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| Jewish candidate Claudia Sheinbaum and Indigenous candidate Xochitl Galvez (AP) |
Your vacation-destination when you've got steam to blow
Just remember to leave those shiny pesos up in Mexico
(Up? Yes, Europeans altered world maps to place themselves on top when for centuries the north had always been the south, as is still remembered by the Islamic world. Maps are distorted, politicized, mutable, and very deceptive).
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| Who would Frida vote for? Fellow Ashkenazim |
Remember how racism ended when we elected B.S. Obama? We don't either. So the idea that a female in the Casa Blanca or holding the highest title in the land (next to the name Carlos Slim) would mean the end of sexism, discrimination, sex trafficking, gendered infanticide, oppression, sex role stereotyping, bias, or the double standard is kind of silly, isn't it? A female president is a step in the right direction. This step was taken in Pakistan decades ago. What happened? Were all problems solved? When other countries followed suit, it helped. But we are far from being in the clear.
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| The "United Mexican States" is our neighbor. |
"Backward" Mexico is more progressive than the US of A? Who'da thunk it? That is not to say that Pres. Kamala would be an advancement. We'd rather see Pres. Jill Stein or the long-awaited Pres. Andrew D. Basiago. The last thing we need is the same-old, same-old. But in ancient Rome, only Patricians could run for Senate. Plebians, who were the vast majority of the population, could not. The proletariat rose up and demanded change, which they got. But when they got it, they didn't vote in any Plebes. It didn't feel right. Their minds were colonized, you see? What a "senator" looks like or should
look like was already drilled into their heads. Until they cleared that, until they decolonized their minds, did they make any progress. "Fix your head, and your butt will follow," the wise have been known to say. So welcome a new boss, different from the old boss. And incrementally we may make some progress eventually. Viva Mexico!
Opinion: Mexico's June 2 election has already made history — for violence
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| Vote Xochitl: Pick me, Everybody, pick me! |
On Sunday, Mexicans will go to the polls to vote on more than 20,000 elected positions in the largest election in a generation.
This year’s vote will also likely yield the country’s first woman president — former Mexico City Mayor (Jewish candidate) Claudia Sheinbaum or Senator (Indigenous candidate) Xóchitl Gálvez.
As elections experts and democracy professionals, we are watching this historic democratic exercise with excitement — and concern. Mexico’s electoral machinery is struggling in the face of violence and threats.
- PHOTO: Mexican presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez at a campaign rally in the Tepito neighborhood of Mexico City last week (Fernando Llano/AP).
- The country Mexico is not actually called "Mexico" any more than the USA is called "America." It's what people call it, but it isn't its name. It is called the United Mexican States and has been for a long time, long before its merger with the USA was planned as part of the Amero Union.
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| We are a nation with a very long history. |
The quality of the Mexican vote matters to the United States because the challenges our ally and biggest trading partner faces — northward migration, economic development, and narcotrafficking — are our challenges too.
This electoral cycle in Mexico is already the most violent in recent memory. In the seven months from September to May 2, 2024, 560 victims suffered lethal and nonlethal electoral violence; there have been at least 195 election-related killings, including at least 34 candidates.
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| Mexico's ET mummy of Peru (Jamie Maussan) |
In the last election cycle, 2020-2021, among 299 victims of election-related violence, there were 88 killings.
Turf wars in recent months between battling cartels and organized crime syndicates are putting candidates and politicians in the crosshairs at the local level and in a handful of states in central and southern Mexico.
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