Sheinbaum, Popular

For her struggle to seek good in the face of any kind of evil and for the good of her people and humanity, Claudia Sheinbaum is compared to Mafalda, the character created 60 years ago by the Argentine cartoonist Quino, something not at all wrong when in these first hundred days of her mandate the first female President of Mexico has great popularity of 80%, even higher than her teacher Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), whom they came to proclaim as the best president in decades.

Thus, in the capital's Zócalo, before 350,000 followers, she reviewed her achievements in several sectors, highlighting that "Mexico will keep its head held high and will never be subordinated," when referring to the relationship between Mexico and the United States.

She explained that with the United States we’ve had very painful moments in our history, but she highlighted good examples of respect for our sovereignties, for example when Benito Juárez received invaluable help from Abraham Lincoln in his fight against French invaders and the respect of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Lázaro Cárdenas, and the collaboration of the first term of President Donald Trump with President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.

She said that the trade agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada has benefited the three peoples, "in particular by the substitution of imports and the creation of employment in the three Nations."

In another part of her speech she explained: "Why do we call it the second floor of the fourth transformation? Because the foundations and the base were laid by the best president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and it’s up to us to consolidate, add and advance with the second floor, with the roots firmly planted and the heart first.”

She asserted that “we are not going to return to the neoliberal model, we are not going to return to the regime of authoritarianism and fraud, of corruption and privileges, we will not let the decadence of the past return where the government was for a few and there was no difference between economic and political power, we are going to continue with Mexican humanism and with the maxim that for the good of all, the poor first.”

She added that “to those who have not yet understood that women can, we say: just as we run a home, as we are mothers and grandmothers, we also have the strength, the integrity, the temperament and the ability to be firefighters, engineers, astronauts, doctors, lawyers and supreme commanders of the armed forces.”

After highlighting that discrimination, racism, classism and machismo are vestiges of the past, she noted that “Mexico is changing for the better, even those who are stuck in the past know this.”

In another part of his speech, she announced that the unemployment level is one of the lowest in the world, gasoline and diesel prices have not increased in real terms, inequality has decreased and, according to the World Bank, 9.5 million people have emerged from poverty between 2018 and 2023, and she also predicted that this June 1, 2025 will go down in history, because for the first time, the judges, magistrates and ministers of the Supreme Court of Justice of the nation will be democratically elected by the people.

“It has become clear at this point in history that it’s not corruption, trickery, hatred, classism, racism and machismo, which are reminiscences of the caste society of the colony and neoliberalism, which produce freedom and democracy, on the contrary, that muds and perverts everything,” said Claudia Sheinbaum who finally expressed that “serving the people and the country is the greatest privilege there can be. Be assured that I am dedicated body and soul to the good of our people and our nation. Our very lives are at stake in that.”

MEXICAN MAFALDA?

A few hours before appearing before the people, the President shared an image of the preparations for the report, but what caught the most attention was that it featured the book Mafalda presidenta, by the Argentine comedian Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón, known as Quino.

Mafalda President is a critical analysis of the political and social reality surrounding Mafalda, who expresses her frustration at humanity's inability to reach consensus and her discontent with a world that seems to be managed inefficiently.

El Universal newspaper reports that the text is a clear criticism of the lack of tolerance and the way in which society, in general, faces collective problems. Mainly, intolerance is pointed out as one of the main points of her discomfort, associated with the difficulty for people to understand each other and work together in search of common solutions, thus reflecting a perception of a lack of global cooperation.

Under the magnifying glass of Mafalda, the leaders, international conflicts, poverty, human rights, care for the planet, ideas of progress and the most retrograde ones are analyzed, phenomena that continue to directly impact the collective perception and require urgent attention.

Let’s remember that the character created by Quino in 1964, has become a cultural symbol that, in addition to representing a generation concerned about the state of the world, became a spokesperson for ideas that seek justice and equity, challenging social norms and questioning authority from an accessible and reflective perspective.

Translated by Amilkal Labañino / Cubasi Translation Staff