Political scientist Joseph Nye is the academic who has most elaborated the theory on the importance of the soft power of a nation. When you know how to capitalize and take advantage of it from the State, soft power is many times more effective as a tool to advance the agenda and interests of a country.
Soft power is not economic, military or political —which are variables of hard power— and resides in elements such as culture, gastronomy, art, intellectuality and nature, among many others.
Mexico is a nation with immense soft power. Everywhere on the planet our wealth and soft heritage is recognized. If in economic terms we are among the first 15 economies, in a soft power index we would be in the first five nations.
Just in these weeks there have been several very important manifestations of this:
Chef Elena Reygadas, recognized as the best in the world by the World’s 50 Best Restaurants; the novelist Guadalupe Nattel, nominated for the International Booker Prize, also in the United Kingdom, whose winner is announced on May 23; This week Carmen Aristegui receives the Diario Madrid award, for her “permanent defense of freedoms.” They are three examples of the quality of our cuisine, literature and journalism.
But there are many, many more award-winning women in other disciplines than our soft power. Just to mention a few, the architects Tatiana Bilbao, Frida Escobedo and Rossana Montiel, the designer Carla Fernández, the visual artist Teresa Margolles, the conductor Alondra de la Parra, the dancer Elisa Carrillo, the musicians Julieta Venegas and Lila Downs, the film director Natalia López, or Katya Echazarrenta, the first Mexican woman to travel to space. We also have at least 20 important autonomous state universities with prominent rectors, such as Dr. Teresa García Gasca in Querétaro, Dr. Rita Plancarte in Sonora, and Dr. Silvia Elena Giorguli, president of the Colegio de México.
These are just a few of the thousands of Mexican women who show every day that we are a country with an enormous amount of talent, ideas, creativity, and effort.
Their trajectories also tell us something very important about success in disciplines that are so competitive in all corners of the planet: they are professionals who have developed independently, autonomously, in the fierce competition that exists in their fields. Their success is manifested in the market economy in which we live, in the waiting lists to eat in their restaurants, the tens of thousands of readers, the hundreds of thousands of radio listeners, the buildings they have built, the millions of records sold. That is, they have captivated their customers and consumers. His work is applauded and acquired in Mexico and around the world.
And although these examples are related to soft power, it should also be noted that in Mexico, women who occupy important positions in areas that belong to hard power stand out more and more and with greater force. Women who are judges, governors, senators, deputies, state secretaries, mayors, company directors, among other areas, and who carry out work in their field of hard power as significant as those I have mentioned here regarding soft power.
However, when celebrating these brilliant Mexicans, one must think of the other notable women in our country. Women that we may never see in the media aspiring for an award or celebrating their international triumphs, but who are as valuable, determined and outstanding as the ones I have listed in this space. Hopefully the case of these Mexican women will help us reflect on the obstacles that they and millions of others have faced to study, work, and fully exercise their capacity and talent in an equitable environment and country where they feel safe in all spaces. Building that country is the best tribute we can offer them.
