I have lived in Mexico for over three years of my life, in Cd Juárez, Chihuahua, México, Distrito Federal and Guadalajara, Jalisco. During all that time, Mexico was a one party state, run by a political elite, the PRI, Partido Revolucionario, Institucional, that changed every six years. The President ran everything with his cabinet from LOs Pinos and the Diputados and the Senadores were just guys josting for power to get into the Executive Branch.
My father in law was a Zapotec indian and a baker who left Oaxaca for Mexico City in the 1920's because the paper money was useless to buy flour. He had a horse and carriage and one day, he was hired by the Paraguayan ambassador, who found him to be trustworthy and who bought him a Model T, after which he became a chauffeur. There was a revolution in Paraguay and the ambassador went to France, and Don Manuel (my father in law) was the chauffeur of a politician named Ezequiel Padilla, who lost to Miguel Alemán for president because the previous president Lus Ávila Camacho liked Aleman better. He went into exile with Padilla in San Francisco, but he did not like it, and returned and worked for officials of the Mexico City government.
I was in Mexico City during the Summer Olympics in 1968. My college, La Universidad de Las Américas was the only university that was not on strike against the brutality of the very unpopular Gustavo Díaz Ordaz, who murdered demonstrators. I did not say anything about politics, because it was dangerous. My roommate was a Mexican citizen, escaped the Tlatelolco massacre through the sewage pipes.
I was married in 1968, and my wife was at one time a baby sitter for Luis Echeverría's children. He was as corrupt as Diaz Ordaz, but he had charisma and Diaz Ordaz had none. She had a card from Echeverria which we used in the summers when I was studying for my PhD in Guadalajara. We had a 1969 Renault R-10 and we loaded up with cheap clearance sale dresses and small radios and hair dryers, which we sold to finance my education. All we had to do was to show the customs guys Echeverria's card and it was "pase usted, pase usted feliz viaje."
For years the PRI defeated the PAN (Partido de Acción Nacional) the Catholic party until one day the PAN won and the old political system collapsed.
Mexico is run better than it used to be.
I think that Morena Party candidate Claudia Sheinbaum, who is Jewish, will defeat Xóchitl Galvez of the Fuerza y Corazon coalition, which includes the remnants of the PRI and the PAN. There is a third guy, Jorge Álvarez, who does not seem likely to win.