Hispanidad: Mexican pol has no shame

Maybe it's a sign that Hispanics have assimilated into U.S. political life.

We now are capable of being elected to public office, getting busted by the feds for corruption and going to prison just as easily as any politician of Irish, Polish or African-American background.

But the actions of Ambrosio Medrano, a former Chicago alderman of Mexican descent, threaten to give Hispanics the lead on officials with the most chutzpah. Medrano served his time in prison and now wants his old job back, believing Hispanic voters should put his ethnicity ahead of his flaws.

Most Chicago politicians who "get an Oxford education" at the minimum-security federal correctional center in Oxford, Wis., -- about one per year for the past three decades -- fade away or recreate themselves outside political circles.

But Medrano, 49, of Chicago's predominantly Mexican Pilsen neighborhood, filed nominating petitions to get himself on the ballot for the Feb. 25 at-large election, saying, "I don't understand why politicians should be scrutinized more than anybody else. We're ordinary human beings."

For the record, Medrano served 30 months in prison for taking 18 bribes totaling $31,000. Prosecutors say he looked the other way while companies illegally disposed of garbage and other waste in his ward.

As far as the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago was concerned, Medrano was small fish. They wanted Medrano to cooperate, wear a wiretap and help them snare those of his aldermanic colleagues who took big-money bribes.

But Medrano kept his mouth shut and served his time.

Medrano now says his silence is proof of his trustworthiness and one of the reasons why the residents of his ward -- which serves as a port-of-entry to Chicago for many Spanish-speaking people -- ought to return him to the City Council.

Medrano says he admires the life of migrant farm worker activist Cesar Chavez and also thinks his struggles in rebuilding his life make him more empathetic to the problems of the average Mexican-American.

"I come from the community, and it bothers me the way I embarrassed my people," Medrano said. "I know what it is like to suffer and I believe I can help other people improve their lives too."

Excuse me?

Medrano's "suffering" was brought about by his willingness to take cheap graft, not because he is Mexican.

State officials actually have tried to keep felons from running for municipal office. In the mid-'90s, the Legislature passed a measure that required municipal officials to resign upon conviction rather than sentencing. Just one problem. The measure also contained language preventing the official from ever running for municipal office again but there was no similar provision against convicted felons running for state government posts.

So Medrano was able to get a judge in Chicago to rule the municipal ban contrary to state law, and, therefore, unconstitutional. That means he can run for the post he held for 6 1/2 years until federal prosecutors arrested him in 1996.

It would be nice if voters rejected Medrano in favor of incumbent alderman Danny Solis, founder of the activist United Neighborhood Organization who has since become a City Council ally of Mayor Richard M. Daley.

But Medrano is telling people he thinks Solis has become too comfortable with Chicago's white Irish political elite to truly represent Mexican-Americans.

"I also had a good rapport with the mayor when I was alderman, but I was able to disagree when it benefited my ward," Medrano said.

"I don't think (Solis) will have a voice to speak out against the mayor. That's the difference between us."

Since his release from prison, Medrano has made a priority of bolstering his public image among Hispanics. He has handled publicity for Spanish-language record labels by promoting Chicago-area concerts by popular Mexican music groups such as Los Tigres del Norte.

He also may benefit from a dubious Chicago political tradition by which incumbents under criminal suspicion or indictment still manage to get re-elected. Indeed, Medrano had no problem collecting enough signatures for his nominating petitions.

Some ward residents say they can forgive Medrano for his crimes because they believe he's admitting his mistakes.

"He's not like the politicians back in Mexico who are just arrogant," one resident said.

In short, Medrano is trying to take advantage of politically inexperienced people by means not that far removed from the sleazy way the old Chicago Democratic machine used to buy votes by passing out Christmas hams and turkeys in black neighborhoods or hitting Skid Row on Election Day with free booze for the winos and other derelicts.

It doesn't have to be like this. Take Charles Colson, the White House legal counsel who did prison time as a result of Watergate and began a prison ministry to help white collar criminals find a point to their lives. Colson tried to serve a higher calling. He did not try to get back on the White House staff.

Medrano owes it to Hispanics everywhere to take a lesson.

(Hispanidad is a weekly column about the culture of Hispanics and Latinos in the United States, written by Greg Tejeda, a third-generation Mexican-American. Suggestions for topics can be made to gtejeda@upi.com)