CANDIDATE FOR MEXICAN OFFICE STUMPS IN L.A.

Byline: Jenifer Hanrahan Daily News Staff Writer

The gubernatorial candidate talked Friday about the economy and immigration. The media shot pictures and campaign assistants buzzed into cell phones.

All typical stumping. Only the candidate who stopped at an East Los Angeles country club and at California State University, Northridge, wasn't talking about California - or this country, for that matter.

Ricardo Monreal Avila is campaigning for governor of Zacatecas, a rural, economically depressed state in central Mexico - and he says Los Angeles is the place to do it.

``This is where the action is,'' said Monreal, an opposition candidate from the Party of Democratic Revolution (PRD in Spanish) and a congressman from Mexico.

``For the first time, we're coming to the United States to conquer the vote and to gain the sympathy of Zacatecanos living in the United States.''

The campaign stop coincides with a landmark Mexican law allowing millions of naturalized U.S. citizens to retain or recover their rights as Mexican nationals.

The law, which went into effect on Friday, permits Mexican-born expatriates and their children to apply for dual nationality at their local Mexican consulate. The law enhances property rights, but it does not grant full Mexican citizenship or permit absentee voting.

Still, Monreal's visit - preceded last week by Jose Olvera, a rival candidate from the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI - signals a growing realization among Mexican politicians of the importance of Mexicans living abroad, political experts said.

``I really believe this campaign is the beginning of a new era in bilateral relations because other states in Mexico will copy this example,'' said Julian Nava, former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico and a professor of history at CSUN.

About 100 people filled out forms to apply for dual nationality at the Los Angeles Consulate on Friday, said Miguel Escobar, a Mexican consul in Los Angeles.

``The Mexican government and society as a whole is responding to a long-expressed desire from Mexicans living outside of Mexico that they want to keep their ties and identity and a close relationship with their country of origin,'' Escobar said.

Previously, Mexicans who became naturalized citizens of another country relinquished their birthright. Some analysts believe this policy is in part to blame for the historically low rates of naturalization among Mexican immigrants.

Politicians such as Monreal believe the nationality law will help them woo support in the United States from their countrymen. An estimated 450,000 Zacatecanos live in the Los Angeles area. More immigrants come to the United States from this state than any other.

Many of them retain strong emotional and financial ties to their homeland. Miguel Flores of La Puente is one who listened to Monreal speak Friday. Like many others, Flores emigrated in 1960 to the United States looking for work. Working at construction job, he raised three children in Los Angeles who went to college and became professionals.

Every year, he sends several thousand dollars to relatives or churches in the depressed area. He spent nearly $20,000 to establish a restaurant in his hometown.

``It really hurt me to leave,'' he said. ``My wife and I want to go back, but now our children and grandchildren are here.''

If Zacatecanos can wield more political influence in Mexico, perhaps the economy there will improve ``so the people can fend for themselves and not be a financial burden on the people here,'' he said.

Monreal also will speak today at 1 p.m. at the Quiet Canyon Country Club in East Los Angeles.

The Zacatecas gubernatorial election set for July 5 is expected to be a hotly contested, three-way race between the PRD's Monreal, PRI's Olvera and the Party of National Action's Florencia Quezada.

While other candidates for political office in Mexico, including former presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas, have visited the United States, it is highly unusual that candidate for a state office in Mexico has come to the U.S. expressly to raise money and win votes, Nava said.

The race in Zacatecas resembles the jockeying for power occurring across Mexico between the three parties as the trend toward more competitive, multiparty politics in Mexico solidifies, said Enrique Ochoa, assistant professor of history at California State University, Los Angeles.

``If the PRD had its way, (Mexicans living abroad) would be voting,'' he said.

``Instead, the PRI came out with this weaker, dual nationality law. The PRI fears that if (Mexicans living abroad) vote, they will vote for opposition candidates. The dual nationality law allows them to address some of the concerns, but still protect themselves politically.''

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Photo, Map

PHOTO Ricardo Monreal Avila, a candidate for governor of the Mexican state of Zacatecas, makes a campaign stop Friday at CSUN.

Evan Yee/Daily News

MAP: Zacatecas, Mexico