NEW YORK _ There are two Mexicos separated by one border. And their differences are clearer day by day.
There is the Mexico over there, the one with a population of 103 million, the one immersed in the turbulence of presidential political campaigns, the one that every year tosses out (seeming not really wanting to) some of its
best workers, the one that has not quite reached modernity, the one that is always about to ... but isn't quite there yet.

        And there's the Mexico over here _ the one that we came to from over there; one that has formed itself into a kind of island with tentacles within another country, one that has made a cultural reconquest; one that has 25 million people of Mexican origin, one that dreams about the other Mexico but dares not return because ... what for?

        On these cold New York streets it is easy to find the ones that are part of the Mexico this side of the border: they're the ones who have the most difficult jobs, the ones who clean, cook and serve at restaurants, the ones who, in short, do what nobody else wants to do. And when you ask them, where are you from? The answer is nearly always the same: from Puebla, from Michoacan, from Oaxaca ... the Mexican population is the fastest growing segment in New York.

        You can also say, however, the same about California, Texas, Arizona, Illinois or North Carolina. What happens is that the Mexico this side of the border is fed by the half a million immigrants who enter the United States every year, and by all the babies who are born here of Mexican families. We are many and we will be more.

        We, the Mexicans this side of the border, keep on being connected in many ways to the Mexico on the other side: one out of every three has traveled to Mexico in the last year; six out of 10 have sent money to family members; and eight out of 10 have made phone calls to Mexico, according to the last survey by the Pew Hispanic Center. That is, we miss and worry about what is happening back in the other Mexico.

        However, the longer we stay here, the more distant we become. We forget to speak proper Spanish.

        Sometimes we say "aseguranza" (whose roots are from the word "insurance") instead of "seguro," "troca" (from "truck") instead of "camion," "parquear" the car (from to "park") instead of "estacionar" the car, and to call a "rufero" (roofer) when the roof "liquea" (leaks).

        Television, school, job pressures and laziness make us hop over to Spanglish.

        We say we want to go back to Mexico, but few ever do. People usually tell me, as if justifying that decision, "There aren't any good jobs over there."

        Or, "Well, my kids were born here." I myself came to the United States for a year and I've been here now for 22. I am not the only one.

        Of course, we are interested in Mexican politics, but not much more so than in the results of a soccer match at the Azteca stadium or in the Mexican National Team at an international game. And that lack of interest in politics was most clearly seen during the recent effort to register Mexicans to vote from abroad.

        Of the 10 million Mexicans born in Mexico but living in the United States, only about 40,000 will actually be able to vote by mail from abroad for Mexico's July 2 presidential elections. Why so few? Because Mexico's Congress considerably limited voter registration, because the Federal Electoral Institute (IFE) could not pull off effective and efficient promotion in the United States and because, truth be told, Mexicans this side of the border have more pressing things to think about and pay for than the $8 required for voting by mail.

        Some 55 out of every 100 Mexican voters in the United States did not even know there were going to be elections in Mexico. And only seven out of every 100 Mexican nationals here had been informed about the requirements for voting from abroad. That shows the sorry limits of the IFE's improvised campaign. At the end of the day, the Dominican Republic could get more votes from abroad for its elections than Mexico could, even considering there are only 670,000 Dominicans living in the United States.

          But beyond the organizational problems and the restrictions imposed upon the IFE by the Mexican Congress, the low political participation by Mexicans abroad took many of us by surprise. For years, I, for one, believed the vote from abroad could make the vital difference in a close election in Mexico.

        But that is not the case. Now we know Mexicans in the United States are more worried about their lives here _ their jobs, their children's education, acquiring their own home, obtaining medical insurance _ than closely following promises made by presidential candidates in Mexico.

        In spite of all the above, it is interesting what the Pew survey suggests about the few Mexicans who could actually vote from abroad. Felipe Calderon, from the National Action Party is ahead in the polls here (26 percent), over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador from the Democratic Revolution Party (21 percent), and Roberto Madrazo from the Institutional Revolutionary Party (13 percent). That vision, more tilted to the right, contrasts with the polls in Mexico, which are leaning to the left and indicate Lopez Obrador as the candidate in the lead. Even on this point, the Mexico this side of the border for the moment seems to differentiate itself from the one over there.

        Mexico was cut in half 158 years ago. The two Mexicos that resulted experience cycles of nearing or distancing themselves, and not without tensions. And although their differences are becoming ever more apparent, neither can understand itself without the other. There are simply two Mexicos divided by a border.