Mexico was the first country in the Americas to have an Afro-descendant president and the first to have an Indigenous president. Now, in 2024, it has become the first country in North America to elect a female president.
First Afro-descendant president of the American continent
Vicente Guerrero was born in 1783 in what is now the state of Guerrero to an Afro-Mexican father and an Indigenous mother. He was a liberal who fought for Mexican independence and became the second president of the Republic of Mexico in 1929. Because of his ideals and his origins, he had the courage to abolish slavery and proclaim all Mexicans equal before the law. However, this action faced widespread opposition (especially in Texas), forcing him to resign. He fled to Oaxaca, where he was captured and executed on February 14, 1931.
The abolition of slavery in Mexico was rejected by Texas, which saw it as a vital source of revenue. For this reason, Texas would later secede from Mexico and join the United States, where slavery was still legal.
Following in the footsteps of Vicente Guerrero, Abraham Lincoln in the United States would abolish slavery in that country three decades later, on January 1, 1863.
First Indigenous President of the American Continent
Benito Juárez was born in 1806 in a Zapotec village in Oaxaca. He was president of Mexico from 1858 until his death in 1872. Benito Juárez was the first democratically elected indigenous president in the Americas. Many historians consider him responsible for establishing Mexico as a true republic, with effects that are still seen today (for example, the secular state).
Unlike Vicente Guerrero, Benito Juárez was (100%) a Native American; this is the reason he is considered the first indigenous president of the American continent.
First female president in North America
Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo was born in Mexico City in 1962 into a Jewish family of Lithuanian and Bulgarian origin. She studied Physics at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she also obtained her master’s degree in energy efficiency. She later obtained her doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley.
In 2007, she joined the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as a co-author on the topic of “Climate Change Mitigation.” This group was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
Claudia Sheinbaum participated in demonstrations against the privatization of education and to show her support for leftist parties in Mexico. She became the first woman to govern Mexico City in 2018. In 2024, Claudia Sheinbaum became the first woman elected president in North America.