During a press conference in Mexico City on January 31, 2025, a reporter asked the President of Mexico about the historical significance and reasoning behind marking 2025 as the Year of Indigenous Women.
Claudia Sheinbaum stands as a woman and as President of Mexico, fully recognizing her position in the world and the struggles of the women who came before her. She reaches back to the origins of the country, acknowledging its historical foundation laid by Indigenous women. Moreover, she addresses the root of all social and political problemsdiscrimination. The discrimination against women and Indigenous communities is deeply embedded in history.
Her words were not a political maneuver to gain votes. She was not rationalizing a justification in response to a journalists question. Instead, she placed human life and contribution as the foundation of recognitionnot merely historical or significant events.
She demonstrated this before in her letter to Donald Trump, where she used the concept of "human mobility" instead of the terms "migrant" or "immigration" when discussing the issue of the U.S.-Mexico border. "Human mobility" describes an experiencewhat people do naturally. People move constantly; airplanes, buses, trains, boats, cars, and bicycles are in motion worldwide. Movement is a human reality, something to be recognized and managed. Immigration, by contrast, is secondarya legal matter tied to a system that can be changed and transformed.
For humanists, acknowledging and understanding the roots of discrimination is a priority. Claudia Sheinbaums approach echoes that of Laura Rodrguez, the Chilean political activist, who spoke at theHumanist Internationals meeting with the Academy of Sciences of Moscow in April 1991:
It is difficult to grasp the full depth of humanismto prioritize human existence as the most important value in a hierarchy of challenges. Yet, in just over a minute, Claudia Sheinbaum did exactly thatwith profound clarity and greatness.
The official launch of the celebration took place on February 7, 2025.
David Andersson
