María de Jesús Patricio Martínez (born 23 December 1963),íadeJesúsPatricioMartí also known as Marichuy, is a traditional medicine healer and human rights activist in Mexico. Of Nahua descent, she was chosen as "representative indigenous spokeswoman" by National Indigenous Congress (CNI) for the 2018 general election, for which she ran as an independent candidate for the Presidency of Mexico.
On 28 May 2017, a congress was held in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas, where Marichuy was designated by the CNI as the "representative indigenous spokeswoman" by 840 delegates from 60 indigenous communities of Mexico. The Congress also resolved to choose Marichuy as spokeswoman for the indigenous peoples of Mexico in the 2018 general election. Media reported that Patricio Martínez is the first indigenous woman to run for the Presidency of Mexico.
Early life and work
María de Jesús Patricio Martínez was born 23 December 1963, in the Nahua community of Tuxpan, located in the present state of Jalisco. She completed high school for the purpose of dedicating herself to preserving her community by way of studying traditional medicines. After furthering these dreams to become a traditional doctor, she founded the Calli Tecolhuacateca Tochan Clinic in 1992. The health center supports the continuity and further development of Nahuan traditional indigenous medicine, an objective supported for decades by the University of Guadalajara. Marichuy is married to Carlos González.
Indigenous movement
Marichuy is widely respected and, since 1994, a participant within the Zapatista indigenous movement, as well as a founding member of the National Indigenous Congress. "We think that compañera Marichuy doesn’t sell out, doesn’t give up and doesn’t surrender, as she was trained inside the CNI, we believe that," said one of the women of the Indigenous Governing Council (CIG) while reading the pronouncement of Marichuy's election.
In 2001, Marichuy spoke before the Congress of the Union about the situation of indigenous women nationwide. At that time, lawmakers directly and indirectly responsible for indigenous human rights violations in Mexico decided not to attend.
In May 2015, the Tuxpan Municipal Government Council delivered the Tuxpan Award of Merit to María de Jesús Patricio Martínez, allotted by the University of Guadalajara's Unit of Support to the Indigenous Communities (UACI), the Coordination of Linkage and Social Services. The award was given to Marichuy in the area of Science and Culture, for her work in the House of Health for preserving traditional and herbal medicine.
Spokesperson and the Mexican presidency
Altering a strategy which has rejected the Mexican state and its electoral politics, the Zapatistas announced in December 2016 their plans to elect a female spokesperson to represent the indigenous community as a presidential candidate. On May 28, 2017, Marichuy was elected by the National Indigenous Congress (CNI) as their spokesperson and representative for the presidency. Her campaign reflected both a displacement and an adherence to post-modern Zapatista politics –on the one hand, they reject state-power as a political goal; on the other, by endorsing Marichuy they joined an electoral competition of alternative state projects.
CNI's decision is also seen as a proposal for all Mexicans. "It’s an inclusive proposal, not only of the indigenous and with the indigenous, which makes the vindications of all the exploited, oppressed and discriminated of the earth its own, regardless of their ethnic or national origins and cultural characteristics. It’s not an essentialist or ethnic proposal. The proposal addresses all the peoples of Mexico, including the one of the majority nationality, that world where we all fit."