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Gina Dalma and her family are also going back, but for a different kind of Mexican holiday: one at the beach. The family will rent a minivan, stay at small inns and keep a Web log so that her two children's friends back home in Charlotte can follow their adventure.

''I want my kids to know Mexico as I know it -- (to) understand the language, culture and customs as I do,'' she says. ''And I also want to go on vacation.''

Hispanics are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the USA, the U.S. Census Bureau says, and about six of 10 Hispanics in the country claim Mexican ancestry. Those numbers add up to sizable spending power and have caught the attention of Mexico's tourism board.

The board has launched a major ad campaign to lure the Mexican-American middle class back home -- as tourists. ''Come back to Mexico in the best way: on vacation,'' says the board's new ad slogan.

$10 billion in revenue

Tourism revenue in Mexico will be about $10 billion this year, and 70% percent of visitors come from the USA, the tourism board says. Visitors come for the sand, surf, shopping and the Mayan ruins. And some come because it's also home.

''First, we are hitting the beach at Oaxaca,'' says Dalma, 37, who was born in Mexico and moved to the USA nine years ago. ''Then a week taking in the archaeological sites around Playa del Carmen.''

The Mexican Population Council says 8.9 million Mexicans and 14.4 million Americans of Mexican origin live in the USA, together making up 8% of the U.S. population. The Census Bureau says the total Hispanic population in the USA, about 38.8 million, has grown 50% in the past five years and is expected to double in 50 years.

To attract them, the Mexican tourism board created a $1 million TV ad campaign with a commercial made by Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu, director of the acclaimed film 21 Grams. The ad is running in U.S. cities with high concentrations of Mexicans or Mexican-Americans, including Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas, San Francisco, Miami and New York. Print ads are running in national Spanish-language magazines such as People en Espanol. English versions have appeared in National Geographic, In Style, and other magazines.

In the USA, Hispanics still earn less and have lower net worth, on average, than non-Hispanic whites, the Census Bureau says. But they are starting to catch up as the U.S. Hispanic community grows and becomes more diverse.

Fernando Figueredo, Latin America managing director for the public relations firm Porter Novelli says there are at least 20 million Hispanics in the USA who are wealthy, upper middle class or middle class. ''The income level of Hispanics continues to rise, and we are tapping into that market.''

Different strategy

To do that, he says, it's not enough to stick a Hispanic face in an ad. You need a whole new strategy. Whereas travel ads aimed at the overall U.S. market focus on nightlife, great food and Mayan ruins, he says, a message to Hispanics might be ''family roots, family reunions, religion and tradition.''

In targeting Mexican-Americans, Mexico ''expects (it) can sell village life in Mexico as simple and nostalgic, rather than embarrassing poverty,'' says Cheryl Shanks, who teaches about the politics of global tourism at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass.

Those who rely on the tourist trade say U.S. Hispanics are responding. ''When I got here 13 years ago, the only U.S. visitors were fair-skinned and blond. You would very rarely see a Hispanic with a tour book in hand,'' says Raul Torres, a Puerto Rican who opened up a boutique hotel in trendy Playa del Carmen, a resort 40 miles south of Cancun. ''Now, you have Mexican-American couples, Cuban-American families. Everyone comes here.''

On the other side of Mexico, in the Pacific Ocean resort of Puerto Vallarta, restaurant owner Carman Porras is noticing the same trend. ''It's weird,'' she says. ''These tourists speak to me in English and ask for Diet Coke or ketchup . . . but they have Mexican names.'' Her brother married a Mexican girl who grew up in Georgia. Today, she says, the couple lives in Miami and travels to Puerto Vallarta for fun. ''It's very welcoming,'' she says.

Mexicans were not always so welcoming, says Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank.

''Historically, Mexico disowned its migrants as renegades who had turned on their country and culture for material possessions. They called them 'pochos' or 'watered-down Mexicans,' '' he says. ''In the last few years, this has begun to change. Mexico has begun to appreciate what emigrants do for the homeland and begun to treat them and their children better.''

Mexican President Vicente Fox now makes an annual pilgrimage to the U.S. border to welcome Mexican-Americans back.

Figueredo says, ''When you start analyzing the Mexican-American leisure travelers, you find most of them have already been on vacation in Mexico several times.''

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