Los Angeles County is home to the US’s largest Mexican diaspora – around 3.5 million according to the 2010 census.
There was a huge opportunity for many LA County residents to vote in this year’s Mexican election that will usher in the first woman President in Mexico’s history: Claudia Sheinbaum. But despite the potential ability to vote in this election on June 2nd, many struggled to do so either because they could not register to vote in time, did not have enough information about the candidates, or were unable to complete their dual citizenship process.
This is the first year that the consulate in the US offered in-person voting. In 2021 a constitutional amendment approved by the Mexican government went into effect allowing any foreign-born persons who are descendants of Mexicans to claim citizenship without generational restrictions. This has opened the door to millions of 2nd and 3rd generation Mexican-Americans living in LA.
Becoming a registered Mexican voter depends on a person’s current citizenship status in Mexico. If you are already a Mexican citizen, you simply need proof of citizenship such as a birth certificate or passport, a current photo ID, and proof of your current address like a bill.
You can vote in a Mexican election with your INE card from abroad by registering online to select voting by mail-in ballot, online voting or in person. To register for the INE cards, you can schedule an appointment to by calling the Mexican consulate at 1-424-309-0009 or call the Mexican election authority, the Instituto Nacional Electoral, at 1-866-986-8306.
In this election, approximately 1,362 people had registered to vote in advance, according to the Mexican Consulate, but only 1,500 ballots were made available for non-registered voters at the consulate building.
A first ballot
Geraldine Guzman grew up going back and forth between Mexico and the U.S. Her parents registered her and her sister as dual citizens before they were 18. They have Instituto Nacional Electoral cards, which you can obtain at no cost by appointment at any consulate with proper documentation proving your Mexican Citizenship and allowing you to vote in the US and Mexico. This was her first time voting in a Mexican election and she voted in person at the Mexican Consulate on election day.
Guzman said that researching the many parties and candidates sent her down a rabbit hole and the most reliable source of information on Mexican politics for her was the current Mexican president’s daily press conferences (referred to as the mañanera or morning show).
That said, Guzman also talks about Mexican policies and politicians with her parents, aunts, and uncles, who often tell her that the Morena party, the current party in power, is helping the Mexican community. Morena was founded in 2011 by current and outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and is the party of the incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum.
Guzman and her family had heard the amount of ballots available might be limited, so they arrived at the consulate at 5 a.m. and cast their ballots 6 hours later at 11 a.m.
She said the process was strange and not what she expected.
“Maybe I took for granted how much information we have ahead of time for the [US] elections here,” she said.
Guzman ended up voting at the consulate, but scores of other voters struggled.
“Maybe they weren’t thinking there would be that many people,” Guzman said.
According to LAist, the consulate had only 9 voting booths in operation on the day of the election to serve thousands of voters from LA County. There were also no clear instructions on the voting procedures or how to fill out the ballot ahead of time, leaving thousands with no way to vote once the 5 p.m. voting deadline came.
What’s changed for voters in Los Angeles?
The process for Dual Nationality for Mexicans born abroad has not always been as straightforward as it is now – and even so, there are still challenges.
Mildred Fernandez is a potential voter living in LA who has been trying for years to get her dual citizenship paperwork so that she can participate in Mexican politics and receive benefits.
Her mother is Mexican but her father, who she is estranged from, is not. This has presented some issues because she is required to bring legal documents pertaining to both parents’ nationalities, passports, and marriage certificates regardless of their nationality.
“From my personal experience, there’s a lot of red tape,” she said of her first attempt to register as a citizen.
Fernandez thinks she may want to move to Mexico someday due to the ever-increasing cost of living in the US and the many social welfare benefits that current Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum have proposed.
“Mexico is looking really good and I love Mexico,” she said. “It’s starting to look like the [American] dream is in Mexico actually.”
In April of this year, the Senate passed a unanimous vote to also streamline the process for registering a foreign-born child as a Mexican citizen by only requiring the foreign birth certificate of the child and certificates of the Mexican-born parent.
Fernandez has not been able to acquire the documents she needs and is hoping to find another solution.
She didn’t realize that being able to vote in a Mexican election was possible until recently.
“I feel like now that I know that I have that right I’m definitely going to get up to date and get more involved,” she said.“It makes a lot of sense because there is a huge diaspora here from Mexico so it should be a right for us.”
Morena Placita Olvera & Huntington Park
Julio M. Ramirez was one of the voters who struggled to vote in person. He said he was not able to register to vote ahead of time so his only option was to attempt to vote in person at the Los Angeles Mexican Consulate location.
Ramirez felt certain that the consulate was not prepared for the number of unregistered voters like himself that he expected to show up at the polls on June 2. Thousands of people lined up at the Mexican consulate to cast their votes.
Ramirez likes to keep informed about the candidates and policies by attending meetings with Morena Placita Olvera, a group working to activate people in LA and get them involved in the Mexican political process. This group is named after the Morena political party.
“Many Mexican origin people do not have any voting rights, so voting in the Mexican election is an important exercise of the human right to vote, it is important to exercise the vote to achieve positive change,” said Rodolfo Cortes Barragan, one of the members of Morena Placita Olvera that’s bringing civic participation events to Huntington Park.
Barragan helps lead some of the educational events that generally focus on Mexico’s political history as it relates to current events. Most recently, the group held an informational session that showcased the Morena Party candidate prior to the election. The group also held a screening of the Netflix documentary series 1994, which centers around the assassination of then-Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio and the Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) that was set to undergo massive change under Colosio.
“We focus a lot on the youth, we encourage all of them to get their dual citizenship,” said Higinio Pedraza Hernandez, one of Morena Placita Olvera’s leaders. “Mexico is their parents’ country and it is their heritage and they have those same rights to vote in Mexico as they do in the US.”
The organization is entirely volunteer according to Hernandez, who can often be found at Placita Olvera and the Mexican Consulate standing in front of political signage about candidates and policies in Mexico or on in Huntington Park waving a burgundy Morena flag above his head in front of the Gallo Giro and answering questions people may have about Mexican politics.
Mexican politics can be overwhelming for new voters in the US, given that many countries like the US operate on a two-party system. Mexico currently has 7 active parties: Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), Partido Acción Nacional (PAN), and Partido de la Revolución Democrática (PRD) are currently in a coalition – while the Morena party stands with Partido del Trabajo (PT) and the Partido Verde Ecologista de México (PVEM).
Barragan and Daniel Chavez, other Morena Placita Olvera members, are aiming to bring more events focused on Mexico’s political history and current events to Southeast LA in the future.
Chavez was not able to vote in this past election because he hadn’t yet become a dual citizen. His parents are from Durango and Michoacan, both places that he has not traveled to much but wants to in the future.
Chavez said that he’s hopeful: They believe that for the first time in 80 years, Mexican politics is stepping away from the two-party back-and-forth that they believe did not serve the majority of Mexicans.
“There is a new stage of development in Mexico, it’s a great time to actually be optimistic about the political situation and get more involved,” said Chavez.
Since Guzman wanted more information on the election than just her family, she was excited to hear that a group like Morena Placita Olvera existed.
“I love that,” she said. “To have more support in my own community where I spend most of my time is pretty good to have, in a sense, a support group…giving you some orientation.”
Guzman wants to hear different perspectives to make her own choices.
“We’re a different generation who want to see something else in Mexico,” she said. “We just want a better Mexico.”