CHICAGO — On Sunday, long lines stretched around the block outside Chicago’s Mexican Consulate, as more than 1,000 Mexican nationals came out to vote in person for the country’s 2024 presidential election.

What a historic election it was.

Mexico’s presidential winner, Claudia Sheinbaum, will become the first woman president in the country’s 200-year history.

Sheinbaum’s main presidential opponent was also a woman, Xóchitl Gálvez, a senator and tech entrepreneur. Jorge Álvarez Máynez was a candidate, as well.

Sheinbaum, 61, is a climate scientist, former mayor of Mexico City and Nobel Peace Prize winner. She’s also been mentored by outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and was his favored successor.

READ MORE: Mexico awakes with joy, division to the first woman elected president, Claudia Sheinbaum

Sheinbaum, who begins her six-year term on Oct. 1, has vowed to continue the direction set by López Obrador, the populist leftist leader.

Nonetheless, some Mexicans in Chicago’s Little Village say Sheinbaum’s election will bring a change for the country.

“She stands for the working people of the Morena party,” Little Village resident Norberto Casas said. “She stands for the working class, for environmental justice. She stands for the people’s movement, and she stands for the principles of working-class people every day that have been ruled for over 71 years by the same party.”

READ MORE: A scientist, a leftist and a former Mexico City mayor. Who is Claudia Sheinbaum?

Difficulty voting

In spite of the historic results, voting proved problematic for some at Chicago’s Mexican Consulate.

Voters who waited in the hours-long lines said they were frustrated and upset by the situation. Some said they had waited in line for more than eight hours, and every couple of minutes people could be heard chanting, “We want to vote.”

RELATED: Mexico votes in historic elections marred by cartel violence and deep division

Voters who waited in the lines outside the consulate said they were under the hot sun for hours and had nowhere to go for a bathroom break.

“I went to go to the bathroom, and no bathrooms there,” said one 77-year-old voter, Aurora Camacho.

Inside the consulate, election officials asked for patience from voters, as things were taking longer than expected.

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Eduardo Puga, from the National Electoral Institute, said the slowdowns were caused by voters who were taking longer than organizers anticipated at the polls, and also because there were a limited number of voting booths.

Puga told WGN-TV that he understood the pride Mexican nationals have in exercising their right to vote and assured registered voters in line that they would be able to cast their ballots before the polls closed Sunday at 7 p.m.

By law, 1,500 ballots were available for unregistered voters, as long as they possessed a valid voter ID card.

In whatever way they voted, for some Mexican nationals, like Casas, the election of Sheinbaum inspires hope for the future.

“It shows my daughter that there are no bounds that women can’t reach, as long as they stick to changing, to always evolving,” Casas said. “When the battlefield changes, when the landscape changes, you change with it.

“But you don’t change your ideals.”

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