Family Nopal

Edgar’s thoughts on the recent presidential election in Mexico

As a little boy, I remember growing up in a Mexico where the PRI (the Partido Revolucionario Institucional or Institutional Revolutionary Party in English) was not only THE political party, it was my dad’s family’s second religion. 

I grew up with tales from my paternal grandfather about how the PRI had ushered in an age of extensive agrarian reform that changed the quality of life for him as a little boy in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  He regaled me with stories of his travels to Mexico City as a young rural PRI delegate from the state of Durango (where he and my grandmother raised a restless brood of 14 kids, including my father), and how much pride he had for a party that was intent on building a Mexico that was worthy of the aspirations of millions of hard working people like him.  Years later, he described NAFTA as a godsend and a direct result of the wisdom the PRI exhibited in their management of Mexico.

As the PRI regained the presidency for the first time in 12 years on July 1st, the first person I thought about was my grandfather.  And what struck me about my grandpa’s allegiance and blind devotion to the PRI was not the politics or the policies of the party. What has stayed with me all of these years is the yearning for a better Mexico – one that has never fully actualized itself.  A Mexico that reminds me constantly, every day I interact with people like my father and my uncles; hardworking people that had to leave the land they loved so much for search of a better life here in the U.S.; of a country that has broken its peoples’ heart time and time again.

On July 1st my wife and I watched the election results, transfixed on the preternaturally handsome and eloquent Jorge Ramos, much the same way we look to Anderson Cooper every other November to inform us of the electoral happening here in the U.S.  And we were both paying close attention because this election matters much more to my future family unit than any one before it.

Our children are already born.  They are fully, 100 percent, two little Mexican children. And the newly minted President of Mexico is their President.  And what he does over his term matters to the nation as a whole, but in particular, it matters a whole lot to us as a future family unit.

Mexico, now more than ever, will be more inter-twined in my immediate family’s life. The well being of the country matters to us. The ability to have a safe and thriving Mexico is just as important to the people of Mexico as it is for my wife, our new family, and me. We want our children to enjoy, just as we did, the magic, the beauty, the charm, the warmth that is the Mexico we love. We want them to grow up proud of their native homeland. And to be able to visit and enjoy it as much as we have over the years in our travels throughout the country.

We want them to enjoy the beautiful beaches of the Pacific, from the soothing waters of San Carlos in Sonora to the secluded Barra de Potosi in Guerrero, where the most delectable fish we have ever tasted made the hammocks by the ocean that much more pleasurable.

We want them to dive in to the beauty that is the colonial inland; magical citadels like Taxco, Guanajuato, and especially Puebla – whose cathedral and it’s colossal bells were hoisted by a pair of angels who made the architectural miracle a reality.

We want them to experience the Diego Rivera mural in Cuernavaca, and stand in awe of the history the painting captures. We want them to taste the exquisite street churros in the plaza, with the chocolate filling, the ones that make you forget for two minutes that anything else is more important.

We want them to stand in awe of the colossal Olmec heads we saw in Xalapa – a jewel of a garden city nestled in the mountains of Veracruz – filled with jungle and rain forest perfect for the delicious cafecito that awaits as you listen to the marimba and Caribbean infused music of the region.

We want all of this for our children and for us, this new family.  And that is why we paid close attention on July 1^st.  This new Mexico matters to us.  And we hope for its growth and well-being, as much as our children’s.