Breathe
By Sofía Guadarrama
After the founding of the National System for the Integral Development of the Family (DIF) in 1977, the wives of Mexico's presidents used to serve as honorary presidents of the system and, sometimes, of the Mexican Red Cross. The first to dissociate herself from the DIF was Marta Sahagún, who opted for fundraising through the "Vamos México" foundation, which at the end of Fox's six-year term ended up tainted by corruption, extortion and scandals involving the detour of funds. To date, this organization continues to raise money. In 2022, it collected 16.3 million pesos.
In 2018, Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, wife of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, rejected the position of first lady and called it "a classist idea." She also rejected the position of honorary president of DIF and announced that she would be part of the Honorary Advisory Council of the Coordination of Historical and Cultural Memory of Mexico. No one understood for sure what she was referring to, coming from someone who claims to be a writer, historian and doctor.
López Obrador explained that this coordination would aim to rescue and preserve the cultural and artistic heritage of our country, the rescue of private libraries and the recovery of "things that are in museums in other countries, guaranteeing their conservation". In that distant 2018, that sounded promising. At last a first lady who cared about culture and history.
