La Peñita de Jaltemba, Mexico - Sara Hradecky is Canada’s Ambassador to the United Mexican States. She arrived in Mexico in November 2011.

Ambassador Hradecky joined Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs in 1983 and has since served abroad in Buenos Aires, Belgrade and Tel Aviv. From 1996-2000, she served as Canada’s Consul General in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. From 2006-2009, Ambassador Hradecky was Head of Mission at the Canadian Embassy in the United Arab Emirates.

At Headquarters, Ms. Hradecky has served as Director of International Financing, and as Director General of International Business Development, Policy and Innovation. From 2009 to 2011, she held the position of Assistant Deputy Minister for the Afghanistan Task Force in the Privy Council Office.

Here's what she had to say in a recent interview:

Q. You have been in the Foreign Service for three decades serving in many interesting places throughout the world. When you received your appointment to Mexico... what did you think would be your biggest challenges and now one year later did these challenges prove true?

A. I was delighted to have been nominated as Canada's Ambassador to Mexico. Canada's relationship with Mexico is very multi-faceted, and each day brings diverse activities and priorities in trade and investment, consular assistance, immigration questions, public affairs, political relations and much more.

Canada and Canadians have interests across Mexico, and I have been making efforts to get out and make contacts throughout the new Administration of the federal government, as well as in the state governments.

Q. Reading through the list of Embassy responsibilities, cultural affairs are one of those duties. What does this entail? Are there any agreements in place between the two countries?

A. Canada and Mexico have had a cultural agreement since 1977 and in the last decades, Canadian artists have become prominent on the Mexican cultural scene. The Cirque du Soleil, for example, is well-known in Mexico; and Canadian musicians like Michael Bublé, Diana Krall, Justin Bieber and Arcade Fire have recently enchanted the Mexican public with their concerts. The equestrian show Cavalia was also in Mexico last year with great success.

Every spring we participate in the annual Rostros de la Francofonía festival, and we have most recently supported initiatives such as the Canada-Mexico Cultural Festival in Tepoztlán, and the Literary Festival in San Miguel de Allende, which brought several Canadian writers and musicians to Mexico.

There is also exciting news on the film front; there has been a co-production agreement between Canada and Mexico since 1991, and the first mainstream feature film made under the agreement, The Boy Who Smells Like Fish, premiered at the Miami Film Festival on March 2, in Guadalajara and Merida on the 5th and 10th of March respectively, and will soon be in theatres nationwide. It is a wonderful example of collaboration, and the Embassy is proud to have supported the project.

We announce Canadian cultural activities in our online calendar of cultural events.

Q. Mexico is very "in your face" in promoting itself to Canadians as the tourist destination. Obviously there are many ways to promote a country, As Ambassador you are often considered our sales person. What aspects of Canada are you promoting to the Mexican government and people?

A. Canada's strong economy, low business costs and corporate tax rates, ready access to markets, our highly skilled and educated workforce, strong public support for R&D and stable, robust financial institutions, along with our linkages through NAFTA and existing manufacturing supply chains, make it an attractive destination for Mexican business and investment (with about 12.5 billion dollars of current Mexican investment in Canada). For these reasons, it really is not that hard to sell Canada to Mexico.

In Mexico, Canadian products are everywhere from BlackBerries to food. For example, Canada is the second largest foreign supplier of beef and pork, and Mexico imports about two billion dollars annually in Canadian agri-food products, so many Mexicans are eating a little bit of Canada everyday without even realizing it.

Canada is also a close partner with Mexico at the person-to-person level. Many Mexicans come to Canada every year not just as tourists, but also to visit family, and a growing number take advantage of fantastic opportunities to work and study. In particular, we have been focusing our efforts recently on increasing these opportunities for Mexican youth through promotion of our world-class educational institutions and our International Experience Canada reciprocal youth work-abroad program.

Q. What advice if any would you give the Canadian tourist visiting Mexico? When should they contact the consular services?

A. Approximately 1.8 million Canadians travel to Mexico each year, the vast majority of them enjoy a pleasant vacation without incident. We strongly encourage Canadians to visit travel.gc.ca, the Government of Canada website for Canadians travelling or living abroad, where Canadians can find information on destination safety and security, local laws and customs, entry requirements, health conditions, and emergency contact information for Mexico and Canadian offices around the world.

Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada provides Canadians abroad with a vast array of consular services, from replacing lost passports and sharing information on local laws to lending support during natural disasters and medical emergencies. For details on the role of consular officers at Canadian missions abroad, we encourage Canadians to visit our website.

Q. It is always recommended that when you travel to Mexico that one should register with the Embassy. Why? How?

A. As I mentioned, about 5% of the Canadian population visits Mexico every year, most without incident, but still Canadians should exercise caution while visiting Mexico, especially in those parts of the country experiencing a challenging security situation. Most major tourist areas are safe, but it is highly advisable to travel to Mexico by air in order to avoid the land border crossings and northern cities which have been most affected by violence and criminal activity.

Keep in mind though that incidents, including natural disasters, can happen anywhere. If you do run into trouble, the only way that the Canadian Government will know your whereabouts is if you have registered, so I strongly advise visitors and residents to do so at: travel.gc.ca or voyage.gc.ca.

Q. Canadians love their privacy, are there any assurances that you can give them that this information will remain private and not be shared with other government agencies?

A. Canada's Privacy Act protects the privacy of individuals with respect to personal information held by government institutions. Under the Privacy Act, personal information may only be used by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada for the purpose for which the information was collected or for use consistent with that purpose. In addition, personal information may not be disclosed to a third party without the consent of the individual. The information that Canadians provide while registering is used by Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada and its offices abroad to contact them in case of an emergency or to share consular information, and for no other purpose.

Q. Many more Canadians are retiring to Mexico and even greater numbers are becoming six-month snowbirds. Every once in while some find themselves in legal difficulties... when one hears that the Canadian is getting consular services while in jail what does that entail? My understanding is that there is not much you can do. Is this correct?

A. The Government of Canada will make every effort* to ensure that Canadians imprisoned abroad receive equitable treatment under the local criminal justice system. We seek to ensure that they are not penalized for being foreigners and that they are neither discriminated against nor denied justice because they are Canadians. We cannot, however, seek preferential treatment for a Canadian or exempt him or her from the due process of local law. For more information on consular services offered in arrest and detention cases, I encourage readers to visit THIS PAGE of our website.

Q. Trade and trade issues between the two countries must take up a great deal of your time. Are there still major agreements that can be reached that will enhance and increase the benefits of what has already been achieved over past 20 years since NAFTA between the two countries?

A. We are very pleased that the Canada-Mexico bilateral trade and investment relationship is so strong and continues to grow. We cannot underestimate the positive effects of NAFTA on our commercial ties: since NAFTA our trade has grown by more than 500%, reaching 35.5 billion dollars in 2012.

Moving forward, while we enjoy the benefits of NAFTA, Canada and Mexico are working to expand our trading relationship through the Doha Round of the WTO and particularly at this moment with the negotiations of the Trans Pacific Partnership or TPP as it is known, where we both joined at the same time.

Canada is also an Observer in the Pacific Alliance initiative where Mexico, Peru, Colombia and Chile are members. All three initiatives form an important part of our trade initiatives as we work together to enhance our North American competitiveness and work to diversify our export markets.