Synopsis:

Claudia Scheinbaum, with an 80% domestic approval rating, is among the most popular presidents in the world. When many other countries are moving to the Right, Scheinbaum has continued her predecessor’s (Lopez Obrador or AMLO) resolutely social democratic redistributive agenda – including distinctively feminist measures that recognize women’s unpaid, invisible, and informal sector work in the form of universal pensions. Moreover, she has managed Mexico’s perennial challenge: “so far from God, so close to the United States” with singular skill, principle, and toughness. It is rumored that Zohran Mamdani has looked  to Claudia for inspiration in dealing with Trump.

However, the militarization of public security, the continued impunity of state and military figures, the deep entwinement of the state with drug cartels, cooperation with the US on containment and detention of immigrants – have all drawn criticism. Less visible is the ongoing counter-insurgency war against the indigenous Zapatistas in southern Chiapas, who since 1994 have worked to create a world of full freedom and dignity. This talk looks at Mexico as the generator of two of the contemporary world’s most important radical projects and asks whether they can be reconciled in any meaningful way.

Presenter:

Margaret Cerullo recently retired from Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass. She has been coming to Mexico since 1994, luckily coinciding with the month of the Zapatista uprising, which has absorbed her interest ever since. She is co-author and translator, as part of Colectivo Relampago, of Zapatista Stories for Dreaming Another World (PM Press, 2022); and relevant to this talk, “What Does Claudia Scheinbaum Stand For?” Massachusetts Review, June 7, 2024.