Mexico’s mighty diaspora punches below its weight in elections
But its participation is steadily increasing
DURING MEXICO’S presidential election campaign in 2000, Vicente Fox, the winning candidate, rode a horse through Chicago’s Little Village neighbourhood. He wore a cowboy hat, true to his roots as a rancher in Guanajuato state. He wasn’t asking for votes—back then, Mexico’s diaspora had no voting rights—but he distributed phone cards and told Chicagoans to ring their families in Mexico and tell them to vote for him. Members of the diaspora were enfranchised in 2005. On June 2nd they will vote in record numbers.
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This article appeared in the The Americas section of the print edition under the headline “The Californian vote bank”
From the May 25th 2024 edition
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