the short and wonderous political life of Rafael (Juanito ) Acosta

I feel obliged to write this post in English because the Spanish speakers will already know everything about this great tragic-comedy/telenovela that has evolved in Mexico over the past months. Yes, it is about my (anti) hero Juanito and, I should start from the beginning to make sure everyone follows.
His name is not Juanito, his name is Rafael. Rafael Acosta was a candidate for the PT (partido del trabajo, maybe labor party in English, I am not sure) a small party and both, the candidate or the party never had a chance at winning the election, that is until he won. He became “jefe delegacional” -a kind of alderman or Municipal President we have in Mexico City- in Iztapalapa.
But again, I am getting ahead of my self, he did not win just, it didn't just happen like that. We must introduce a different party into the story, the PRD. The PRD presented Silvia Oliva as their candidate for the same election… Oh no, again, I apologize! Before this, the PRD presented Clara Brugada as its candidate, heavily backed up by Andres Manuel… I don’t have to go that far back, do I? he is Mexico’s legitimate president, if you didn’t know about this, just do a google search.
Ok, I am sorry, Clara Brugada was elected in the primary elections that Silvia Oliva contested for being tainted with fraud. By the time the electoral commission granted Oliva the candidacy the ballots had been printed with Clara’s name under the PRD’s candidate, but it was “agreed” that if the PRD won Silvia would become delegate.
You must be wondering why I started the whole story talking about Juanito, who is really Rafael. This is why: Rafael, known as Juanito was the candidate running against Oliva, who appeared as Clara in the ballot. Lopez Obrador, the legitimate president of Mexico convinced the PT to change their candidate and have Clara Brugada instead of Rafael (Juanito), once again it was too late to change names in the ballot, so you had to vote against Clara and in favor of Juanito – sorry Rafael, to make sure that Silvia Oliva (who was not in the ballot) would lose, and Clara Brugada would win.
In one the most successful political gathering you could have seen –had you been there- our legitimate president asking his followers to vote for Juanito, who is really Rafael so that Clara could defeat Silvia who appeared as Clara herself in the ballot. You could have heard him ask: who are you going to vote for? And a confused crowd reply “Clara” and “Rafael” all at once. The efficiency of the campaign was recognized when the small PT actually got most of the votes, legally making Juanito (Rafael) the elected delegate who had signed before a notary public that he would step down and let Brugada (who lost) have the job, and thus making Brugada the “legitimate” delegate.
As you must have guessed by now, Juanito – who has become a fashion icon thanks to the green, white and red band he wears around his head- was in no hurry to step aside, and instead “declined” a millionaire offer (according to himself) to participate in the movie industry. He decided he was going to serve those who supported him and became delegate of Iztapalapa. I guess with time he realized how much he really wanted to be in show business because he decided to juggle two jobs at once: the first answering his call to help the people of Iztapalapa, the second answering his call for the stage. And so, Juanito made his theatrical debut interpreting himself, in a play called “Ay Juanito no te rajes!” in Teatro Blanquita.
In the end, Juanito was replaced by Brugada in a political move by the PRD, and is now trying to get an amparo (really, too much going on in this article!) in order to return to his power chair as delegate. What other option does he have? To go back to his old life, selling ice cream and other good in the streets, kicking policemen asses (he already lost a tooth fighting the granaderos), and maybe going back into the film industry (he acted on a film in which he took his clothes off – though not completely as he kept his underwear on).