Oh give me a home…

Politics is over on substack, but there was an article in the news today about presidential candidate Xochiltl Galvéz saying she would not live in the Palacio Nacional, but would prefer to move into a “cabin” (a very large… as in 500 M² cabin built during the Fox administration at Los Pinos (now a public cultural center), arguing a “palace” is “imperial” and she’s no emperor.

Well, OK… but Mexico never really had any specific presidential mansion. Early on, either the presidents (especially in those early years, when presidents went in and out of office, sometimes in a matter of monhs), several might have bunked there, and Emperor Maximiliano spent a fortune redecorating the place (after his first night in Mexico City, when discoving the beds weren’t made up for him, slept on a pool table), but Benito Juarez had a small apartment in the building (where he died… you can still see his bed, which has been made up, by the way). Porfiro … at least officially… started living at Chapultepec Castle, but spent most nights at a rented house in the city, and was only there for ceremonial occasions.

Lazaro Cardenas… reportedly because his wife, Amelia Solórzano didn’t think a castle was quite suitable for raising small children… moved into what had been Maximilano’s hunting lodge, Los Pinos. That would become the de facto Presidential home, morphing over the 80+ years into a complex of houses, guest-lodges, a military barracks and offices. One president, the left leaning Adolfo Lopez Mateos, never stayed there, but the rest were free to indulge much more “imperial” tastes than they can at the residency within the Palace now used by the President… a “modest” 300 square meter 2 bedroom apartment, originally installed during the Calderón administration from rooms previously used by the “presidential guard” (since disbanded) for housing some of their officers.

By the way, if you noticed, Galvéz’ prefered lodging… should she be elected… is quite a bit larger than the “imperial palace” apartment. AMLO was asked about the place in an interview, soon after moving in… and gave what has to be the classic Mexico City answer… it’s a shorter commute to work.

Xóchitl Gálvez afirma que de llegar a la Presidencia no vivirá en Palacio Nacional; “no me siento emperador”, dice, El Universal, 25 March 2024

El departamento de Felipe Calderón en Palacio Nacional en el que hoy vive AMLO, Politico MX, 24 August 2023

AMLO muestra el interior del departamento de Palacio Nacional, Expansion, 20 June 2020

Presidential dining room in the palace.