Aurora Mayor Mike Coffman signed a sister-city agreement Thursday with the city of Chihuahua, Mexico’s Mayor Marco Bonilla Mendoza.

Aurora chose to sister with Chihuahua due to the significant number of immigrants from Mexico who call Aurora home, Coffman told The Denver Gazette while in Mexico Friday.

“There’s a strong cultural tie between the city of Aurora and the city of Chihuahua just in terms of the diversity of our own city,” he said.

The idea originally came from Aurora Sister Cities International, a nonprofit in Aurora that helps build and maintain sister city relationships. Council supported the agreement and Coffman signed it, making it official, Thursday with Chihuahua’s mayor.

Chihuahua is one of several cities Aurora has sister city agreements with, others include Adama in Ethiopia, Ilopango in El Salvador, Jaco in Costa Rica, New Taipei City in Taiwan and Seongnam City in South Korea.

“What’s great is that the four largest immigrant communities in the city, with the signing of this agreement yesterday, we now have city agreements with,” Coffman said. “That really corresponds with the diversity of our city.”

A sister city relationship is a cooperative relationship with a city in another country with similar demographics, according to Aurora Sister Cities International.

The relationship is formalized through a signed document by mayors in both cities. The sister city organization then plans cooperative activities and exchanges in cultural, educational, municipal, business and humanitarian fields, according to Aurora Sister Cities International’s website. The benefits of a sister city relationship include improved cultural competency, arts and culture offerings and profitable business relations.

Coffman will bring home several ideas for collaboration between the cities, he said.

In particular, he hopes to connect Aurora’s public safety team with the public safety team in Chihuahua.

During his time in Mexico, Coffman toured Chihuahua’s police department and got to see how they mitigate crime in the city, he said. Their “advanced technology” stood out to him.

“The number one thing that is really important to bring back to Aurora right now is connecting our public safety people with theirs,” he said. “I want our public safety people to see what their using and how effective it is.”

Coffman also sees a potential for collaboration between the cities on healthcare and aerospace, he said. Chihuahua has a strong manufacturing industry and a “robust” healthcare research program at their university, which Aurora shares a specialty in.

A big part of the sister city agreement will include cultural and economic exchange.

“The economic growth (in Chihuahua) is incredible,” Coffman said. “Their desire to work is really strong and they’re really taking advantage of international opportunities.”

During his time in Mexico, from which he returns Saturday, Coffman has been busy.

Along with signing the agreement, Coffman said he has been all over the city, doing things including: having dinner with Chihuahua’s tourism group; meeting with its Chamber of Commerce to discuss economic partnerships, visiting the Ford manufacturing plant and touring the city’s police department.

Many of the meetings Coffman participated in were in Spanish, allowing him to practice the language skills he develops with a tutor every Sunday.

Friday, after the “more official” part of his stay in Mexico was over, he was on his way to a museum to learn more about the city and do some exploring, he said.

He’s also done a lot of eating in Mexico, he said, joking about searching for a Taco Bell.

Joking aside, he said he ate lots of local food with his favorite being popular local food arrachera, or skirt steak.

Aurora is one of 18 Colorado cities with sister cities through the organization, which in total represents relationships with over 40 cities globally.

Sister city relationships are especially important in Aurora due to the city’s diversity and large population of immigrants, Coffman said.

“The largest immigrant community in our city is from Mexico and many of them are from the state of Chihuahua and the city of Chihuahua,” Coffman said. “The best sister city we can have in Mexico is the city of Chihuahua from a community standpoint.”