By Natasha Korecki
Daily Herald Staff Writer
Thursday, November 20, 2003

On a warm Sunday afternoon, former Mexican presidential candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas Solorzano works the crowd.

A powerful force in politics, Solorzano shakes hands with Mexican workers. He's talking to more than 500 Michoacanos about employment and investment in Mexico.

But he's not in Mexico.

Like the centerpiece of many Mexican towns, the church tower bell sits atop the town of Ecuandureo, Michoacan.

Cardenas is standing just a few miles from Woodfield Shopping Center, in the Ned Brown Forest Preserve in Rolling Meadows.

It's one event in a weeklong series that Mexican fund-raising clubs hold each year to raise money and celebrate the Michoacán culture.

The forest preserve event mixes politics with feasting. A cook grabs a handful of seasoned pork and spreads it over a giant grill. The food sizzles, sending steam into the air. The spicy aroma lures people.

They buy pork tacos, burritos, soda and Jarritos, a flavored Mexican soda. Some of the proceeds from the food sales will help fund projects in Michoacán.

"Events like this allow unity. It allows us to better get to know each other," Cardenas says, his voice booming out of tall speakers. "It opens opportunities for our youth and for adults."

Another event, held near the Pilsen neighborhood in Chicago, drew families in part because of the traditional dance called "Toritos de Petate."

Like people in Chicago's Chinatown taking turns dancing under a giant dragon, Mexicans take turns wearing a colorful decorative bull costume dancing to the beat of blasting horns and thrashing drums.

Though many of those donating money to the clubs are low-wage earners in the United States, the improvements they've paid to build in their hometowns give them a power beyond their means.

Government officials value the investment immigrants made in their towns. They also value the political influence club members have over voters back in Mexico, said Gerardo Torres, spokesman for the Michoacan federation.

Today, the Michoacán federation is moving toward more self-sustaining projects, such as building greenhouses to grow tomatoes or updating farming equipment - just about anything that will bring jobs and scale back immigration.

In the forest preserve, members of the mostly male audience walk right up to Cardenas, father of Lazaro Cardenas, governor of Michoacán.

It's an access to public officials club members feel they do not have with U.S. officials.

They had to travel hundreds of miles, often illegally, to a foreign country to attain it.