Mexico’s cultural philosopher Jose Vasconcelos in his widely-read 1925 essay, “The Cosmic Race,” celebrated the mixture of European, Asian, Indigenous, and African races that made up the Mexican. He foresaw the advent of what he called the Aesthetic Era, in which joy, love, fantasy, and creativity would rule and create a new “cosmic race”. Vasconcelos sought to celebrate “mestisaje” (racial or cultural mixing) as the moral and material basis for the people of all races into a universal race. Mexico elected Benito Juarez as the first indigenous person as president in 1857.

He remained president for 14 years. His presidency was most transformational. It is this tapestry of cultures, colours and faiths that has produced Dr Claudia Sheinbaum, the first woman and the first Jewish person, to be elected president. She has played down her Jewish ancestry telling The New York Times that “I know where I come from, but my parents were atheists.” And yet, she was attacked viciously by former president Vicente Fox who called her a “Bulgarian Jew”. Some even questioned if she was a Mexican at all. The election of Dr Sheinbaum is a watershed moment for Mexico. Her victory was of course highly anticipated despite the spirited campaign of the combined opposition’s equally dynamic woman candidate Xochitl Galvez. Mexico has joined the growing list of countries in Latin America to have elected women presidents ~ Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Dr Sheinbaum’s intellectual credentials are formidable.

A Ph D in energy engineering, she was part of the UN panel of climate scientists that received the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. She has done her scientific research and written books and papers on energy efficiency, sustainability and environment. Mexico, long steeped in machismo and still witnessing high levels........

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