Growing up in a poor rural town, Xochitl Gálvez sold homemade candy to help support her family. Today, she's a successful entrepreneur and hoping to become Mexico's first female president.
A center-right opposition senator and self-made businesswoman with indigenous roots, the 61-year-old often recalls her humble childhood in Tepatepec, in the central state of Hidalgo.
According to the candidate and her relatives, her childhood was marked by domestic violence and an alcoholic father.
“My parents were in financial difficulty, so they started living here,” Mr. Galvez's cousin, Norma Angelica Ruiz, said as she gave us a tour of the house where Mr. Galvez once lived with his grandparents, parents and siblings.
A photo of Galvez with his family when he was a teenager still hangs on the wall.
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“We didn't have a refrigerator, so the famous candy was hung in a basket on that beam,” said Lewis, a dentist.
At the time, there was only an elementary school in the town, so Galvez had to travel far to continue his studies.
Ruiz remembers Galvez as a studious child.
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“In high school she learned to sew and taught it to women in underprivileged areas,” the 68-year-old said.
But in Tepatepec, where outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's party enjoys strong support, not everyone is impressed by the rags-to-riches story.
“It's a lie to say they were very poor. This house is one of the biggest in town,” said Dalila Garcia, a vendor at the local market.
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Born to an indigenous Otomi father and a mixed-race mother, Galvez speaks with pride about his origins.
Her name means “flower” in Nahuatl, and her record sets her apart from her traditional conservative opponents.
She is known for wearing traditional dress, using colloquialisms peppered with profanity, and traveling around Mexico City by bicycle.
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Galvez served as mayor of a Mexico City district from 2015 to 2018 before being elected to the Senate.
“I follow my beliefs. No one can control me, not even my husband,” she often repeats to emphasize her independence.
Galvez is currently aligned with the conservative opposition but has a liberal background and is a defender of abortion, LGBTQ rights and the outgoing president Lopez Obrador's social welfare programs.
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At the same time, she criticised left-wing populist security strategies, saying “we need ovaries” to tackle organised crime.
“Macho men like you are afraid of independent and intelligent women,” she said in another message to President Lopez Obrador.
After leaving Tepatepec at age 17, Galvez studied at the prestigious National Autonomous University of Mexico and later founded a successful high-tech company.
In 2000, conservative President Vicente Fox put her in charge of indigenous policy.
As a senator, the mother-of-two once wore a dinosaur costume to Parliament to criticise the Government.
During a series of presidential debates, Galvez launched a scathing attack on ruling party candidate Claudia Scheinbaum, calling her an “ice lady” and a “narco candidate.”
“While you were dancing ballet at 10 years old, I had to work,” she told the former mayor of Mexico City, who was born in the capital to a family of Jewish immigrants and educated as a scientist.
Despite his scorching performance, Galvez is more than 20 points behind Scheinbaum in the polls.
Those close to Galvez are aware that she is less popular in Tepatepec, where support for Sheinbaum is more visible on the streets.
“In this town, when you're successful, people are skeptical,” Lewis said.
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