MEXICO CITY — California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is one of a new generation of Spanish-speaking politicians who represent an increasingly potent Latino constituency. But somewhere between Sacramento and Mexico City, his goodwill message got lost in translation.
Nunez landed in Mexico this week with the best of intentions: strengthening ties with the country, California's largest trading partner, and addressing the thorny issue of illegal immigration. He worked with a local public relations man to spread his message to as many people as possible: that immigrants were a precious California resource and that the two nations must work together to protect their future.
But two days into his whirlwind schedule of radio and TV appearances -- as well as a private meeting with President Vicente Fox -- Nunez was spending most of his time trying to explain his demand that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declare a state of emergency along California's 142-mile border.
Even worse, Mexicans here say, was the speaker's insistence that Schwarzenegger -- who this spring praised the "Minuteman" campaign along the U.S.-Mexico border -- was a caring person.
"Where does this guy stand?" asked Ulises Canchola Gutierrez, a foreign ministry official. "He supports a state of emergency. He says Arnold is not so bad. I'm confused."
Unlike many other Mexican American politicians -- including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- Nunez speaks Spanish that is almost eloquent. He spent much of his childhood in Tijuana. But his fluency in cross-border politics, at least from the Mexican prospective, is under question.
His call last week for Schwarzenegger to declare a state of emergency was seen in California as putting pressure on the Bush administration to acknowledge the steep costs shouldered by border states. Similar declarations this month by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano made headlines and freed up about $2 million.
Here, it was interpreted as another slap in the face.
"Last week I got a report on the number of deaths in Calexico, and after seeing the loss of life, I called on the governor to act," Nunez said during questioning by businessmen and academicians at a breakfast meeting Friday. "I'm not blaming Mexico. I've spent the last 24 hours trying to explain it."
But to many Mexicans, the demand for cheap labor and illegal drugs by Americans on one hand, and the demand to seal the border on the other are at best a contradiction -- and at worst, hypocrisy.
