The Tomato King's Triumphant Return To Mexico

by Diego Cevallos

(IPS) MEXICO CITY -- Andres Bermudez was a Mexican peasant when he crossed the border into the United States 30 years ago, stowed away in a car trunk. Today he is a successful commercial farmer who has returned to hometown to run for mayor and, he says, "do what the Mexican politicians can't."

At 53, this semi-literate man who earned the nickname "Tomato King" for his success as a tomato grower in the United States, could become the first Mexican peasant emigrant to return home to hold an elected post.

"I am the hope of thousands of immigrants in the United States who have achieved their dream and who want to return to help their fellow Mexicans who have suffered so much," Bermudez told IPS.

He wants to be mayor of Jerez, a town of 54,000 people in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas.

Towards that end, he will run in the Feb. 15 internal elections of the left-leaning Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD), competing with several mayoral aspirants to represent the party in the municipal elections slated for July.

In fact, Bermudez has already won the Jerez mayoral race, back in 2001. He ran as the PRD candidate, but he was not allowed to take office. The electoral tribunal annulled his victory because he did not meet the one-year residency requirement.

"They betrayed me, but now I am back and -- whether for the PRD or some other party -- I am going to win the mayorship of Jerez, this hometown of mine that suffers so," said this portly, good-natured man, whose wardrobe preferences tend to cowboy hats and boots.

The Tomato King has not abandoned his residence on his farmland in California. However, he can once again run for office because the electoral law was reformed. Now any returning emigrant can become a candidate, as long as he or she has not renounced Mexican nationality.

"I am an example of the success of Mexican immigrants in the United States. I already have fame and money, so I haven't come back to Mexico to steal power. I am only interested in serving my 'paisanos' and doing what the local politicians can't," he said.

And thanks to his fame and fortune, Bermudez today rubs elbows with many politicians in Mexico, who see him as a means for reaching the immigrants in the neighboring northern country, but also for reaching the U.S. politicians who seek the votes of Latin American immigrants.

Mexican lawmakers are currently discussing the possibility of reforming laws in order to allow Mexican emigrants to vote from abroad in Mexico's presidential elections.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government and legislators are drafting laws aimed at regularising the work status of immigrants.

In the United States, the population of Latin American origins has increased exponentially since the 1970s, reaching more than 35.5 million in a country of more than 290 million people. And there are an estimated 25 million of Mexican origin, a group that has more and more electoral and economic weight.

"When I arrived in California in 1974, hidden in the trunk of a car, I worked as a 'piscador', a fruit harvester, and they worked me like a dog. But now they seek me out and they even admire me," said the Tomato King.

"If the PRD chooses me as its candidate, that's great, but if not, you can be sure I'll go with another party, because there is no doubt that I'll win the mayor's seat," he said.

Several polls indicate that Bermudez indeed has an excellent chance of repeating his victory in Jerez, one of the main cities of Zacatecas, a state that sees more than 15,000 people emigrate to the United States each year.

"It is unacceptable that Jerez keeps losing so many people. That is why I want to be mayor. They'll soon see that I will bring businesses, machinery, I'll build roads and I will help, unlike the politicians from here, who are only interested in stealing," he told IPS in a telephone interview.

Bermudez says he achieved the "American dream" through "luck and courage."

"When you go to work on a farm in the United States and you see that the bosses drive with their dogs beside them inside the trucks, while the Mexicans ride in back... that builds nerve."

"With that courage I began to climb and climb. In about five years I went from farm labourer to more success. I arrived like any illegal immigrant, and the 'migra' immigration police caught me a couple times," he says.

"Now I have more than 700 acres (283 hectares) of land and greenhouses in California. I grow tomatoes, chillies, and I have many plum and peach orchards."

Despite his own success in the United States, the Tomato King does not recommend that his fellow Mexicans follow the route he took to that country.

"Today you risk your life in the attempt to cross the border illegally, and once there they treat you poorly, they abuse you, and you have to work without rest."

In the last three years, more than 1,500 Mexicans have died trying to enter the United States illegally. Since the early 1990s, the U.S. border controls have become increasingly strict.

"That is why I have come to win the mayor's seat in Jerez: to generate work, to put a stop to so much emigration of Mexicans, people who have so much to give their own country," he said.

"If I do a good job in Jerez, the door will open for other emigrants who want to return to Mexico to help. I don't mean to sound arrogant when I say that I am the hope of thousands of Mexicans in the United States."