User:Thelmadatter/sandbox/Tatiana Clouthier

Tatiana Clouthier (b. August 12, 1964, Culiacan, Sinaloa) is an educator, politician and writer who came to national attention in Mexico as the 2018 presidential campaign manager for Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Her work in social media for the campaign has been particularly recognized.

Life and education

Clouthier is one of eleven children born to Leticia Carrillo and politician Manuel Clouthier, the 1988 National Action Party presidential candidate who died in an automobile crash in 1989, when she was in her mid-20s. She is one of three children to go into politics. She stated that while she does not deny her roots, she is more than just the daughter of Manuel Clouther, “I am not just a last name… I make my own way.”

Although she comes from a well-to-do agricultural family, she went to public schools, such as the General Ángel Flores public school in Culiacán, as well as her masters in public administration at the Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo León. She also attended the private Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Studies, earning her bachelors in English. She has also taken various extracurricular courses in education, teaching, human right and civics, at schools such as the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. She believes her experiences in public education allows her to build bridges among the social classes.

Although Clouthier grew up in Sinaloa, she has spent most of her life in Nuevo León, currently a resident of San Pedro Garza García. She is currently married to José Martínez and the couple has two children, María and Lucas.

Career before 2018 presidential campaign

Clouthier began her career as a teacher and translator. She cofounded and ran a translation business from 1986 to 1990. From 1982 to 1994 she taught English, Mexican history and socioeconomics in schools such as Monterrey Tech and the Centro Universitario México. She was principal at the preparatory school of the Universidad Metropolitana de Monterrey, a school for economically-disadvantaged children.

Clouthier founded and held positions in several social service organizations. From 2000 to 2003, she was an advisor to the Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres. In 2009, she was one of the founders of Evolución Mexicana A.C., which promotes civic responsibility and democracy.

Between 1989 and 1997 she held various administrative positions with the San Pedro Garza García municipality such as direction of human affairs, assistant to the secretary of primary services and the director of tourism, education and sports. From 1997 to 2001, she was the coordinator of junior high education and social services with the Secretariat of Education of the state of Nuevo León.

Initially, Clouthier followed her father into the National Action Party (PAN) and was a member from 1991 to 2005. With this party, she served as a federal deputy from 1991 to 1994, then again from 2003 to 2005. However, she became disillusioned with this party, and left even though she was criticized for betraying her father. Today, she says that is it a “bad copy of the Institutional Revolutionary Party,” the party that her father was so against. In 2009, she was a candidate for municipal president for San Pedro with Nueva Alianza.

Election campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador

Clouthier has come to national attention as the campaign manager for 2018 presidental campaign of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In 1992, she managed his campaign in Sinaloa and met him while she was an electoral observer in Tabasco in 1992/1993. She met him again during his 2006 presidential campaign, at the house of a mutual friend. In 2017, she joined López Obrador’s campaign to gain the nomination as a presidential candidate for Morena, then was named campaign coordinator in January 2018.

Despite her history, her choice to support López Obrador came as a surprise to her family. However, she states that many of the candidate’s political positions are similar to those of her father, who was also called a populist. Despite her close association with López Obrador, she is not a member of his party. She states she has disagreements with López Obrador but will not say what they are publically.

Clouthier’s main success has been managing the candidate’s and campaign’s online presence, especially in social media and particularly in a Twitter account called Abre Más Los Ojos (Open Your Eyes Wider). One of her sisters once told her that if Twitter did not exist, Clouthier would have invented it. She discovered Twitter during her work with various civic organizations, as a way to reach the public quickly. Then she began using it for lower-level political campaigns, especially for recruiting. She likes the platform because it is immediate, short and direct, considering it a natural ally for the campaign. She directs a team responsible for social media messaging, focused on pushing the campaign’s narrative and defending against attacks by other candidates. In particular, she has been successful in communicating political ideas through videos, images, GIFs and memes. Her social media work riffs off of popular culture and statements by the other campaigns. For example, she had an image of López Obrador photoshopped with the gauntlet from Infinity War with the five gems of power. Underneath the image appear the word “corruption” disintegrating.

Her success in this area has moved her into the spotlight, now appearing more more traditional media, and other more traditional publicity moves. She boarded the Metro in Mexico City to pass out flyers among riders along with the Regeneración newspaper.

However, not all of her work with the campaign has been successful. Media and opposing candidates challenged tweets made asserting that between 2001 and 2004, when López Obrador headed the Mexico City government, that Mexico City had attracted 57.8% of the country’s foreign investment, stating that “…the numbers do not lie.” However, according to the Secretariat of the Economy, the city attracted only 26.36%. Other numbers off too. The scandals was dubbed in the press “Pejenomics” after the candidate's nickname Another problem on Twitter occurred when she appeared in a photo with a Rolex watch. The image contrasted with the austere image of the campaign, forcing her to state that it had been a gift from her husband on the birth of their second son. In Buzzfeed News, she stated that she should not be called a feminist because the term “is out of fashion as such” (está pasado de moda como tal) and for her, it is not about creating spaces for women in the workplace but rather that women have access to services they need for their families, such as childcare. The statement caused some controversy. There was a false report that she suspended activities due to death threats, but she says she was never threatened.

She was relatively unknown at the start of López Obrador’s campaign, but became one of its main protagonists, becomins an icon. Clouthier’s work succeded in bringing may young people to the campaign, and her popularity is such is that other candidates have reminded voters that López Obrador is running for president and not her. The media has even speculated a presidential run in 2024.

Publications

Clouthier has written for various publications. She coedited the Cuaderno de Trabajo de Cultura de la Legalidad , had a column with the El Financiero, Reporte Indigo and Periódico Noroeste newspapers and wrote for the Players of Life magazine from 2010 to 2014.

Clouthier has published four books:

Crónica de un fraude anunciado with Jesús Cantú and Cuahutémoc Rivera (1992)

Maquío Mi Padre (2006)

Una visión del Congreso (2006)

Parejas Parejas with Valeria Guerra (2017)