Eradicating racism is not optional: Sheinbaum demands historical justice.

With the capital's Zócalo as a witness and within the framework of the 700th anniversary of the Founding of Mexico-Tenochtitlan, President Claudia Sheinbaum issued a forceful call to the national conscience: eradicating racism is not optional; it is an urgent necessity and a moral and historical obligation.
The president emphasized that the heart of Mexico beats in its indigenous roots and that the country's future can only be built by courageously recognizing everything we were and everything we are.
“There can be no national identity without an Indigenous face. Eradicating racism is not an option; it's a necessity to build a just society,” Sheinbaum stated.
In a speech that appealed to both memory and pride, Sheinbaum evoked the greatness of Tenochtitlán not as a ruin, but as a living seed that flourishes in the neighborhoods, towns, languages, and struggles of today.
He mentioned that this legacy lives on not only in archaeological remains or statues, but also in the mothers who teach Nahuatl to their children, in the young people who denounce racism on social media, and in the indigenous peoples who resist uprooting.
"Those who don't remember their roots walk without a shadow or direction. Memory is a seed, not a burden," the president said.
During her address, the president addressed the history of colonization and genocide of Indigenous peoples. She pointed out that the arrival of the Spanish was not a meeting of worlds, but rather a violent imposition that sought to erase all traces of the original.
"The Fourth Transformation is, above all, a project of dignity. There is no justice without settling the historical debt owed to Indigenous peoples," he asserted.
This stance reinforces the social character of his government and comes amid growing tensions over media racism and classism that have spread virally on social media.
Sheinbaum's words don't come in a vacuum. Just a few weeks earlier, the case of Ximena Pichel, nicknamed "Lady Racista," reignited the national debate on structural racism. The Argentine influencer insulted a Mexico City traffic officer for immobilizing her car, using classist and discriminatory phrases that immediately went viral.
This episode, like others like it, highlights that racial discrimination is not just a colonial legacy, but a reality in urban life, the media, and politics.
Just hours before a march against gentrification in Mexico City, the president's discourse also takes on a new dimension. The struggle for land, rising rents, and the displacement of indigenous residents are deeply linked to forms of urban racism and classism.
The protest, organized by neighborhood groups, seeks to denounce how certain sectors of society are systematically displaced in the name of "progress," reinforcing historical inequalities under a new guise.
The president closed her speech with an ancient phrase that resonates from the depths of Mexican identity:
“As long as the world exists, the fame and glory of Mexico-Tenochtitlán will never end.”
A message that not only honors the past, but also proposes a path toward the future: one where justice, memory, and inclusion cease to be rhetoric and become living politics.
La Verdad Yucatán