Yes, she said it. Who? Xóchitl (meaning “flower” in Nahuatl), or Bertha Xóchitl Gálvez Ruiz—now, simply, Xochitl, politician, and businesswoman. She was mayor of Miguel Hidalgo (borough of Mexico City) from 2018 to 2023. Xóchitl served as a Senator in the LXIV and LXV Legislatures of the Mexican Congress. (Her message: “ovaries” or women, are needed to confront gangs and violence).
Sixty-one years old, Xóchitl is from Tepatepec, of Indigenous origins through her father. She studied Engineering at the National University (UNAM). She the current candidate of the opposition party, Fuerza y Corazón por Mexico (coalition of PRI, PAN, PRD) and is, herself, a former member of PAN, a party to the extreme right of center.
What? A female candidate from traditional parties? Yes, and she faces a female candidate from the current dominant party, MORENA (Movimiento de Regeneración Nacional, or National Regenerative Movement), for the position of President of the Republic, Claudia Scheinbaum Pardo. She is, interestingly enough, also a politician, a scientist and academic. Serving as the candidate from the governing party, Claudia was Head of Government of Mexico City, a position equivalent to that of a state governor, from 2018 to 2023. She is best known for being Mexico City’s first female mayor and its first Jewish mayor. (Only former President Vicente Fox, of PAN, had the gall to call her a “Bulgarian Jew”. Others, perhaps privately, have their momentary joke; but few would be so openly racist; most Mexicans are better than that).
Scheinbaum, the choice of current President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador (AMLO), is better known for her research and advocacy on matters of the environment; she shared the 2007 Nobel Prize for Peace for work on the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Daughter of a scientist mother and chemical engineer father, Claudia studied energy engineering and conducted research at Berkeley, returning to the engineering faculty of UNAM in 1995. Ms. Scheinbaum, as mayor of the Tlalpan district of Mexico City, faced criticism for accidents in infrastructure and deaths that occurred during the 7.1 terremoto (earthquake) that shook Mexico City in 2017. Yet, she recovered and helped expand rainwater collections and began reforestation projects. However, she remained plagued by accidents on subways, blamed for mismanagement.
Nevertheless, despite flaws in their policies, this is now Mexico’s choice—two female candidates for President. Sheinbaum (MORENA) is in the lead, although Galvez partisans are vocal and intensely loyal. Current predictions (according to almost all current polling—AS/COA, Mitofisky, Reforma, US News, Reuters) give MORENA a 15% lead. Results: patriarchy will not crumble but, for sure, female issues will receive more and more attention.
AMLO’s attitudes—often machistas—will fall under more scrutiny. Surely more investigations will ensue into the horrific data of femicides and missing women and girls. This, in Mexico, has to change. Whether, as Gálvan wants, US troops will be coming to deal with cartels, is another (and less likely) matter. Imgard Emmelhainz (author of The Tyranny of Common Sense: Mexico’s Post-Neo liberal Conversion), claims Sheinbaum will disappoint feminists. She will hew to the party line. A month to go; elections on June 2nd, 2024. Vamos a ver; we will see.
Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by UT-Rio Grande Valley Professor Emeritus Dr. Gary Joe Mounce. The column appears in The Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. All images courtesy of Dr. Mounce. Dr. Mounce can be reached by email via: gjmounce@gmail.com.
