Painted CDs proclaiming HIDALGO! swing from rearview car mirrors. Mexican flags and bumper stickers emblazoned with the same name hang at the back of local marketplaces.

These clues point south to a small Mexican state that is home to as many as 90 percent of Clearwater's growing Mexican population. The link between the two areas is the subject of a $29,000 study sponsored by two local universities.

The researchers hope to explore, explain and document the Clearwater-Hidalgo connection, which results in the flow of thousands of dollars from Clearwater to one of Mexico's poorest states.

"We wanted to see the impact of the money being sent home," said Dr. Ella Schmidt, an interdisciplinary studies professor at the University of South Florida.

Schmidt and University of Tampa professor Maria de los Angeles Crummett spent nearly two months in Hidalgo to learn more about the subject. The ongoing study will be presented this fall to the Globalization Research Center at USF.

"There are very few economic opportunities for the locals" in Hidalgo, said Schmidt, a native of Peru. "But you now see new houses being built all over the area because of the incoming money. They're working for their own Mexican dream -- owning a house . . . having a decent place to raise children."

The number of such immigrants is growing. There are about 17,000 Hidalgo natives, or Hidalguenses, in Clearwater, according to the researchers. Hidalgo itself has 1.9-million residents, out of the 102-million who call Mexico home. In contrast, 16.3-million people live in Florida, out of 288-million U.S. residents.

Many of the Hidalguenses hail from the Valle del Mezquital, an area surrounded by mountains nestled in Hidalgo's core. Called the Hnahnu, these Hidalguenses are an indigenous people who lived in what is now known as Mexico long before the arrival of Aztec, Olmec or Spanish conquerors. They speak their own language as well as Spanish. Most don't speak English, Schmidt said.

The presence of the Hnahnu are a subtopic for the two researchers and a puzzle for social service providers. Mexicans make up two-thirds of Clearwater's overall growth over the past decade, and many of them are Hnahnu, said Robin Gomez, a city auditor who hails from Pachuco, the capital city of Hidalgo.

"We're still entrusted with providing municipal services to all of our residents, and they speak an indigenous language that I do not speak," said Gomez, who grew up just miles from the Valle del Mezquital.

The city wants to communicate with its newest residents to ensure that they understand the cultural and social norms of the United States, Gomez said. This desire is a measure of the impact Hidalguenses and other Mexicans have upon the social landscape, Schmidt said.

Hidalguenses bring with them a sense of community that is not seen among other Mexicans in Clearwater, said Sandra Turrubiatesolis, who works at Mexico Lindo near downtown Clearwater.

"Most of my customers are from Hidalgo," she said. "They really do know each other and their history."

That community support is felt economically through taxes paid by a proliferation of Mexican money-wiring businesses, landscaping businesses, auto repair shops and marketplaces.

"They are contributing a lot to the economic revival of the city of Clearwater," Schmidt said. "They are renting apartments. They are a source of jobs for themselves."

Hidalgo Auto on Court Street attracts a mostly Mexican clientele simply because of its name, said Emmanuel Guerrero, 16, a Hidalguense whose father owns the three-garage repair shop. Without much effort, Guerrero said, Hidalguenses stick together.

"Half of the businesses I see and hear about are from there," Guerrero added.

Most Mexican immigrants here create their own business or work in construction or hospitality upon arrival in Clearwater, according to several immigrants and experts on the subject.

And almost always, the pay is better here.

The average daily wage in Ixmiquilpan, a major city in Hidalgo, is 32.5 pesos or $3.25 an hour. An average wage at a Clearwater hotel is $7 an hour, or 70 pesos an hour.

Most of that money gets sent back to Hidalgo to build homes and pay for communal facilities such as paved streets and water pipes, experts said. The 150,000 Hidalguenses living in the United States send back nearly $10-million a year, Gomez said.

The workers here often stay within the trade they performed in Mexico.

Edgar Santillan Vazquez , for example, was a baker back in his town in Hidalgo, and now he is a baker at Clearwater's Mexico Lindo market. Moving to Clearwater seemed a logical choice, he said.

"People follow people from their own state," he said. "The first thing you come here for is the way of life. The husband comes first and then brings his wife."

Of course, that presents a dilemma for certain Hidalgo towns where the male population has dwindled down to nearly nothing. That's one of the reasons the government of Hidalgo maintains relationships with those who live in the United States.

Another aspect of the study looks at Hidalguenses who hold public office back in Mexico, said Schmidt. Many of these public officials work a year or two in Clearwater and then return to Hidalgo to finish their job duties.

That says a lot about their dedication to home, Schmidt said.

"They have a very strong sense of community," Schmidt said. "They see themselves as individuals who belong to a community; they're also helping build roads and raising money to bring water pipes into the community."

And in the case of the Hnahnu people, the community runs deep.

"These people are part of a very ancient culture," Schmidt said. "They have a good idea of who they are and what their rights are and how not to be erased from the face of the Earth. We think we will learn a lot from them."

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