On Nov 13, 2010, became the first indigenous woman to serve as President of the Congress of the State of Oaxaca.
On November 13, 2010, Eufrosina Cruz achieved a landmark milestone by becoming the first indigenous woman to serve as President of the Congress of the State of Oaxaca. She had been elected as a local deputy representing the National Action Party (PAN), and her ascension to the presidency of the state congress represented an unprecedented breakthrough for indigenous women in Oaxacan — and broader Mexican — politics.
This achievement carried profound symbolic and practical weight: Oaxaca is home to one of Mexico's largest indigenous populations and numerous municipalities governed by customary law systems that historically excluded women, including Cruz's own hometown, from political participation. Her presidency of the state congress therefore stood in stark, powerful contrast to the very discrimination she had personally suffered just three years earlier when denied her rightful position as municipal president.
Her tenure allowed her to directly influence legislative priorities, and she used her position to advocate forcefully for constitutional reforms protecting indigenous women's political rights. The achievement was widely covered in Mexican and international media and later recognized by institutions including the Obama Presidential Center's archives as a defining moment in the advancement of indigenous women's rights in the Americas. It cemented her legacy as a trailblazer who transformed personal injustice into structural, legal change for millions of indigenous women.