In January 1987, amidst rising tides of neoliberalism and economic crisis in Mexico, student leaders at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) sought a volunteer. Their mission: to hang a banner in protest against Rector Jorge Carpizo’s proposed tuition fees at the public institution. “Who will hang the banner on the rectorate?” they called out to the assembled students.
From the crowd emerged a 24-year-old physics student. “I will,” she declared, her voice ringing out amidst chants of “strike, strike!” Climbing onto the roof of the iconic building, she hoisted the banner, igniting a fresh wave of protest against the neoliberal policies taking hold in Mexico and creeping into Latin America’s largest university.
Nearly four decades later, that same spirited student has made history by winning the presidential election in Mexico. Her name is Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo. Known simply as “Claudia” to many Mexicans, she is 61 years old, a mother of two, and holds both a master’s and a doctorate degree. Having served as Mayor of Mexico City, on October 1st, she will be inaugurated as the first female president of Mexico, marking a monumental moment for the nation.
Image source: Getty Images
Reflecting on that youthful act of defiance, Sheinbaum told journalist Arturo Cano, author of her 2023 biography, “I’ve always been like that, very daring.” She added, “Not so much anymore, I have more responsibilities now.”
Her friend, advisor, and colleague Diana Alarcón offers further insight: “It’s not that she stopped being rebellious. It’s that her place changed, her position in the movement changed, but the conviction she assumed as a child to fight for the people, that didn’t change.”
That place is now the presidency of Mexico, a nation of 130 million people grappling with 36% poverty, an extensive border with the United States, an alarming rate of femicides, and the pervasive influence of organized crime.
She inherits a country led by Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), a skilled politician concluding his term with a 60% approval rating, a stable economy, and a palpable sense of optimism among many.
AMLO’s popularity undoubtedly contributed to Sheinbaum’s resounding victory. She surpassed her main opponent, Xóchitl Gálvez, by over 30 percentage points and is poised to become the most voted-for presidential candidate in Mexican history, garnering over 30 million votes.
However, Claudia Sheinbaum is more than just a successor to the Obradorista project, known as the Fourth Transformation. She is a distinguished scientist who has effectively translated her award-winning research into successful public policies, setting her apart as a unique figure in Mexican politics.
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: During the campaign, Sheinbaum displayed a more approachable and relaxed demeanor than Mexicans were previously accustomed to.
The Making of a President: From Scientist to Stateswoman
Claudia Sheinbaum was born on June 24, 1962, in Mexico City. Her father, Carlos Sheinbaum, was a businessman and chemist whose Ashkenazi Jewish parents immigrated from Lithuania to Mexico in the 1920s. Her mother, Annie Pardo, is a biologist and doctor, daughter of Sephardic Jewish parents who arrived from Bulgaria in the 1940s. Both families fled persecution and became leftist activists at UNAM, pioneering figures in their scientific fields. Pardo received the National Prize for Science in 2022 for her contributions to cell biology.
Growing up in Tlalpan, a middle-to-upper-class neighborhood in southern Mexico City, Claudia’s childhood was filled with protest songs, gatherings with international artists, and ballet and Argentinian drum lessons. She recounts that political discussions were constant at mealtimes and that she accompanied her parents to visit political prisoners. She attended the secular Manuel Bartolomé Cossío school, known for fostering student autonomy.
This environment nurtured a meticulous, organized, and energetic personality in Sheinbaum. She is known for her rigorous approach, seeking evidence to support her ideas before drawing conclusions, and for giving direct orders without hesitation. Her disciplined routine includes waking up at 4 am daily.
Image source: Personal Archive
Image caption: Claudia Sheinbaum dedicated years of her childhood to ballet, not just taking a few classes.
Alarcón describes her as “shy, which can make her seem serious, but once you sit down with her, she’s warm, funny, and empathetic,” qualities Sheinbaum emphasized during her campaign.
She often declares, “I am a child of ’68,” referencing the global protest movement in which her parents participated. Just as the 1960s were formative, the 1980s were pivotal for Mexico. The neoliberal model was solidifying, leading to increased inequality and poverty for many, and corruption scandals began to plague the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), which had been in power since 1917.
Sheinbaum maintained a foot in activism, where she met Carlos Ímaz, a politician from the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), whom she married in 1987, and another in academia. She earned master’s and doctoral degrees in Energy and Environmental Engineering, authoring theses on topics like the efficient use of wood-burning stoves in rural communities.
In 1995, the family moved to California for Carlos’s doctoral studies in Education and Claudia’s doctoral completion. This period solidified their cosmopolitan, educated profile and fluency in English, qualities they instilled in their children, who are now a filmmaker and a history professor.
They divorced in 2016, and seven years later, Claudia married Jesús María Tarriba, her university boyfriend whom she reconnected with via Facebook. Like her, Tarriba is a physicist with leftist leanings and a career in public service as an official at the Bank of Mexico.
“She is a very intense, very interesting, very empathetic woman,” Tarriba has said of her.
Image source: Personal Archive
Image caption: The Stanford University newspaper reported in October 1991 on a protest against neoliberalism during a visit by the then Mexican president. Claudia Sheinbaum is pictured as one of the march leaders.
From Academia to Public Service: Entering the Political Arena
The year 2000 marked a turning point in Mexican politics. The PRI lost the presidential election for the first time in over 70 years, and in Mexico City, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, a leftist politician from Tabasco, known as AMLO, won the mayoral race.
