Vicente Fox

On July 2, 2000, his 58th birthday Vicente Fox was elected president of Mexico. His amazing victory made headlines around the world. A few years earlier no one would have predicted this successful businessman would one day make it to Los Pinos, the Mexican White house. In fact until 1993 Vicente Fox could not even think of that in order to be eligible for the office a candidate had to have Mexican-Born parents. Vicente Fox’s father, Jose Luis Fox, was indeed a native of Mexico. But his mother Mercedes Quesada, was an immigrant, born in Spain. Her Family had come to Mexico when she was a baby. Luckily for Fox, this Law was changed, and he was able to become a presidential candidate. Vicente Fox was born on July 2, 1942 in Mexico City. He was given the formal name Vicente Fox Quesada. It is a tradition among Mexicans of Spanish heritage to give babies a surname that combines both parents’ surnames. At the time of Vicente’s birth Jose Luis Fox and Mercedes Quesada had been married only a few years. They had one other child, a son. Like many young people, they possessed high hopes for the future. They did not want to raise their family in Mexico city one of the largest cities on earth. They thought it would be healthier for their children to live in the country. While Vicente was still a baby, they moved to the state of Guanajuato is a beautiful area with many mountains. Centuries ago after silver was discovered there many mines were opened. The Foxes moved to Guanajuato because they had inherited a ranch from Jose Luis Fox’s father near the small town San Francisco del Rincon. Leon was the nearest city and was a long drive away. The ranch called San Cristobal, was very old. In 1964, he went to work for The Coca-Cola Company where he started as a route supervisor and drove a delivery truck. He quickly rose in the company to become supervisor of Coca-Cola's operations in Mexico, and later in all of Latin America. As President of Coca Cola Mexico, Vicente Fox helped remove Pepsi as Mexico's top-selling soft drink, increasing Coca-Cola's sales by almost 50%. Vicente Fox married a receptionist at Coca-Cola, Lilian de la Concha. They adopted four children, Ana Cristina, Vicente, Paulina and Rodrigo. In 1990, after 20 years of marriage, Lilian filed for divorce. Vicente Fox married for the second time while in office. He married Marta Sahagun Jimenez (until then his spokesperson) on July 2, 2001, the first anniversary of his presidential election and his 59th birthday. For both, this was their second marriage. After retiring from Coca-Cola, Vicente Fox began to participate in various public activities in Guanajuato, where he created the Patronato de la Casa Cuna Amigo Daniel, an orphanage. He was president of Patronato Loyola, a sponsor of the Leon campus of the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Lux Institute.With the support of Manuel Clouthier, Vicente Fox joined the PAN on March 1, 1988. That same year he ran for and was elected as a member of the congress representing the III Federal District in Guanajuato. During this period, he was the Coordinator of the Farming Commissions of the PAN fraction. After serving in the Chamber of Deputies, Fox returned to Guanajuato to seek the governorship. In 1991, he sought the position of governor of Guanajuato but lost to Ramón Aguirre Velázquez of the PRI. Following the election, local discontent was so great that the state Congress appointed Carlos Medina Plasencia of the National Action Party (PAN) as interim governor. Four years later, Fox decided to run again and was elected governor with a large margin at the age of 52. According to Mexico’s Federal Electoral Institute, the result was 58% for Fox, to 32% for the candidate of the PRI. Since Vicente Fox was elected governor of Guanajuato, the state continues to be governed by candidates of Fox’s party, the PAN. In 2000, Vicente Fox decided to run for President of Mexico. In spite of opposition within his party, Fox secured his candidacy representing the Alliance for Change, a political coalition formed by the National Action Party and the Ecological Green Party of Mexico. During the course of his campaign a presidential debate was organized. There was a disagreement between the three main contenders, Fox, Francisco Labastida of the PRI and Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas of the PRD, and some of the arguments were broadcast on national television, notably the one on whether the debate should be held that same day or the following Friday. For minutes, Fox kept repeating the word "Hoy" meaning "today", originating the famous phrase "hoy, hoy, hoy!". The other candidates decided to postpone the debate, but Fox used that day's airtime anyway. At first the action brought criticism to Fox, but it soon backfired against his opponents when Fox started using his new phrase to gain new supporters as he campaigned for a better future "today". He claimed that his opponents wanted to leave everything for tomorrow, including Mexico's problems.