to America has been its people. from the earliest hours of my memory, my own life is living evidence of the friendship of thousands of Texans whose ancestral home is Mexico. There is in this State of California a tradition and a legacy which are indivisible from Mexico. The music of Mexican hope, the strength of Mexican courage--they are all in this great State and in this great Nation, and in all of our hearts this afternoon.

When I was a very young man teaching school in Cotulla, Tex., teaching the children of Mexican immigrants, teaching them and learning to love them, little did I ever dream that one afternoon many years later here in the great State of California I would be standing in this arena with the President of Mexico by my side. This is the proof, if the world needs proof, that our lands are still rich with opportunity, that the boy mired in the slums, the child lashed by prejudice and bias, the youngster buried half alive in illiteracy, that all of them have hope, that the door is never closed and the window is never barred.

And this is what we, the President of Mexico and the President of the United States, are together trying so hard to do. We want so much, and we are trying so hard, to help all of those who hope for a decent life to help themselves achieve that decent life.

It is a great inspiration to be here with you this afternoon, and with God's help and with God's blessing, we are going to succeed in making this a better United States, making this a better Mexico, making this a better world for all people everywhere.