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This week Mexico has achieved something the United States has yet to do–elect a woman president! And while my husband and I are not particularly fans of her politics (we had hoped the candidate Xóchitl Gálvez would win), we can’t deny the momentousness of Mexico having elected its first woman president, a huge step forward and something our own country can continue to aspire to.
Her political orientation notwithstanding, Mexico’s President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, is quite an accomplished woman. She is a scientist who received her Ph.D. in energy engineering from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). She has written over 100 scholarly articles and two books on energy, the environment, and sustainable development. She was also the mayor of Mexico City, the country’s largest city with a population of more than 22 million people.
President-elect Sheinbaum comes from a very scientific family, with both her parents and her brother being scientists. In a 2023 interview with The Associated Press, Sheinbaum said, “I believe in science.” (This is interesting as the previous president, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, was widely criticized for claiming that wearing a religious pendant around his neck would protect him from getting Covid.)
Another interesting fact about President-elect Sheinbaum is that she is Jewish, her paternal parents having emigrated to Mexico City from Lithuania in the 1920s while her maternal grandparents emigrated to Mexico in the 1940s from Bulgaria to escape the holocaust. Although she is not an observant Jew, she has both Ashkenazi and Sephardic ancestry.
Although she was mentored by Lopez Obrador and shares his leftist politics, she has a different approach to leadership and is expected to be a different kind of president than Lopez Obrador has been. I, personally, wish her great success in her presidency and hope she will be good for Mexico, a country that is very close to my heart as well as my husband’s homeland.
Interesting fact you may not know: Mexican presidents may only serve one term, which lasts six years. Sheinbaum will be inaugurated as the new President of Mexico on October 1, 2024. Join me in congratulating Mexico on this major achievement and wishing Ms. Sheinbaum a successful presidency that will be of great benefit to our Mexican neighbors!
Many Blessings,
Rev. Michelle
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