As Calexico Mayor Raul Ureña walked through the city’s six-block business district on a shirtsleeve winter’s morning, a 10-minute jaunt turned into 20, then 30, then an hour.
Ureña, a councilmember who served as mayor of this working-class city (population: 38,600) at the southeastern edge of California from March to January, could barely move a few yards without getting stopped. Salesclerks at mom-and-pop department stores, random passersby, taxi drivers — all wanted to chat.
