Ladies first…

Josefina Vazquez Mota said her victory in the PAN primary was “historic” making her the “first woman” to run for the Presidency… well, at least from the right wing.

Rosario Ibarra de la Piedra, Partido Revolucionario de los Trabajadores (1982)

Marcela Lombardo Otero, Partido Popular Socialista (1994)

Cecilia Soto Gonzaléz, Partido del Trabajo (1994)

Patricia Mercado Castro, Partido Socialdemócrata (1996)

Ibarra ran as a Trotkyite, not so much to win as to raise questions about the fate of the “disappeared” including her son, Dr. Jesús Piedra Ibarra, a medical workers union leader, who was kidnapped by government agents in 1975 and never seen again.  She is presently a Senator, and at the age of 85, still an important leader on the Mexican left and a human rights activist.

Marcela Lombardo is the daughter of Marxist philosopher, labor organizer and party founder Vicente Lombardo Toledano.  Later a Federal Deputy, she now runs a think tank and foundation bearing her father’s name.

Cecilia Soto, initially a PARM activist, switched to the PT, and later … after serving as Ambassador to Brazil, became a PANista, and Calderón supporter.

Patricia Mercado bounced around from party to party, initially attempting to forge a feminist-gay-Protestant-indigenous-handicapped people’s coalition  Mexico Possible… which pushed abortion rights,same-sex marriage and marijuana legalization… and annoying the Catholic Church.  Mexico Possible did not receive enough votes to qualify as a party, so it was reorganized for the presidential election as the Social Democrats, which did.  Although the party didn’t last very long,  it brought national attention to social issues otherwise ignored, and gave some cover for incorporating them into at least the Mexico City PRD agenda.

And, of course, some might think of an earlier female presidenta: