Mexican lawmaker sees voting in U.S.

MEXICO CITY — Manuel de la Cruz, the first U.S. citizen ever to win a seat in Mexico’s Congress, has a modest platform — to make the United States of America a Mexican electoral district.

Mr. de la Cruz, born in Zacatecas, Mexico, but a longtime resident of Norwalk, Calif., is one of six Mexican-Americans who live in the United States and ran for office here in Sunday’s national elections.

Another candidate, Jose Jacques Medina, is awaiting late returns to see if he too will win a seat in the 500-member Congress.

The two are among the leaders of a group of Mexican-Americans, backed by Mexico’s No. 3 political party, who believe that Mexico’s political future is tied to voters on the top side of the Rio Grande.

“There are 23 million Mexicans in the U.S. that need a voice in Mexico,” said Mr. de la Cruz, 53. “Right now, we have a great opportunity to take advantage of that.”

Mexicans and people of Mexican descent now make up the largest and fastest-growing minority group in the United States, creating inextricable bonds between the two nations and the 400 million people who make them up.

Last year, Mexicans in the United States sent nearly $10 billion in remittances to Mexico, while pacts such as the North American Free Trade Agreement make the countries more reliant upon one another than ever before.

And with Mexico’s economy stagnant, hundreds of thousands of Mexicans come into the United States illegally every year.

For Mr. de la Cruz and Mr. Medina, the political relationships between the countries, which have been far from smooth over the past two years, are fast blending together as well.

Roughly 2 million Mexican-Americans are citizens of both nations. In all, 10 million Mexicans living in the United States are eligible to vote in Mexican elections.

Beyond that, however, nearly 20 percent of all Mexicans live in the United States, said Mr. Medina, a labor organizer born in Mexico City who fled north in the early 1970s after being accused of political crimes.

He pledges to remain in his Maywood, Calif., home, should he gain a congressional seat.

“I am Mexican, but I will always live in California, fighting for the emigrant Mexicans who live here.”

Chief among the issues pushed by Mr. de la Cruz and Mr. Medina is securing the vote for more Mexicans living abroad in time for the 2006 elections.

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