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for you at spectrum.com/business. Today

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on State of the World, Mexico

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elects its first female

0:22

president, and Ukrainian

0:24

booksellers fight to protect their

0:27

country's heritage. You're

0:29

listening to State of the World from

0:31

NPR, the day's most vital

0:34

international stories up close where they

0:36

are happening. It's Monday,

0:38

June 3rd. I'm Christine Arismith.

0:41

In a moment, we visit

0:44

the Ukrainian center of book

0:46

publishing intent on survival, despite

0:48

Russian bombardment. First

0:50

to Mexico, where history has been

0:52

made, with the election of the

0:54

country's first woman to the presidency.

0:58

NPR's Eder Peralta chronicles the

1:00

moment. The

1:02

day starts with the quotidian

1:04

machinations of democracy. Polling

1:08

stations are set up at homes, at

1:10

schools, sometimes like in this small town

1:12

of Isucar de Matamoros, in a tent

1:15

in the middle of the street. The

1:17

smile on Minerva Ljordina Perez-Careda,

1:20

however, reveals this is no

1:22

ordinary election. I don't even know how to

1:24

tell you what I'm feeling, she

1:27

says. Perez is 80 years old. It

1:30

means she was born before women could vote.

1:32

And today, she had just cast a ballot

1:34

for Claudia Shemba, a 61-year-old

1:37

woman engineer running for president. In

1:40

the old days, she says, this was unimaginable. Thank

1:50

God, she says, things have changed. And

1:52

thank God, she says, that at her age,

1:55

she gets to witness it. We

2:03

move from tiny town to tiny

2:05

town. We see lines of men

2:07

in cowboy hats, women in their

2:09

finest shawls. And just

2:11

as the sun rises to its

2:14

highest point, we reach the town

2:16

of San Nicolas, Tolentino, and

2:18

the reality of Mexico punches us in

2:20

the gut. A funeral

2:22

for Jorge Huerta Cabrera, a

2:25

31-year-old who was running for city council,

2:27

but he was gunned down by rivals

2:29

on Friday. This is what these elections

2:31

have been marked by here in

2:34

Mexico. More than 30 candidates

2:37

this season alone, this election season

2:39

alone, have been

2:41

assassinated. And so it's

2:44

been an election full

2:46

of historical firsts, the first

2:48

woman president, but also

2:51

an election that has been

2:53

marked by historical violence. The

2:58

procession moves past one of

3:00

the voting stations and into

3:02

the cemetery. Huerta's uncle, Margarito

3:05

Huerta Moctezuma, tells mourners, this

3:07

is reality in Mexico. Politics

3:10

is a blood sport, and

3:12

they want nothing to do with it. This

3:14

is the place where the justice of the

3:16

world is made. The old, the

3:19

old, the old, the old, the old, the old, the old, the

3:21

old, the old, the old. We leave

3:23

this to divine justice. God will

3:25

give us what we deserve, he

3:28

says. Mexico

3:32

is a country of contrast.

3:35

Celebration follows death. A country

3:37

full of machistas can elect

3:39

a woman president. And

3:41

just after a funeral, we arrive

3:43

at Mexico City's main square to

3:46

hear the news. Claudia Shembach,

3:48

the former mayor of Mexico City,

3:50

the granddaughter Of Jewish immigrants who

3:52

fled the Holocaust in World War

3:54

II, has just been elected President.

4:01

Imagine smirk on helical. Lopez

4:03

says that of my sister

4:05

country would once a woman

4:08

in the President's It's incredible

4:10

sense. I

4:13

dreamt about it she says and

4:15

now I'm living. A

4:19

Just Like That felt the same

4:22

bomb it seems. Like

4:26

a lot. So. Did I will

4:28

still? that? I didn't get here alone.

4:30

Says I got here with or

4:32

of women with our heroic who

4:35

gave us a countries with our

4:37

ancestors, with our mothers, with our

4:39

daughters and with our granddaughter's. Fireworks

4:46

explode in the sky, women on

4:48

the road, me a hug each

4:50

other, the husband Mexican flag and

4:53

at two hundred year old glass

4:55

ceiling. Sadder. Cerebral

4:59

if you're use. Now

5:06

to Ukraine. We're. Bookstores

5:08

are expanding despite the

5:10

war. Interesting Ukrainian

5:13

literature is source. And

5:15

sadly, some of those writers

5:17

have been killed by Russian

5:19

forces. A deadly street on

5:21

a major book printing plant

5:23

late last month is reigniting.

