Born in the Baja town of Guymas, Luisa MartÃnez lived in
Mexico for 18 years before enrolling in a San Diego junior
college.
Yet, when MartÃnez, now a 24-year-old UCLA student, votes
for the first time in this year’s Mexican presidential
election, she will be participating in the political process of a
country she never plans to live in again.
MartÃnez is part of a small minority of Mexicans living in
the United States who are both eligible to vote and intend to do
so. Though Mexican officials have approved absentee voting by
immigrants living in the United States, the convoluted process to
register to vote and obtain a ballot has discouraged many eligible
voters.
But as the July 2 election will be the first in Mexico’s
history to extend voting privileges to Mexicans living outside
Mexican borders, the expatriates who do plan on voting often have
to seek out resources to learn about Mexican politics.
On campus, the Latin American Center started the Program on
Mexico, a series of talks by representatives from the major Mexican
political parties to address issues relevant to the election.
MartÃnez attended a December teleconference with
presidential candidate Felipe Calderón put on as part of the
Program on Mexico series. She said she regularly checks the
Internet to learn about the platforms of the candidates.
This election will be the first since the National Action
Party’s Vicente Fox in 2000 replaced the Institutional
Revolutionary Party ““ the PRI ““ which had ruled Mexico
uninterrupted for 71 years. Fox is not running again because
Mexican law forbids presidents from succeeding themselves.
For this election, MartÃnez said security issues are
important in determining her vote. She listed kidnapping and
robbery as significant concerns for her when she visits Mexico. And
in order to vote, MartÃnez decided she will go to Mexico and
vote in person.
With her older brother in San Diego, only MartÃnez’s
mother and father still live in Mexico, and despite her dual
citizenship, MartÃnez has no desire to return to Mexico
permanently. She cited crime as a primary factor for not
returning.
But as long as her parents are there, she feels the duty to vote
in Mexico’s elections.
“My parents live in Mexico and what affects them affects
me,” she said.
For many Mexican immigrants, the link to Mexico is also
strong.
In a survey released last week by the Washington-based Pew
Hispanic Center, 58 percent of Mexicans living in the United States
said they had sent money to someone in Mexico in the past year.
That number jumps to 65 percent among those who are eligible to
vote in Mexico.
In 2004 alone, expatriates sent nearly $17 billion home to
Mexico.
But this financial link does not necessarily translate to
political participation.
In the Pew poll, over half of Mexicans living in the United
States said they were unaware that the presidential election will
be held this year. And only 31 percent said they have the
credential needed to vote in Mexico.
Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, former president of the PRI and
founding member of the center-left Democratic Revolution Party
““ the PRD ““ said keeping track of eligible voters
living abroad has been a major problem as Mexican officials try to
give expatriates the opportunity to vote.
“It’s a national disaster,” said Muñoz
Ledo, who spoke on campus Thursday as part of the Program on Mexico
series. “The problem was the Mexicans abroad were not on any
list. … We don’t know how many Mexicans have voting
credentials and are living in the United States.”
Alfonso Galindo, head of the UCLA office in Mexico, cited
problems with voting credentials as a major impediment to voting
for many Mexican immigrants. Many immigrants, he said, have either
lost their credential or left it in Mexico, so Mexican citizens
would have to go to Mexico to obtain a new card ““ which is
required to vote.
“How many people do you think would go back to Mexico to
get a voting card? Nobody,” Galindo said. In addition to the
impracticality of returning to Mexico for a card, Galindo said many
immigrants may not have the required documents to easily or legally
traverse the border.
When the Mexican Congress voted last June to allow absentee
voting, officials predicted about 400,000 of the estimated 4
million eligible voters living in the United States would request
ballots. But as the Jan. 15 deadline to apply for an absentee
ballot came and went, fewer than 60,000 people requested
ballots.
Eleuteria Hernández, student affairs officer for the UCLA
Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies, filed the paperwork to
vote by absentee ballot, but she said she does not know if the
ballot will actually arrive.
“(I) sent out the forms. From there I have no idea if
they’re going to send us a ballot,” Hernández
said. She moved to the United States from her home in Jalisco,
Mexico when she was 17, but said she has maintained Mexican
citizenship.
Mexican government officials plan to begin mailing the ballots
next month.
This election looks to continue Mexico’s historic shift
away from the Official Party. Andrés Manuel López Obrador
of the PRD currently leads in the polls with 39 percent of the
vote. Calderón of the PAN is second with 34 percent and the
PRI’s Roberto Madrazo trails both with 25 percent.
Next Wednesday the Program on Mexico will bring Juan
Hernández, a representative of Calderón’s campaign,
to campus. The following day, Rosario Green, a representative of
Madrazo’s campaign, will appear.