This is when AMLO and Sheinbaum’s paths converged. The newly elected mayor sought a technically skilled individual for his Secretary of the Environment position. A mutual friend, a mathematics professor and UNAM activist, recommended Sheinbaum, a sophisticated physicist specializing in energy.
AMLO often emphasizes that “tasks are more important than positions,” and he entrusted her with two significant challenges in a rapidly urbanizing city: cleaning up one of the world’s most polluted urban centers and constructing the second level of a major highway.
Sheinbaum delivered on both fronts. Today, Mexico City’s air quality has improved—though pollution remains a concern—and the “second floors” of the Periférico highway have eased traffic congestion across the capital.
After AMLO’s mayoral term ended in 2005, Claudia returned to academia, worked as a consultant, and became part of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning team for their contributions to climate change research.
However, she maintained her political engagement. She served as spokesperson for AMLO’s unsuccessful presidential campaigns in 2006 and 2012. In 2015, she won the mayoral election in Tlalpan, the Mexico City district where she grew up.
Three years later, in the same election that brought AMLO to the presidency, Sheinbaum achieved another historic milestone: she was elected Head of Government of Mexico City, becoming the first woman to lead the sprawling capital.
Her tenure as mayor was characterized by a partial reduction in crime rates, the expansion of bicycle lanes, and the construction of the world’s largest cable car system for public transport, the Metrocable.
Perhaps most notably, her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic set her apart, even from AMLO. While he downplayed the virus’s severity, she raised alarms. While he often eschewed face masks, she consistently wore one and promoted their use. Mexico City achieved one of the highest vaccination rates internationally.
Image source: Personal Archive
Image caption: A key policy of Sheinbaum in Mexico City was building bike lanes and renovating and expanding the Ecobicis bike-sharing system.
Enduring Challenges and Political Scrutiny
With her rise in prominence, criticism and controversy inevitably followed.
During the 2017 earthquake, a school in Tlalpan collapsed, tragically killing 19 children. The opposition and some families blamed Sheinbaum, then mayor of Tlalpan, for not closing the school after structural flaws were reported.
Later, in 2021, a metro line 12 accident in Mexico City resulted in 27 fatalities. As mayor, Sheinbaum launched an investigation revealing construction deficiencies dating back to 2014-2015, during a previous administration under Obradorismo. Despite the timeline, she faced intense criticism.
These controversies resurfaced during her presidential campaign, along with unproven accusations of plagiarism in her academic theses. She also faced scrutiny over incidents of alleged “excessive force” in suppressing protests in the city—some led by feminist groups—and accusations of corruption during AMLO’s administration. The narrative that she was a “pawn” or “puppet” of the sometimes authoritarian-leaning president also gained traction among critics.
“Twice in my life I asked her why she subjected herself to the harshness of politics,” says Alarcón, Sheinbaum’s friend since the 1970s, referring to her mayoral runs in Tlalpan and Mexico City.
“And in both cases, she told me the same thing: ‘out of responsibility, because it’s what needs to be done.'”
For a physicist recognized in international academia, born into a privileged social position, entering politics seemed an unlikely and uncomfortable choice, argues Alarcón, who holds a PhD in Economics.
“But that’s why people see that they can trust her, that she won’t steal, that she will do the best she can, because she doesn’t seek power for the sake of power, but because she has a sense of responsibility towards her society,” she adds.
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: AMLO and Sheinbaum during an event in the midst of the pandemic. Much speculation arose about a possible rift due to their differing approaches to the virus.
Becoming President: A New Chapter for Mexico
Despite the controversies, over 60% of Mexico City residents approved of Sheinbaum’s administration. This strong approval rating positioned her as the frontrunner to succeed AMLO in the competitive race against other prominent leftist figures—all men—within Morena, the ruling coalition.
“AMLO, over time, learned to respect her,” states Jorge Zepeda Patterson, a journalist and political commentator who has interviewed and profiled both leaders.
“He learned to consider her the most suitable person to succeed him. He realized that she is someone who fulfills her responsibilities, who may not be overtly political, but is a tremendous public administrator.“
Image source: Getty Images
Image caption: “They have a relationship of political coincidence and great affection,” says Diana Alarcón, Sheinbaum’s friend since the 1970s. The so-called “Mexican humanism” that unites Sheinbaum and AMLO, despite their differences, proposes a transformation of the country as significant as independence, the liberal reforms of the 19th century, and the Mexican Revolution. This is precisely why they call it the Fourth Transformation.
Sheinbaum’s government plan, “100 Steps for Transformation,” includes expanding university and school scholarships, providing pensions for women dedicated to caregiving, strengthening medical diagnostic and mental health systems, constructing hundreds of thousands of homes, and enshrining gender pay parity in the constitution.
Speculation is rife about what kind of president Sheinbaum will be: Will she establish her “own stamp,” as she promised during the campaign? Will AMLO exert influence? Will she continue pragmatic relations with the U.S.? Will she effectively address women’s demands and maintain control over governors, the military, and traditional politicians?
“What I can assure you is that she will be herself,” says Alarcón, her friend and advisor.
“In the 80s, the task was to hang the banner at the UNAM rectorate, and she did it. Now, the task is to build universities, and I have no doubt that she will do it, being herself, being Claudia.”
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