Entering a city or town triumphantly on horseback accompanied by supporters and admirers (a procession referred to as a cabalgata) is something of a tradition in Mexico.
Francisco Villa and Emiliano Zapata did it famously in Mexico City in December 1914 at the height of the Mexican Revolution. Even General Winfield Scott led triumphant American troops into the capital during the U.S.-Mexican War in September 1847.
Sporting a cowboy hat and boots, astride an elegant white mare and brandishing a Mexican flag, a baby-faced pretender to the Mexican presidency joined that list in a rather less historically significant gesture this week in Guadalajara. The center of all the attention was Samuel Garcia, the 35-year-old governor of the northern state of Nuevo Leon, who led this procession of just under seven kilometers along the Circuito Metropolitano Sur to a rally at the Vicente Fernandez Arena on the Guadalajara-Chapala highway.
The “pre-candidate” for the Citizens Movement (MC) in the 2024 presidential election, Garcia was in friendly territory. The centrist MC rules the roost in Nuevo Leon and Jalisco, although the party’s presence and influence in the rest of Mexico is much more limited. Lacking national support, Garcia is not going to win the election, but his probable candidacy will almost certainly affect the outcome.
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