Breathe
By Consuelo Sáizar de la Fuente
The next president of Mexico will be a woman. A woman of my generation. Beyond her political importance, this is an undeniable cultural change. Mexico is ready for a change of political, social and cultural sensitivity.
Today, the first day of March, the campaigns that will conclude with the largest election in Mexico's history begin. Two female candidates and one male candidate are vying for the presidency, although the third candidacy is merely testimonial. Seven months later, either Xóchitl Gálvez or Claudia Sheinbaum will wear on her chest the tricolor sash, which until now has only been held by men.
Xóchitl and Claudia are contemporaries, both born in the sixties (Xóchitl in 1963, Claudia in 1962). The cultural history of the country, and more particularly, the history of feminism, is about to write its best pages.
Xóchitl and Claudia have witnessed the advances of their gender in the last half century. Both are beneficiaries of women who broke the so-called glass ceilings: Griselda Álvarez de Ponce de León, first woman governor, in 1979; Rosa Luz Alegría, first Secretary of State, in 1982; Rosario Ibarra de Piedra, first woman candidate for the presidency of Mexico, also in 1982; Beatriz Ramírez de la Fuente, first woman to enter the National College, in 1985.
Both are contemporaries of Josefina Vázquez Mota, the first female head of Education and the first female presidential candidate of the National Action Party, in 2012. Both are almost three lustrums younger than the first woman at the helm of the Secretary of the Interior, Olga Sánchez Cordero, who served in that post from 2018 to 2021.
Xochitl and Claudia are contemporaries, but their biographies could not be more different.
Xóchitl combines the deep Mexico and the Mexico that dialogues with the world: she was born in Tepatepec, Hidalgo, speaks Otomí, and was the first Mexican to be recognized by the Davos Economic Forum as one of the 100 Global Leaders of the Future. Claudia had an urban upbringing, and is an example of Mexico's vocation as a country for refugees.
Xóchitl grew up contributing with her work to the family income, while Claudia took ballet and language classes. Xóchitl had to move from her hometown to Mexico City to pursue her engineering studies at the bachelor's and master's level; Claudia did her basic studies in Mexico City at private schools, and later graduated as a physicist and as a doctor in engineering at UNAM and in Berkeley, California.
Both are mothers of two children, and both began their political careers at the beginning of this century. Before entering the public arena, Xóchitl developed her career in the private sector, heading her own company, where she reaped success and awards; while Claudia worked in the academic field, and as an activist in the student movement of 1989, alongside her then husband Carlos Ímaz.
Xochitl is spontaneous and warm; Claudia is stern and intimidating. Two diametrically opposed characters: one, creative and disruptive; the other, rigid and disciplined. While Xochitl jumps for joy at the slightest provocation, Claudia barely smiles. Xochitl has made wit her trademark, Claudia seems subject to a perfectly designed script.
Behind Xóchitl Gálvez is the civil society, which was the one who pushed her on her way to the Presidency of the Republic, at the head of a tripartite alliance. The support of President López Obrador was decisive for Claudia to win the internal poll of Morena in a competition between four "corcholatas". Xóchitl built her platform, her message and her team in less than six months; Claudia, from her position in the government, elaborated messages and weaved alliances for almost six years.
Xóchitl and Claudia, women of excellence, are fighting a political battle between them, but both are aware that at the same time they are waging an exciting cultural battle against centuries of gender atavisms. Claudia offers to build the second floor of an authoritarian and regressive project in democratic matters; Xóchitl, hand in hand with the citizens, wants to build a Mexico that fully enters modernity affirming democratic certainty: she knows that hope has already changed hands.
Today, the campaigns that will lead one of the candidates, of my generation and of my gender, to the Presidency of Mexico begin. On June 2, most of the nearly 100 million Mexicans who are registered on the National Electoral Institute's electoral roll will go to the polls, knowing that this is a time of definitions, of choosing the one who offers the best future.
My vote will be for the best woman of my generation, the freest, the closest, the most human, the one who has defied destiny, and the one who knows how to summon hope, the one who offers life, truth and freedom, the only one who understands that Mexico requires a total reengineering, and for the one who is convinced that national reconciliation must happen through culture, without fear of anything.
My vote will be for Xóchitl Gálvez.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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