AS SOMEONE SAID along the campaign trail when he was introducing Miguel De la Madrid, of the Partido Revolucionario Institucional, to the people gathered to hear him, “Here we have with us the president who is coming as a candidate.” This contradiction in terms catches the situation. As the candidate tours the country’s regions, each with its own political, economic, and social problems, he becomes more and more of an authority on the kaleidoscopic reality of the country he is to govern, which in turn becomes the reason for bestowing upon him the power that he receives. The PRI is the party which receives the majority of the votes; its struggle is not so much against a specific opposing party as against absentee votes at the time of the elections.
Pedro Meyer took these photographs between October 1981 and January 1982, when he was invited to create a photographic memoir of the Mexican presidential campaign for a forthcoming book.
Artforum and Pedro Meyer would like to thank Max Kozloff and Francine Keery for their help in the preparation of this article.
