The power of ‘La Presidenta’
Before the 2024 presidential elections in Mexico, candidate Claudia Sheinbaum would use a simple declaration as her election pitch: “I am a woman, a scientist, a humanist, a mother, and a grandmother.” She would use the more specific female forms for scientist (cientifica) and humanist (humanista).
Sheinbaum’s election pitch was understated, compared with her achievements. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy in energy engineering and was head of the city government of Mexico before being elected President.
She won that election and at her inaugural, Sheinbaum modified her pre-election declaration: “I am a woman, a scientist, a woman of faith, and, from today, by the will of the people, the president,” using “La Presidenta” instead of “El Presidente” to emphasize she was a woman president.
There were to be more similar declarations. Sheinbaum sometimes uses a more intimate “mama” rather than “madre,” a “mommy” rather than “mother.” But Sheinbaum, the abuela, as some Mexicans call her, made sure she would be referred to as “La Comandata de las Fuerzas Armadas,” the commandant of the Armed Forces, with emphasis on the feminine.
The message comes through: she is a woman, a strong woman, and she has, on two important occasions, demonstrated this—standing up to her bully neighbor Donald Trump.
Shortly after Trump became United States president, he decided to pick on Mexico, declaring that the Gulf of Mexico should be called the Gulf of America. Sheinbaum was quick to react, calling a press conference where she showed a reproduction of a map of Mexico, dating back to 1607, wherein the southern part of the United States was labeled America Mexicana or Mexican American. “Sounds nice, doesn’t it,” she teased, with a smile. (She used “bonito” for nice.)
Trump went ahead anyway to sign an executive order renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, with only the US using that name.
Last week, as Trump threatened to implement new tariffs against Mexico, Sheinbaum addressed Mexicans with a firm message to defend Mexico even as she delayed an announcement of retaliatory tariffs against the US. Last Thursday, she had a private phone conversation with Trump during which she argued against the tariffs and corrected his assertion that sales of the deadly opioid drug Fentanyl, which he blames on the Mexicans, continue to rise. Sheinbaum had her statistics to show the trafficking had actually dropped.
Trump blinked, declaring he would postpone until April 2 the US tariff impositions. On Sunday, she addressed tens of thousands of Mexicans in a rally, declaring that dialogue had prevailed together with respect among nations.
Claudia Sheinbaum is Mexico’s first woman president, a tremendous achievement in a country with even worse machismo than the Philippines. Domestic violence is a major problem; Mexico ranks 16th globally in femicide (murders of women).
Given that context, it’s not surprising that she repeats her declarations about being a woman and in a recent speech, that it is now “women’s time” (tiempo de la mujer).
“Today,” she continued, “we know that women participated in the great feats of history from different trenches and we also know that women can be presidents. And with that I make a respectful invitation to name (use) Presidenta just like abogada (lawyer), soldada (soldier), bombera (firefighter), doctora (doctor), maestra (teacher), inhenyera (engineer) because we have been taught only what is named exists.
Sheinbaum’s proposal is an interesting modification to the attempts, made in English, to “neutralize” gender distinctions as in “chairperson” instead of chairman, “food server” instead of waiters and waitresses, “firefighters,” “fisherfolk” and so forth. (Of course, we don’t know if the Trump administration is going to go after these non-sexist terms as well—his list of censored words that suggest acceptance of diversity and quality is growing each day.
Sheinbaum is not pitting women against men but she recognizes the sins of the past which need to be addressed. She dedicated her speech “to the great-grandmothers who did not learn to read and write because school was not for girls … to the anonymous women, the anonymous heroines who found in their solitude the way to be strong … They come, (all) who dreamed of the possibility that one day it would not matter whether we are born women or men, we can realize dreams and desires, without our sex, determining our destiny.”
The Philippines has had two women presidents. When will we have a Presidenta of the caliber of Claudia Sheinbaum?
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mtan@inquirer.com.ph
