Jose Jacques Medina

A West Los Angeles man apparently will become the first person living abroad to be elected to the Mexican Congress. Eddie Varon Levy, a 42-year-old businessman, is expected to join Mexico's lower house under the banner of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost its grip on the presidency for the first time in 71 years.

A West Los Angeles man apparently will become the first person living abroad to be elected to the Mexican Congress. Eddie Varon Levy, a 42-year-old businessman, is expected to join Mexico's lower house under the banner of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which lost its grip on the presidency for the first time in 71 years.

Jose Jacques Medina did not flee Mexico in search of work or opportunity. He left because he knew what might happen if he stayed. In 1973, he was a 28-year-old attorney, a leader of the Mexican student movement fighting for democracy and workers' rights. That year, he was arrested and accused of attempting to kidnap the dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Jacques Medina faced a harsh choice: If he stayed, he could be killed or imprisoned.

Jose Jacques Medina did not flee Mexico in search of work or opportunity. He left because he knew what might happen if he stayed. In 1973, he was a 28-year-old attorney, a leader of the Mexican student movement fighting for democracy and workers' rights. That year, he was arrested and accused of attempting to kidnap the dean of the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City. Jacques Medina faced a harsh choice: If he stayed, he could be killed or imprisoned.

President Vicente Fox, answering criticism that he had tuned out the voices of Mexican immigrants in the United States, announced the creation of a Cabinet-level agency Tuesday to lobby for the interests of Mexico's 22 million citizens abroad. Fox told 400 Mexican American leaders that he would head the new National Council of Mexican Communities Abroad and soon appoint a Mexican living outside the country to coordinate its advocacy and assistance programs.

Quick with a joke and passionate about public policy on both sides of the border, West Los Angeles businessman Eddie Varon Levy embodies the growing influence that Mexican expatriates have on the political scene back home. After a historic election last week that ended the 71-year rule of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, Varon--a 42-year-old U.S.

The organizers of the Latino march and rally in Washington, who were told it couldn't be done, are pretty satisfied with themselves. Getting 20,000 to 30,000 people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Central American and Cuban descent together for the march--and wide media coverage--was no easy task. "It was an unprecedented success," says Juan Jose Gutierrez of Los Angeles, the lead coordinator of the event that drew thousands of participants from across Southern California.

Step aside, Al Gore and George W. Bush. In the next few days, California will become the battleground for a different presidential race. In the most dramatic sign yet of post-NAFTA political change, two of Mexico's three major presidential aspirants will arrive Sunday in Los Angeles for campaign swings. Their goal is to win over an increasingly important Mexican constituency: emigrants to the U.S. Most U.S.

The organizers of the Latino march and rally in Washington, who were told it couldn't be done, are pretty satisfied with themselves. Getting 20,000 to 30,000 people of Mexican, Puerto Rican, Dominican, Central American and Cuban descent together for the march--and wide media coverage--was no easy task. "It was an unprecedented success," says Juan Jose Gutierrez of Los Angeles, the lead coordinator of the event that drew thousands of participants from across Southern California.

"How many of you have relatives on the other side of the border?" the guest from California asked 200 fellow Mexicans at a political rally here. At least 50 hands went up and the visitor, newly energized, railed against the plight of undocumented Mexicans in the U.S. "Migrants are treated like criminals there," Jose Jacques Medina declared, and they need one of their own -- namely, himself -- to represent them in the Mexican Congress.

Immigration activist Manuel de la Cruz, who swam across the Rio Grande 30 years ago and raised a family in Norwalk, has become the first U.S. citizen to hold a seat in Mexico's Congress. De la Cruz, who was elected on a slate to the Congress' lower house Sunday, is one of six Mexican expatriates who sought legislative seats from homes north of the border. Their goal, they say, is to give political clout to the millions of Mexican immigrants who send regular financial aid to their home states.