Abstract

BAKKER, Matt  and  SMITH, Michael Peter. El Rey del Tomate: Migrant Political Transnationalism and Democratization in Mexico. Migr. Inter [online]. 2003, vol.2, n.1, pp.59-83. ISSN 2594-0279.

The highly publicized transnational political campaign of Andrés Bermúdez, who ran for mayor of Jerez, Zacatecas, is considered in terms of a continuum of theoretical frameworks on democratic theory and practice. Grounded in intensive qualitative interviews with key participants in the campaign, the study addresses the following questions: To what extent does the Bermúdez candidacy contribute to opening up the Mexican political system to the electoral participation of migrants? What implications do the political processes revealed here have for full-scale dual citizenship, including absentee voting and transnational campaigning by Mexican migrants living in the United States? What does the Bermúdez story contribute to our theoretical understanding of the character and significance of migrant political transnationalism at the present moment? Answers to these questions make it possible to determine the role of the Bermúdez campaign in the ongoing saga of democratization in contemporary Mexico.

Keywords : international migration; political transnationalism; dual citizenship; Andrés Bermúdez; Jerez; Zacatecas.

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