Federations give Mexicans voices

A decade ago, a small group of immigrants from Mexico united to send money back home for a bakery, baseball diamond and sewer system in their mountain village of Jalpa.

Today, that group and hundreds like it have evolved from hometown philanthropic clubs to become members of a burgeoning political network seeking to improve life for immigrants in the United States and for their families back home.

In a sign of the clubs' growing influence, a delegation of Mexican governors is scheduled to meet for the first time with a coalition of the groups in Los Angeles. The meeting, scheduled for today, will be followed by similar ones planned in Chicago, Dallas and San Antonio, Texas.

Among the issues the groups expect to discuss are President Bush's proposal of temporary work visas for illegal immigrants, legalizing voting in all Mexican elections for Mexican nationals living abroad, providing Mexican health insurance for families of immigrants, and protecting social services for all immigrants in the United States.

"This is a new stage in the evolution of political organization by Mexican immigrants," said Louis DiSipio, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Irvine. "This is the first time I've seen them getting together and working across state barriers."

Many U.S.-based immigrant rights organizations and even Mexican-American organizations have long been politically active. But these hometown groups and larger organizations called federations, which represent people from entire Mexican states, differ because many of the members are first-generation immigrants and many are not U.S. citizens.v

"You can no longer just look at the impact of the immigrants here or there," said Gonzalo Arroyo, a founder of the Michoacan federation in Aurora, Ill. "They are starting to work on both sides."

On the U.S. side, the Southern California coalition of federations helped organize a one-day work stoppage by Hispanics throughout California in December. Its members were protesting the repeal of a state law permitting illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses.

Federation leaders say they also have begun meeting with state and local officials and are planning voting drives for this year's U.S. presidential election.

Politically, their influence has grown tremendously in recent years in their home country.

Members of several clubs have run for local office in Mexico, and a number of federation leaders sit on a panel advising the Mexican government on immigrant issues.

The coalition recently called for the resignation of President Vicente Fox's foreign minister for failing to adequately support immigrants in the United States. They also have urged Fox to push for amnesty for illegal immigrants in the United States and plan to discuss that issue with the governors.

The change is all about numbers, said Jose Guadelupe Gomez, a member of the Jalpa club and president of the state of Zacatecas federation of Southern California.

The number of Mexican immigrants living in the United States nearly doubled in the last decade from 4.3 million in 1990 to an estimated 9.9 million in 2002, according to U.S. Census data. Last year, they sent between $12 billion and $14.5 billion to the Mexican economy, exceeding for the first time income from both foreign investments and tourism.

Today, that group and hundreds like it have evolved from hometown philanthropic clubs. . . .

Philanthropic clubs? If you are going to google for info use the correct name, associations. Hometown associations, HTAs. "hometown philanthropic" gets zero hits. "hometown associations" gets 1280 hits.

HTAs have been around a long time. Some of the most famous HTAs were the German Nazi HTAs.

Despite the tenor of the AP employee's typings these are well coordinated and organized efforts -- not only by the corrupt Mexican government but many other governments who have a "diaspora" program for their "citizens abroad."