En Route to Aztlán: The Struggle of Mexicans for Political Spaces in New Yorktitlán In 1965, the US eliminated restrictive and discriminatory criteria for the admission of immigrants in concordance with the domestic improvements in civil rights and the new foreign policy emphasis on establishing relations with newly independent developing countries. At the same time, with the termination of the Bracero Program in 1964, undocumented migration (mostly from Mexico) started to increase. In March 2002, according to the Census Bureau, the foreign-born population in the US was 32.5 million, representing 11.5 percent of the total population. More than one third of this population came from Mexico and Central American countries. Also, from the total foreign-born population from Latin America, two thirds was originally from Mexico. Further, the Latino foreign born population has experienced an exponential growth: in 1990 there were 8.4 million Latinos, that is 44.3 percent of the total foreign-born population, while in 1980 they represented only one third and in the 1970’s just one fifth. These figures show that the influx of immigrants towards the US in the last 30 years has been explosive, especially from Latin America. Some work has been written on the political incorporation of immigrants but very little scholarship has been produced on the Mexican-origin community, specifically in the New York City metro area. This paper seeks to fill this gap in the literature by studying how Mexican civic and religious associations in New York City have tried to incorporate their members into the American society. In this paper I will expound on the characteristics of the most notable Mexican NGO in New York, the Tepeyac Association, and explain which factors within this organization have encouraged a religiously based political mobilization. I contend that, as of today, the association’s function as a political mobilizing agent is much more important than its spiritual role. I will go on to examine briefly some of the other Mexican organizations in New York City and their role in the incorporation of Mexicans into the American political system. Regarding the Tepeyac, I am interested in solving three puzzles. First, why has the Tepeyac, a religious association, had an unprecedented success in politically organizing Mexican-Americans and first generation Mexican immigrants (most of them undocumented) in New York City? Second, what are the incentives for Mexicans living in New York to join an association such as the Tepeyac and not other associations that could have more leverage within the American polity? And third, which other factors are promoting their political mobilization? Some of the factors that I will explore are the power of the New York Catholic Church, transnational immigration policies, the opening of the Mexican economy and the liberalization of the political system (a process that started in the mid 1980’s and consolidated in the second half of the 1990’s), the changing role of the Mexican Consulates and the establishment of the Mexican Cultural Institutes throughout the US, and the newly formed Institute for Mexicans Living Abroad. Further, I am also interested in analyzing the role that other organizations in New York have in the process of political (or at least civic) incorporation of Mexicans into the American polity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]