The New State Line.

Mexican states are opening U.S. offices to push trade and investment opportunities, not just culture.

PATRICIA HERRERA'S OFFICE LOOKS more like a Red Cross relief station than a Mexican state's trade office. Its entryway is piled high with shopping bags and boxes of food, apple juice and other provisions for the flood victims in the southeastern state of Tabasco. But, in the midst of all this are examples of Mexican products, from woven dresses from Oaxaca to silver works from Guerrero. Herrera, the office's director, breezes in, apologizing for being 30 minutes late. "Things have been a little crazy," she says, catching her breath.

Herrera is one-woman trade representative for Mexico. Over the past 10 years, she has, at one time or another, represented three Mexican states in the United States--Oaxaca, Guerrero and Tabasco. She's now bidding for more, including Veracruz, Puebla and Coahuila. "These states need promotion in the US.," she says. "I'm like their liaison."

Under President Ernesto Zedillo, Mexico's very centralized federal government has been throwing power, funding and responsibility to its 31 states and the Federal District. To boost trade, investment and tourism, many state bureaucrats are opening trade offices north of the border and tapping well-connected people like Herrera to run them.

While several Mexican states have long had a U.S. presence, their "casas," or houses, have largely been aimed at promoting tourism and culture. Now, the state offices are trying to attract big business in trade and investment.

Nuevo Leon, for example, recently reopened its "casa" in San Antonio, Texas, to focus on trade, instead of the old emphasis on culture alone. Three years ago, Guanajuato--led by its trade-minded governor and presidential wannabe, Vicente Fox-- opened an office in New York City; it subsequently opened one each in Dallas and Los Angeles. Last fall, Yucatan and Campeche opened trade offices in Miami, and Tabasco is coming soon. "With Nafta, all these states are trying to get known," says Marco Dosal, press attache for the Mexican consulate in Houston.

The 49-year-old Herrera is an old hand when it comes to representing Mexico's states in Houston, rubbing elbows with government officials, wheeling and dealing with local businessmen and leading trade missions to her states. In conversation, she casually drops the names of several local power brokers. She was even named businesswoman of the year by Houston's Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in 1997.

How did Herrera get into the "case" business? Once an aide to the wife of former Mexican President Luis Echeverria (1970-76), Herrera moved to Texas 20 years ago with her husband. She went to work for the Mexican consulate but later quit to raise her children. When they grew older, Herrera decided she wanted to go back to work. Reluctant to return to the consulate, she started talking to officials from her mother's home state of Guerrero about how she could represent them in the United States. They agreed to let her open a trade office in 1993. Neighboring Oaxaca signed up in 1995 and Tabasco in 1996.

Herrera says she has accomplished much over the last seven years. Her efforts have spanned everything from convincing former Houston Mayor Bob Lanier to institute Guerrero Day (Nov. 12, 1993), Oaxaca Day (Aug. 15, 1995) and Tabasco Day (Nov. 15, 1996) to lobbying Continental Airlines and AeroMexico for more flights and better connections to and from Mexico. She has also helped Qaxacan products, such as premium mezcal 1001 Platinum, find U.S. distribution, she says.

Here today, gone tomorrow. Like all state representatives, Herrera's fortunes are subject to political winds in Mexico. After the change in governor in Guerrero, her US$5,000 a month in funding suddenly stopped coming. Oaxaca, which also had a change in government, later pulled out as well. Herrera says the move has stung: A year ago, Continental dropped its service from Houston to Huatulco. (A Continental spokesperson says the airline makes decisions based on economics, not lobbyists.)

The biggest problem these state offices have had is staying power. When the director of Casa Tamaulipas in San Antonio died last summer, the state closed the office because it couldn't find a replacement. "It takes two years to get people to know you exist," Herrera says. "Then in five years, they cut you."

But promoters are undeterred. Patricia Chapa, who worked for Monterrey's exhibition center and helped set up the Canadian consulate there, was enlisted by the state of Nuevo Leon--under conservative National Action Party (PAN) Governor Fernando Canales--to establish a trade office in San Antonio. She opened in a limited way in June and now oversees a staff of three. So far, she's been meeting with companies in San Antonio and Austin and different chambers of commerce.

"We want to help American companies invest in Nuevo Leon and Nuevo Leon companies sell their products in Texas," she says. That is, until the next Mexican state government comes around. Then she could be pushing trade between Texas and, who knows, Tlaxcala.