Mexico is poised to elect a female president for the first time. Damian Trujillo reports.
Mexico is poised to elect a female president for the first time.
The historic move is making waves across the globe, including in San Jose's largely immigrant community.
Mexican voter Marisela Valencia said she likes Mexico electing its first woman to the nation's highest office because it has always been a man occupying the presidency. Valencia adds Mexico also needs change.
The news first started swirling Wednesday when the current president's party had nominated Claudia Sheinbaum, former Mexico City mayor. Sheinbaum also obtained a PhD in physics while studying and working at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
The opposition coalition is made of three political parties with different ideologies. It nominated Senator Xóchitl Gálvez, making it sure that the country's next president will be a woman.
"It's incredibly significant and historic," said Andres Quintero, a political science professor at Evergreen Valley College.
Quintero, who also studies Mexican politics, believes affirmative action helped lead to the historic moment.
"They actually have a quota in their laws of government where they actually have a requirement for them to have a certain number of female representation in the different levels of government that they have there," Quintero said.
Quintero said he feels it is a myth that Mexico is a male-dominated, somewhat misogynistic country.
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"That's what a lot of outsiders have been focused on," Quintero said. "But if you look at all of the policies they have been passing recently, there's a significant amount of progressive policies that have been passed in Mexico."
