Arizona Daily Star Thursday, 18 April 2002 Tucson, Arizona, USA Mexico is courting its citizens abroad By Tim Steller ARIZONA DAILY STAR It used to be that people who kept one foot on each side of the U.S.-Mexican border occupied a sort of bicultural underground. Now they are known as "binationals" and they tread exalted ground. Mexico approved dual nationality in 1998, extending citizenship to Mexicans who are naturalized in other countries and to their children. Now President Vicente Fox calls Mexican residents of the United States "heroes" and is pushing for them to be able to vote, on this side of the border, by 2006, in Mexico's next presidential election. One proposal would even give Mexicans in the United States their own seats in Mexico's Congress. In anticipation of such changes, a Mexican senator is planning to come to Tucson next month to establish an Arizona branch of his party. These changes are part of an ongoing erosion in the current definition of nationality, according to researchers, activists and binationals themselves. They say while the trend is highly visible among Mexicans in the United States, it is occurring worldwide. Some consider this erosion a threat to American national identity, or even part of a plot for Mexico to reconquer the American West. Others view it as the inevitable, beneficial result of globalization. Florencio I. Zaragoza counts himself in the latter group. He has lived in Tucson for 14 years, but ran unsuccessfully for Mexico's Congress in the district that includes his hometown, Guaymas, Sonora, in 1997 and 2000.   [ Continue............. ]