Ruffling feathers in Mexico's macho political culture

When she worked as chief spokeswoman to President Vicente Fox, Martha Sahagún was used to putting a positive spin on tough queries from the press. Since the two exchanged wedding vows in a surprise ceremony last month, confirming a long-rumored affair, she's had to face down questions of a far more personal nature, not all of them pleasant.

Nonetheless, the new Mrs. Sahagún de Fox has made it clear she intends to redefine the role of first lady in Mexico, a place where presidents' wives have traditionally been out-of-sight recluses or glamorous socialites.

"My commitment to serve this country," she declared in a press conference held days after her marriage, "is unwavering."

In a country where the divorce rate hovers around 6.5 percent, it is perplexing to some that this divorcée now speaks openly about her once-secret romance with the president. Sahagún left her first husband six years ago, about the same time she met and began working for Mr. Fox.

In a macho culture where only about a third of women work outside the home, Sahagún has also ruffled feathers by saying she intends to continue in the "great project" started by her husband.

"I want to be everywhere where I am needed," Sahagún told an interviewer recently. "Obviously, I am not going to stay at home."

With plans to host a human rights summit, fight for women's rights, and combat poverty, she at times sounds a bit like Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former US first lady, who herself belittled cookie-baking in the early days of the Clinton White House.

In Mexico, such blunt rejections of housewifery are even more controversial.

Plus, there have been other character issues.

Catholic leaders have condemned the marriage as invalid, since Fox and Sahagún, both of them divorced, have yet to receive formal church annulments of their former unions. Conservatives say confirmation of their long-rumored romance illustrated that Fox and his new bride make poor role models for Mexico's youth.

Opposition politicians decry Sahagún's continued presence as Fox's official representative at political functions, since she resigned from her role as spokesperson the day of her wedding. Members of the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) were particularly hostile when Fox sent Sahagún as his representative to last week's inauguration of President Alejandro Toledo in Peru, saying a political envoy would have been more appropriate.

Through it all, Mexican newspapers have covered Sahagún's every step, even reporting on how the new first lady stumbled last Thursday during an official ceremony to welcome visiting British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Just last week, two major women's journals put Sahagún on their covers, while the Spanish glossy Hola ran a photo spread of her wedding, and the monthly gossip magazine Actual published a biting interview with Fox's clearly embittered ex-wife.

How Sahagún made the journey from provincial housewife to first lady has been the subject of much of the interest.

Though she never went to college and had no prior political experience, Sahagún first began working as Fox's spokeswoman in 1995, when he was governor of Guanajuato state.

She later played a central role in Fox's historic presidential campaign that brought to an end more than seven decades of single-party rule in Mexico. Their July 3 nuptials coincided with the president's 59th birthday and the one-year anniversary of his victory over the PRI.

And while Sahagún drew criticism as Fox's chief spokesperson for occasionally bungling official policies in interviews and press conferences, some analysts describe her as overqualified for the role of first lady.

"This is the first, first lady in Mexico who is very interesting in and of herself, and not just for being married to the president," said Monica Ibarra Casado, a senior editor at Quien magazine, who interviewed Sahagún for last week's cover story. "She will work, and it doesn't matter to her what other people say. It is a wonderful example for women here who don't see many others in this kind of position of power."

Patricia Espinosa, president of the National Women's Institute, shares these sentiments. "She is being true to herself," she says. "And she's giving us a new vision of what a first lady should be."

Sahagún herself has responded to the criticism with the same kind of double-speak she once used for her husband's policies. "We are sharing a great project which is called Mexico," she told Quien magazine. "Everything that would appear to be difficult, as much in the political (sense) as in the personal, we view as an opportunity for growth. But we had to exercise much patience, tolerance, and, of course, discretion."