At 94 years of age, Ifigenia Martínez Hernández has been a witness—and also the protagonist—of a historic moment: the inauguration of the first president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum. Martínez handed the presidential sash to Sheinbaum, a symbolic fact, but one that is no coincidence. The current president of Congress has experienced her own momentous moments in the economy, diplomacy, academia and national politics. From being the first Mexican woman to obtain a master’s degree in Economics at Harvard University, to being considered the co-founder of the left in the country with the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD), Ifigenia Martínez has been part of the most relevant in Mexico during the last six decades.
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Political pioneer
During the student movement of 1968, Ifigenia Martínez fought against government repression at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), where she served as the first director of the National School of Economics (1967). The academic ended up locked up in a Mexico City police cell for her resistance to the authorities’ repression. He later founded the PRD together with figures such as Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas and Porfirio Muñoz Ledo, in a period in which an alternative to the hegemony of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) was sought, a party in which he served for 20 years.
Throughout her career, she has held multiple positions, being a federal representative and senator on various occasions. In 1988, she became the first woman elected by Mexico City to a seat in the Senate, a significant step toward gender parity in politics. In recognition of her valuable contribution to Mexican society, Martínez was awarded the Belisario Domínguez Medal in October 2021, the highest distinction granted by the Mexican State. This distinction underlines not only his academic work, but also his role in the fight for equity and social justice.
The relationship between Ifigenia Martínez and Claudia Sheinbaum
When López Obrador left the PRD to start the National Regeneration Movement (Morena), Ifigenia Martínez supported him and expressed her support for the so-called Fourth Transformation, which is why she has also remained close to Sheinbaum. The president has described Ifigenia Martínez as a woman who has opened paths for many, highlighting her consistency and dedication in the fight for the democratization of Mexico.
In the presidential election, Sheinbaum revealed that he symbolically voted for Martínez as a way to recognize his influence and legacy. “She is a very consistent woman. Her performance as director of the Faculty of Economics in ’68; at the time it was part of the Democratic Current in 87; and since ’88 it has been very consistent. So, she is one of the women who has opened a gap for many women in Mexico,” Sheinbaum said on August 21 at a press conference. For her part, Martínez celebrated Sheinbaum’s triumph as the first woman to hold the position of head of the Executive Branch in the country. “In 1988 I was the first woman to pioneer the democratic movement and now having Claudia Sheinbaum as president of the republic is a great privilege that fills me with pride,” the Mexican politician said in a statement.
According to Martínez, the transfer of power on October 1 “is a historic moment in the country’s public life, especially for women.” Upon being elected as president of the Chamber of Deputies for the first regular period of sessions of the LXVI Legislature, the economist and academic will be the one to place the presidential sash on Sheinbaum. For Ifigenia Martínez, the appointment is the result of a long struggle. “We women are finally taking the places that belonged to us a long time ago, but that we did not have,” she said in a statement.
The leftist leader received Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Claudia Sheinbaum in the Congress rostrum. Due to her advanced age, Ifigenia Martínez had to rely on auxiliary oxygen during the investiture ceremony, while when she stood up to receive the outgoing president’s sash to hand it over to Sheinbaum she had to hold on to López Obrador’s arm to maintain the balance for a few seconds to hand over the presidential sash. Protocol indicates that she should give it to the new president, but in the end she had to be helped by an element of the Mexican armed forces, also a woman.
Women took center stage in Congress: from the delegation of legislators who received Sheinbaum, the presence on the platform of Ifigenia Martínez and the president of the Court Norma Piña, as well as the members of the army who flanked them.
