Tucson mayor in US delegation to inauguration of Mexico's new president

Tucson Mayor Regina Romero will join First Lady Jill Biden in the presidential delegation to attend the inauguration of Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo.

The delegation will travel to Mexico City on Oct. 1.

The delegation, led by First Lady Jill Biden, is made up federal and state officials. Romero is the only mayor or local official to be be included, President Joe Biden announced Tuesday in a White House news release.

Romero said she is “looking forward to representing Tucson and bearing witness to this important milestone for women everywhere,” she said in a Facebook post.

“I am incredibly honored to be invited to join First Lady of the United States Dr. Jill Biden at the Inauguration of Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo,” Romero said in a statement to the Star. “We are about to witness the first time a woman in Mexico takes charge of the country. We are making strides and taking huge steps towards the equality of women.”

In June, Mexico voters elected Sheinbaum to become the country’s first female president in the country’s 200-year history, the Associated Press reported. She is a climate scientist and the former mayor of Mexico City, the news outlet said.

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Other officials of the delegation traveling next week include: U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ken Salazar; Xavier Becerra, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas; Isabel Casillas Guzman, Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration; U.S. Senator for Connecticut Chris Murphy; U.S. Rep. for California, Nanette Barragán; Dr. Liz Sherwood-Randall, Assistant to the President and Homeland Security Advisor and Deputy National Security Advisor of The White House; and Carlos Elizondo, Deputy Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary.

Romero is the daughter of immigrants and the first Mexican-American woman to serve as Tucson’s mayor. She helped open the Democratic National Convention last month in a prime-time TV appearance and was the lead-up speaker for Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, at a Sept. 12 campaign stop in Tucson that centered on reproductive rights.

Romero noted that not only is Mexico Arizona’s neighbor, its the state’s largest trade partner.

The history shared between Sonora and Arizona is intertwined, she said.

“We are bound together by our familial ties: The borderlands share the Sonoran Desert, its history and culture,” she said. “We are part of each other’s story.”