The Election - History in the Making

I thought that the few days before the election would bring the wildest campaigning but it turns out that the law here is that right before the voting takes place campaigning is prohibited.  It was extremely quiet around here and Rocky kept sadly asking, "What happened to all the people dancing in the street?"  We didn't know the rules so we let our kids still walk around the house waving the flag that the Josefina Diferente people gave them.  Since we didn't get to vote I guess it was probably okay.  Since I know very little about the stances of the various politicians my allegiance went to Josefina because she is the first woman to run.
Brandon's students were much more concerned about the law that banned alcohol sales the day before and the day of the election.  Luckily they found out in advance so they could stock up.
The PRI party won the day both nationally and locally.  The dude, Loyola, that was on the car is the new president of Querétaro and Enrique Peña Nieto is the president elect of Mexico.  Around here people took things really seriously.  As we were walking to and from church there were people standing in huge lines to cast their ballots.  Hardly anyone was at church because of the vote and they announced a couple of times that the meetings needed to end on time so that those who were there would still have time to do their civic duty.  (I was all for the idea of getting out on time.  It is the uptight American in me that wants to stick to a schedule.)
Overall in the country there was still less than 50% of the people who elected their new leaders.  It was probably a good thing though because the polling stations barely were able to accommodate those who showed up.
I was a little confused because the name Peña Nieto sounds like you are saying that he is the grandson of Peña.  Whenever people were talking about him I actually thought that he was just Peña and that is grandfather was a past politician.  This is the kind of stuff that will make me more empathetic to non-native English speakers in the future.  It is really easy to make completely inaccurate assumptions on the basis of very practical information.  I also had a problem with Josefina because all her campaign stuff said Josefina Diferente and I wasn't sure if that was her name or if it was a claim that she was going to be a different sort of leader.  I felt like an idiot but I asked and she just wants to be different.  I still don't know what her last name is.
I haven't seen any celebrations in the streets but yesterday we did come across a bunch of young students outside of the house of the corregidora in the Plaza de Independencia protesting.  I'm sure that they picked that spot to meet because of  her revolutionary spirit.  There were chanting "Fuera Peña" and singing songs.  I guess that the young people of this country are the ones that aren't thrilled with the choice.  They had dug up a bunch of dirt on Peña Nieto and were gathering together against him.  All of the people that were at this rally were college age students.



As an observer it has been interesting to watch things unfold and I hope the best for the future of this awesome country.