The report describes the rationale for and history of an exchange program for Nuevo Leon (Mexico) and New Mexico bilingual education teachers. The program evolved from the need to help Spanish-speaking students maintain their own language and culture while in the United States. New Mexico's state policy concerning language-minority children and second language learning is traced from the first bilingual education policy statement in 1968 to standards for bilingual education and second language skills set in 1996. The general design of state-mandated bilingual multicultural education programs is also outlined. Policy developments emerging from an October 1991 border conference organized by the U.S. and Mexican departments of education are chronicled through the implementation of the second teacher exchange program in 1996. The exchange itself involves an orientation, teacher preparation of three mini-workshops (comments on home community and students, strategies for teaching English as a Second Language, and the New Mexico educational system) to be presented to their Mexican colleagues, and a paired exchange in which 12 New Mexico teachers and their Mexican teacher-partners live in each other's home and teach together for 2-week periods. Teacher responses to the program are summarized, and support materials are appended. (MSE)