Arturo Sarukhán has been a career diplomat since 1994. Before becoming the Mexican Ambassador to the U.S., he served as Consul General of Mexico in New York, and as a campaign coordinator and international affairs coordinator for Felipe Calderón. He joined Zócalo to discuss the future of Mexico’s relationship with the U.S., but before his talk, stopped to chat with Zócalo about less official matters. Read more about him below.

Q. What music have you listened to today?
A. Today? None, which is strange because I am a music junkie. But I can tell you what I listened to last night — Aleks Syntek, a Mexican musician.

Q. What is your favorite word?
A. Patience.

Q. When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A. What I am today.

Q. What is your favorite cocktail?
A. Bellini.

Q. What is your greatest extravagance?
A. Time.

Q. What was the last thing that inspired you?
A. Today, seeing Mexican community leaders working hard to make sure their communities get ahead and climb and integrate into the fabric of American society.

Q. What is your favorite thing about Los Angeles?
A. It is continually reinventing itself, and it has the spunk to be able to do whatever it wants whenever it wants.

Q. If you could make only one more journey, where would you go?
A. Bali.

Q. What profession would you like to practice in your next life?
A. Architect.

Q. What is your fondest childhood memory?
A. Sitting on the lap of my great grandmother eating a fantastic Catalonian pastry called ensaimada.

Q. What is your most prized material possession?
A. My iPod.

Q. What should you throw away but haven’t been able to part with?
A. A jersey by Johan Cruyff when he won the title with Barcelona, the football team.

Q. Who is the one person living or dead you would most like to meet?
A. Leonardo da Vinci.

To read more about Sarukhán’s talk, click here.

*Photo by Aaron Salcido.