By *Rachel Evans*

May 21, 2009 -- Coyacan, Mexico -- I interviewed Patria Jiménez in
Coyacan’s normally bustling markets. The onset of the swine flu crisis
had emptied the streets and enforced a stiffness into Mexico’s normally
effusive greetings tradition. No kissing hello or shaking hands was
encouraged. Jiménez ignored swine-flu protocol and greeted me warmly.

In 1997, Jiménez made history by being elected the first openly lesbian
member of Mexico's Chamber of Deputies. Representing the Workers
Revolutionary Party (PRT), which was in an alliance with the Democratic
Revolution Party (PRD), Jiménez was also the first openly lesbian
candidate to be elected in Latin America. She is standing again within a
coalition, /Salvemos a México /(We Will Save Mexico), for the July 2009
federal elections. She remains a member of the PRT.

In 1997 the PRD had won control of Mexico City, opening up significant
space for left-leaning projects. Jiménez's election was based on decades
of campaigning around lesbian, gay, feminist and Indigenous people’s
rights, and her work gathered her international recognition. She was
nominated in 2005, along with another 11 Mexicans, for the Nobel Peace
Prize, inside the Project 1000 Women for Peace.

Full at http://links.org.au/node/1068

Subscribe free to Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal at
http://www.feedblitz.com/f/?Sub=343373

You can also follow Links on Twitter at http://twitter.com/LinksSocialism