Although she is not the first woman to hold office (before Rosario Robles did it on an interim basis between 1999 and 2000), she is the first to gain access to the mayor’s office through popular vote.
With 56 years and a rather sober style – she is rarely seen smiling at a public event that almost always comes with jeans, white shirt and scarf on the neck – Sheinbaum does not meet the stereotypes of the average politician.
Born in a Jewish family in a mainly Catholic country – her grandparents emigrated from Lithuania and Bulgaria – Sheinbaum nevertheless received a secular education.
And her first passion, like that of her parents, was not politics but science: he studied Physics and Energy Engineering at the UNAM, obtained a PhD at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (United States) and was part of the Intergovernmental Panel of Experts on Climate Change (IPCC) of the UN, the team that won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.
However, her interest in science has not prevented her from developing a political career.
This is the first time that the President of Mexico and Mexico City Mayor belong the same political party.