Beach Politics

So I’m still on this very remote beach and the “town” has a mini mart, a slightly bigger store, a few beach restaurants for tourists, and Mexican fisherman going out on their boats.

A very friendly Mexican couple helped us get a large fish from a fisherman, and we cooked it together last night. Tequila and the devil’s lettuce might have been involved.

The female half of the couple is a force of nature, and I started talking politics with her. My Spanish is terrible, her English is not good, and Google Translate helped. I asked her about, what else, Claudia Sheinbaum and Morena. She whipped out her phone and pulled up a video of her introducing Claudia at a campaign event in her home state on the Yucatan peninsula. It turns out she worked for a Senator from that state, a woman who is now the state’s Governor. She also worked on Claudia’s presidential campaign.

“Besides being intelligent, she’s also very humble. She’s the most popular president in the world” was her impression. She also thought that Omar Garcia Harfuch would be the next President of Mexico (I had to ask that question). He’s led security for Mexico City when Claudia ran Mexico City (and survived a serious assassination attempt — unlike Claudia, he travels in an armored limo), and now he is head of security for Mexico.

As we were talking, a young (15 year old) girl walked by with her boyfriend. She was nicely dressed, and my new friend engaged her in conversation. The 15-year-old was in school (I can’t believe there’s a school in this tiny town) and her plan was to attend a University and study medicine. This girl was 7 when Morena took power. Claudia, and Morena in general, focus on education, healthcare and old-age pensions, constantly. If she’s out in the countryside, she’s opening a hospital, handing out scholarships or handing out pension cards. (She also rides new trains.)

If Mexico can educate its population, it will experience explosive growth. If there are more girls like this in towns in the middle of nowhere, then we better watch out because Mexico will eat our lunch as a growing economy while we wither on the vine.