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Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
University of Pennsylvania Press
September 2007
On Sale: September 1, 2007
339 pages
ISBN: 0271032626
EAN: 9780271032627
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
The emergence of Latin American firebrands who champion the
cause of the impoverished and rail against the evils of
neoliberalism and Yankee imperialism--Hugo Chavez in
Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Nastor Kirchner in
Argentina, Andras Manuel Lapez Obrador in Mexico--has
changed the landscape of the Americas in dramatic ways. This
will be the first biography to appear in English about one
of these charismatic figures, who is known in his country by
his adopted nickname of "Little Ray of Hope." The book follows Lapez Obrador's life from his early years
in the flyspecked state of Tabasco, his university studies,
and the years that he lived among the impoverished Chontal
Indians. Even as he showed an increasingly messianic Alan to
uplift the downtrodden, he confronted the muscular
Institutional Revolutionary Party in running twice for
governor of his home state and helping found the
leftist-nationalist Democratic Revolutionary Party (PRD). As
the PRD's national president, he escalated his political and
ideological warfare against his former president, Carlos
Salinas, and other "conspirators" determined to link Mexico
to the global economy at the expense of the poor. His
strident advocacy of the "have nots" lifted Lapez Obrador to
the mayorship of Mexico City, which he rechristened the
"City of Hope." Its ubiquitous crime, traffic, pollution,
and housing problems have made the capital a tomb for most
politicians. Not for Lapez Obrador. Through splashy public
works, monthly stipends to senior citizens, huge marches,
and a dawn-to-dusk work schedule, he converted the position
into a trampoline to the presidency. Although he lost the
official count by an eyelash, the hard-charging Tabascan
cried fraud, took the oath as the nation's "legitimate
president," and barnstormed the country, excoriating the
"fascist" policies of President Felipe Calderan and
preparing to redeem the destitute in the 2012 presidential
contest. Grayson views Lapez Obrador as quite different from
populists like Chavez, Morales, and Kirchner and argues that
he is a "secular messiah, who lives humbly, honors prophets,
gathers apostles, declares himself indestructible, relishes
playing the role of victim, and preaches a doctrine of
salvation by returning to the values of the 1917
Constitution-- fairness for workers, Indians' rights,
fervent nationalism, and anti-imperialism."
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