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I left Guadalajara in early 1995, with the uci having weathered one of the most difficult years of its existence. The organization had begun 1994 fearing the information that Ester might share with Solidaridad about the inner workings of the uci. Although those worries proved baseless, Ester’s departure hurt the leaders’ images. They also continued to reel from the impact of the diminishing support from the Jesuit authority. As financial support disappeared, Tito’s continued presence was no longer assured, as family pressures pushed him to look for other work. Also in these precarious moments, uci leaders and members had to decide how to resolve the dilemma of how to play a role in democratization, while addressing still lacking urban services in the community of Cerro del Cuatro. The last event before my departure was another meeting discussing the electoral observations in the upcoming regional elections. Beset with sadness at leaving my friends, I had trouble focusing on the meeting. Yet among my impressions of blessings, laughter, and hugs remains my memory of the uci girding itself for another foray into a civil society coalition effort focused on democratization. On my long drive up to the United States, I kept wondering whether the uci could surmount this ongoing dilemma of local needs and national participation. From early 1995 to 2004, Guadalajara, the state of Jalisco, and the Republic of Mexico underwent massive political change. The epitome of Mexico’s electoral democratization—the change in federal power holding—occurred in 2000 and again in 2006. Similarly, Jalisco has seen the election of three pan governors since 1995. Cerro del Cuatro lies partly in the municipio of Guadalajara and partly in the municipio of Tlaquepaque, and both also experienced subsequent pan candidate wins. In the 2003 elections, the pri, newly transformed into the 7 democratization and changing politics opposition, won back all the municipios surrounding Guadalajara, while the pan held on to the city itself. Thus, if we are to define democratization as the ability for elections to occur in a genuine context of competition, Jalisco and Mexico have made important gains. Because democratization was such an important focus for the uci and its allies, each time I returned to Guadalajara, I sought to answer a series of questions . How had the success of formal democratization changed life on the hill? How had the uci fared as it continued to negotiate a balance between the pursuit of basic needs and actions to promote democratization? The democratization movement suggested that years of economic devastation would indeed be addressed through a genuinely democratic political process. In 1999, the pri was still in power at the federal level, and Vicente Fox Quesada, Mexico’s first non-pri president in 70 years, took office only in 2001, during my prior trips I made in those years, it was not yet possible to measure democratization at the national level. However, Jalisco, having been governed by the pan since 1994, offered a case to evaluate the local situation to determine if the lives of the Cerro del Cuatro residents had been improved. By 2004, the national-level changes could also be assessed at the level of the hill and the uci. From its very inception, the uci was part of national and regional political efforts. An important literature addressing the politics of the urban poor in Mexico found that neighborhood-level politics was consistently defined by clientelism, which fragmented local politics, isolated potential allies, and kept the focus only on local material needs (Cornelius 1975; Fagen and Tuohy 1972; Vélez-Ibáñez 1983; Eckstein 1989). In my earlier research, I had found important differences between that characterization and the political action of the uci. Far from being isolated, the uci had allies and advisers that worked in a broad range of Mexican political opposition. How had these alliances fared during the transition to formal democracy? How had formal democracy changed the political process in the poor urban neighborhoods I had studied? I returned to Cerro del Cuatro in 1997, 1998, 2001, 2004, and 2006. Except for the briefer visits in 1997 and 2006, these trips were four-week intensive forays into the field. Although I had remained in contact with the uci leaders in the intervening time, I had notified only Tito of my visit in 1997. I still remember that my delight at seeing my friends around the uci office conference table matched their surprise at seeing me come through the door. Tito and I...

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