Jerez Mexico

The TV news crew set up quickly and was ready to roll when the "Tomato King" raised a big and calloused hand. Wait, he ordered. Everybody froze. An aide arrived a minute later clutching a black cowboy hat. "It's what gives a man character," the Tomato King said as he set the hat snug on his head; with another wave the mayor signaled he was ready.

The TV news crew set up quickly and was ready to roll when the "Tomato King" raised a big and calloused hand. Wait, he ordered. Everybody froze. An aide arrived a minute later clutching a black cowboy hat. "It's what gives a man character," the Tomato King said as he set the hat snug on his head; with another wave the mayor signaled he was ready.

When Pedro Correa of Costa Mesa set out Thursday morning, he thought he would be spending Thanksgiving playing baseball and eating barbecued food at a family reunion in Ventura County. But along the way, he encountered the motorist's nightmare come true. As he drove along two-lane California 126 in Fillmore, he slowed along with other traffic to creep past the scene of a grisly accident. The crumpled compact car at the side of the road looked like his brother's. It was his brother's.

Thirty years after Andres Bermudez illegally entered the United States stuffed in a car trunk, he came home this month with a marching band and dinner for everyone in his old neighborhood. Decked out in fancy Western wear, sunglasses and gold jewelry, Bermudez--now known as the "Tomato King" for the plentiful harvests on his 600-acre spread in central California's Yolo County--appealed for votes to become the town's mayor in Sunday's elections.

Like many another young Mexican, Jose Renteria journeyed to California to be a dishwasher. What the great culture-mixing machine Los Angeles made of him, however, is anything but typical. He was 15 when his father died, leaving his small auto body shop in Mexico to Jose and his brother Jesus, a year older. They couldn't keep the business going, so they left the country to support their mother and three younger sisters. Jesus found a job washing dishes at a Los Angeles restaurant.