The Feminist Movement in Mexico, Pt. 2

This is Class, the official podcast of the National Political Education Committee of the Democratic Socialists of America. This is the second of a two-part conversation with Alina Herrera Fuentes about the feminist movement in Mexico. 

Alina is a lawyer, feminist, and Marxist. She is a member of Morena's National Institute for Political Formation. Currently, Alina is the educational content coordinator for the comprehensive gender program. In this episode, we talk about Morena´s success and challenges in the feminist struggle, the next step for the feminist movement, and some observations and advice for leftists in the U.S. 

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Transcript

Luke: What are the challenges Morena has faced in terms of the feminist struggle? What successes has Morena realized? 

Alina: This is a very good question, Luke. Thank you, because we can’t talk about successes without talking about challenges. Let’s talk about the successes first, which have come out of many years of hard work and deserve to be named. Many people feel pessimistic about civil organizations, mostly because they view civil society with a certain amount of romanticization, as if there were no tensions or disputes. There are many successes despite this degree of pessimism and these difficulties. 

I always make a comparison. We are in the year 2025. In 2018, when Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) came to power, the two main concerns of the feminist movement in Mexico were abortion rights (which seemed impossible and very far away) and the high rates of femicide.  In 2018, only two out of 32 states had decriminalized abortion: Mexico City and Oaxaca. The rest criminalized abortion. Today, in 2025, 22 states have decriminalized abortion. This happened thanks to AMLO’s term and the Supreme Court, which at that time was headed by Minister Arturo Saldívar, who was very sympathetic to Morena and is currently on the president’s council. The Court promoted the decriminalization of abortion by calling criminalization anti-constitutional. The Court’s intervention was a turning point in the fight for abortion rights. 

Today, if the demand for abortion continues, we can see the struggle through eyes of hope and possibility. The struggle will continue no matter what, but now we have a sense of hope. This is in contrast to what’s happening in countries like the United States and Argentina, where these rights are being taken away by far-Right governments. 

The struggle for abortion rights is one of the greatest victories for Morena within the feminist arena. In all of the states where abortion is decriminalized, we aren’t talking just about women, but also about trans and non-binary people. This is a victory in terms of people’s physical integrity. 

In talking about successes, we should also mention welfare programs like pensions for women aged 60-64, which have already impacted a million people. We have also seen a decrease in the number of femicides by 37.6% — still small, but very significant. This all took place during AMLO’s administration, in which we were first able to stop the rise of femicides and then slowly decrease the violence. This is a success, although there’s still a lot left to do. 

We can also talk about the granting of land titles to indigenous rural women, which is being considered first for women in maquilas and day laborers. There are many programs, almost always divided into four fundamental axes. Parity — I haven’t mentioned parity, but gender parity is a state policy at the constitutional level that has made parity possible in the executive branch, the legislative branch, and in all party lists and across all institutions. 

A female president is undoubtedly one of the successes of the feminist struggles that were made possible by a lot of work on gender and class awareness during AMLO’s term. I already mentioned sexual and reproductive rights, which are the other axes of the welfare policies. 

There are several areas in which progress has been made. For example, the World Bank calculated that in the last six years, nine million people in Mexico were lifted out of poverty, and five million of them were women — a reduction due to public welfare policies. We have also had major constitutional reforms that have not only been letters on paper, but have gradually been reflected in the daily lives of Mexican women. 

Now, the challenges. First, we need to continue extending the success we’ve had. For example, winning the right to an abortion in all 32 states. This means a tremendous fight against conservative groups and the Right. We need to continue reducing the number of femicides and remove the roots that generate organized crime. The challenges are immense. 

I want to comment on some of the more specific challenges that are more at hand, and I’ll take a two-pronged approach: an approach that looks within the party, and an approach that looks at the universe outside of Morena concerning the feminist struggle. 

Within the party, there is still a lot to be done regarding the revolution of consciousness — revolution from a feminist perspective — we’ve discussed. There’s still a lot of simulation by our comrades, an assumed consciousness that doesn’t yet exist or is still lacking. We need internal critique. The Leftist feminist movement gave us this slogan: “On the street, Leftist comrades are Che, and in the house, Pinochet.” Right? We can’t go back to simulated feminism. 

Morena’s National Institute for Political Formation (INFP), headed by Rafael Barajas, has understood this need. We have a comprehensive gender program, and Rafeal himself has facilitated this for us, among other colleagues in the institute, such as the head of finance. This program has greatly strengthened the work we do. We are working to raise issues of femininity, masculinity, and sexual and gender diversity. The gender program works internally and externally, providing training for people inside and outside the party across all 32 states. In this way, we can plant a seed, a seed that spreads ideas of feminism from a Leftist perspective. 

I think the biggest challenge is making the discourse a reality, not just the discourse within Morena, but the discourse that each activist brings with them. 

Luke: What should be the next step for the feminist movement in Mexico? Both inside and outside of Morena. 

Alina: The feminist movement in Mexico is very varied. There are many trends within the Mexican movement, even some that are in conflict. We’ve detected since the beginning of the institute’s gender program that a notion of neoliberal feminism has been consolidated in Mexico. A business feminism, a glass ceiling feminism, a very rusty, bourgois, white-centric feminism that merely reflects the needs of Mexico’s most impoverished women. There’s a very broad mosaic of feminism in the country, and creating a consensus would be difficult. 

However, we are united by common demands such as abortion rights and an end to femicides. But in general, we are in a position to demand questions of economic autonomy, not in terms of economic empowerment (which has been a term used by the hegemonic white and bourgeois feminism), but in terms of autonomy based on collective work, autonomy that touches on questions of work contracts and salary gaps. Autonomy that demands fair contracts and protection from the state. If we don’t think about autonomy as something collective, we aren’t “deneoliberalizing” feminism or “deneoliberalizing” the Fourth Transformation. We need to deneoliberalize the feminist movement inside and outside of Morena. 

Feminism is a political and social question, but also an economic one. If we don’t think about economic authority as a question of social justice, we remain at the surface level of changes and demands. We need to deepen our feminism to include demands that touch the structure of oppression, which is neoliberal capitalism.  

The president has already taken the first steps in this process through constitutional reforms for equality that close the wage gap. The constitution is the law of all laws, which makes it an essential starting point. 

Luke: Do you have any observations or advice for the left and those struggling for democracy and equality in the United States? 

Alina: This is a tough question. I like it because the Global South usually isn’t asked to advise the North. But I’m respectful of the fact that each country has unique internal processes, and because the fights in these countries are done by people who are putting their bodies on the line. Conditions in the U.S. are totally adverse, and the news is chilling because Trump is so repressive, so far to the right, so racist, and so classist. Yet, I recently heard Angela Davis say that they can’t take away our hope and that we have to fight despite facing such a detestable figure as Trump. Following this line, I’d say that the Leftists in the U.S. are the ones who can write their own history within very adverse conditions. I see Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and say, well, here’s the light at the end of the tunnel, the torch that can guide us out of the hegemonic movement. I look at them with great admiration, hope, and respect. 

The story of repression, inequality, and bloodshed in the U.S. is not a story too distant from our own. I believe that Leftists in the U.S. have the tools and human capital to move past this crossroads in history. 

Luke: Thanks so much for joining us, Alina. Thanks for the advice, history, and for talking about the contemporary movement. I hope this is only the first of many conversations between groups in the U.S. and Mexico because we are together in this fight. 

Alina: Yes, we are together.