What a Mexican-born High School Student in L.A. Makes of the Mexican Election

Luis is a Mexican-born, high school junior in Los Angeles.

He’s one of the more than a million undocumented young people growing up in the US today.

Luis’s parents brought him with them from Nayarit, Mexico when he was only 10-months-old.

Luis narrates his own tale as part of a new story-telling project called Sonic Trace.

Read the Transcript
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Marco Werman: I’m Marco Werman. This is The World. Mexico elects a new president on Sunday. It could be a key moment in Mexican history. Polls suggest the vote will mark the return to power of The PRI, the party that ruled Mexico for most of the 20th century. The significance isn’t all that evident, though, to Luis, a Mexican-born high school junior in Los Angeles. As part of the storytelling project Sonic Trace, Luis set out to understand why the vote in Mexico is important.

Luis: Since I was really little, I lived in Los Angeles, but my mom and dad are Mexicans. I wasn’t born here. We came from Nayarit. My parents brought me over when I was only 10 months old. That’s why you didn’t hear me say my last name, because I’m undocumented. I have a younger brother and two younger sisters.

Jesus: My name is Jesus, and I’m Luis’s brother, and I was born in the United States.

Sylvia: My name is Sylvia. I was born in Los Angeles.

Luis’s sister: I’m Luis’s sister.

Luis: They were born here, so they’re American citizens, and after Obama’s executive order a couple of weeks ago, it’s looking like maybe I’ll be able to work something out. One thing I know is that I consider myself an American. I’m not a Mexican. I’ve only been to Mexico once for Christmas vacation. I’m not even going to say anything about how I got back across the border. But here’s the thing: I know I’m not Mexican. I mean, I really don’t know much about Mexico. For instance, did you know they have a presidential election coming? It’s this Sunday. A couple of months ago, I didn’t know the candidates, nothing. Then one night in my house, we had the Mexican presidential debates on.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: There are three main parties in this election: PRI, PAN, and PRD.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: My dad belongs to the PRI. I asked him why, and he says because of tradition.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: He’s saying how his father and his grandfather were PRIstas, that’s why. I asked him about the candidates I watched in the debate. He said he didn’t know anything about the candidate. He voted for the PRI party back when he was in Mexico and his party is a PRI. He’s going to vote PRI no matter what. He said if I’m so curious, I should go find out myself. I decided to go over to UCLA to talk to someone about this issue.

Gaspar Rivera-Salgado: My name is Gaspar Rivera-Salgado I’m a project director at UCLA Labor Center. I’m from Oaxaca, and I came to the United States when I was 20 years old.

Luis: So why does the Mexican elections matter for Los Angeles?

Rivera-Salgado: For many different reasons, but the most important one is that Los Angeles is the second-largest Mexican city anywhere. It is so important that all three potential candidates have been through here. So it’s interesting how our lives or the lives of Mexicans here is linked to the lives of Mexicans over there. I think Mexicans who are here have a very strong persuasion power with their families at home. Whatever happens, this can affect us. All of us have family at home. All of us, you know. The political future of Mexico is going to impact us directly.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: I figured that if what Gaspar was saying is true, I better learn a little more about this presidential election. I heard about a demonstration here in LA against the PRI and its candidate, Enrique Pena Nieto.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: He’s leading all the polls, and he’s expected to win. The demonstrators were calling for balanced media coverage. They were also demanding free and fair balloting on July 1st, Mexico’s election day. I found out that when the PRI held onto power in Mexico for 71 years, they were known for cracking down on their political challengers and for election fraud. Pena Nieto is running as a new PRI, but this crowd in downtown in LA was still focused on the one they remember. The old PRI. A PRI they didn’t want to go back to.

[Speaking Spanish]

Luis: So what would make people like my dad back the PRI if the PRI was all the things they were saying? I got the number for an expert on the PRI and on Mexican politics in general. She’s Denise Dresser, a university professor in Mexico City.

Denise Dresser: Hello.

Luis: Hello, Dr. Dresser. So, I still don’t know why they’re so scared of La PRI winning and coming back in power.

Dresser: Well, I think that this comes from the fact that you didn’t live in Mexico under the PRI’s rule. Because the PRI had a reputation for being a very corrupt party, for being a very authoritarian party, for suppressing freedom of expression and it was a party that, in the past, used repression and used authoritarian means to stifle opposition. So many young Mexicans feel that they wouldn’t benefit in a country ruled by a party that just hasn’t really modernized itself. There are many accusations of the PRI’s involvement with drug trafficking and with political protection for drug traffickers. And I think that this combination, this very toxic combination, is what is leading Mexican youth to rebel against the possibility of a PRI, an unreformed PRI, coming back into office.

Luis: I wanted to get the other side of the story. I found a PRI spokesman here in Los Angeles.

Francisco Flores: My name is Francisco Flores. I have been practicing law in the private sector for 12 years. I was born and grew up in Mexico until about 17, and then I moved to the United States to go to college.

Luis: So do you consider yourself a PRIsta?

Flores: Yeah, I’ve been a member of that party ever since I started, you know, participating in politics. To deny the mistakes of my party would be just ridiculous and silly.

Luis: When I was interviewing some other people, it seems like they’re all afraid of La PRI coming back into power. Why is that?

Flores: There is a concern that if the PRI comes back again, the PRI is going to behave with the old vices. But nowadays, it’s a different party because of the electoral system in Mexico. There is real competition. Before, when the PRI was the only party that existed in Mexico, the PRI control the legislative branch, the Senate and the Congress, and the executive branch, and whomever wins this election is going to face real opposition in Congress. He’s going to have to work on a shared agenda. There’s going to be people who are going to point out his mistakes, which means there’s going to be some checks and balances. But we need to get to the real debate, which is why is it that it doesn’t matter who gets into power, the level of corruption in this country remains the same or gets worse.

Luis: So there is one more guy I needed to talk to: another expert on Mexican politics, Jose Marino. He’s also a university professor in Mexico City.

Jose Marino: You know, I’ve been thinking about whether or not you should care about the election, and the more I think about it, the more I think you just shouldn’t, really. You’ve been betrayed by the Mexican government. This is still a country that is not taking care of the things that made your parents go to the US in the first place. Are you going to be the first college graduate in your family?

Luis: Yeah, I am.

Marino: Well, if I have to think about it, I think Mexico needs you more than you need Mexico. So you have another questions, Luis?

Luis: Well, out of curiosity, why do you stay in Mexico?

Marino: I never asked myself that question, let’s see. I don’t know if you have a place on Earth that you can feel your own, where you are completely comfortable. Do you have that place?

Luis: Yeah.

Marino: Well, that’s Mexico City for me. It’s the place where I can feel I can be my best.

Luis: Like me right here. I think LA’s the place where I feel better.

Werman: Luis is an undocumented high school student in Los Angeles. His story was produced by Sonic Trace and the Independent Producer Project at station KCRW in Santa Monica. It is part of Localore, an initiative of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. By the way, check out our profiles of Mexican voters and get updates on the Mexican election this weekend from reporter Myles Estey on Twitter. That’s all at theworld.org.

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Sonic Trace is produced by Anayansi Diaz-Cortes and Eric Pearse-Chavez. It is part of Localore, an initiative of the Association of Independents in Radio (AIR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. It’s home is KCRW’s Independent Producer Project.