5:25

close to. Protect Ukraine's

5:27

literary heritage, Ntrs

5:30

to manage to kisses reports

5:32

from the North Eastern Ukrainians

5:34

City authorities. After

5:36

the missile strike, the sector. Group

5:38

Clinton Factory looked like a crime.

5:41

In the sprawling warehouse firefighters hold

5:44

down home phone and but there

5:46

was blood on the wall. For.

5:48

Them to provide will. Receive then

5:51

and setting next several sets

5:53

of books. Are remnants

5:55

of for who they mobile. Most

6:01

came from Vivid. One of Ukraine's

6:03

largest publishers are Tim Lippe Finance

6:06

is the editor. In Chief of

6:08

the How Long War, we lost at

6:10

least fifty thousand books and was painful

6:12

to hear from the writers who talked

6:14

about how hard they had worked on

6:16

these books and the how the Russians

6:19

destroyed them. The. Has it's

6:21

headquarters and hard cheese. Ukraine's

6:23

second largest city. Eighty percent

6:25

of books in Ukraine are

6:27

printed in hard cheese. Even

6:29

under constant Russian bombardment, the

6:31

Russian border is about twenty

6:33

miles away. Looking through this you

6:35

really feel a threat. Does it was of

6:37

the streets are people who decide to stay

6:40

in her give are making a statement. One

6:42

that says that with the city's alive as

6:44

long as we are now. we

6:48

me flip minutes at one of the that's

6:50

bookstores. And Harkins, it's. Colorful and

6:53

heidi the shelves. Are full Potok!

6:55

The removal of with with a lot

6:57

or would us will do. Since the

6:59

beginning of the full scale war, the

7:01

want has doubled in size in terms

7:03

of staff and the number of books

7:05

and stock. Also, we started

7:07

out with three bookstores including this

7:09

one and parties and now we

7:11

have nine! Mysteries and romantic six

7:13

and are popular. Let the nets cause

7:15

that escapism in a brutal reality. Ukrainian

7:18

authors are especially in demand when

7:21

the probably a when tourists who

7:23

come over to We don't sell

7:25

anything and Russian people switched entirely

7:27

to Ukrainian pulp fiction fantasy history

7:30

literally every. Two

7:36

to two for Tv to be a Russian

7:39

speaking city. Today it has

7:41

a popular poetry slam entirely. In

7:43

Ukrainian. One of the founders is

7:45

our ten. Of us liquid to

7:48

roads were years. He said

7:50

we we have our own culture, our

7:52

own artists who are not connected to

7:54

Russia who have a completely different space.

7:57

Cry on this Spring. Sadly most docile

7:59

dorm or. We see eighteen year

8:01

old Yulia limit never resets a heartfelt

8:03

poem about her teeth for home town

8:06

as it fights for it's life and

8:08

muscle war. What's written on the of

8:10

of of with as much the dishes

8:13

or to smurf? She says the young

8:15

Ukrainian writers like herself are trying to

8:17

fill the gap left by those killed

8:20

in the war. They include poets and

8:22

novelist who have defined Ukrainian identity. Today

8:24

the losses are often compared to the

8:26

executed Renaissance, a literary generation murdered by

8:29

the Soviets almost. A century. Ago. The

8:33

downtown apartment building where some of

8:35

the executed Renaissance. Riders lived

8:38

still stand. He

8:40

said. A man walking by tells

8:42

us we didn't even know their names

8:44

when we were in school during Soviet

8:46

times because we mainly heard about the

8:48

Russian. The

8:52

writer stories are told that hearts

8:54

his literary museum director. Tatiana. Philip

8:57

Chook shows us around of the

8:59

for Christmas my be some of

9:02

the footage mobile she says Ukrainians

9:04

especially in parties need metaphors and

9:06

is shared language to make sense

9:09

of the wartime experiences le Mans

9:11

so that they knew them fish

9:13

with to serve. The question of

9:16

identity used to be a matter

9:18

of choice here my family for

9:20

Ukrainians who chose Ross and Paltrow.

9:23

Later I decided to choose Ukraine

9:25

and culture. Now these

9:27

toys. Is a question of love

9:29

and both. The.

9:33

Fact: He didn't think it has been

9:35

quiet since the missile of. Owner.

9:38

Said Hipolito chief says he plans

9:40

to restore and reopen it. We

9:42

meet him as his book filled

9:44

office in Central Park Teeth as

9:46

city he says he. Won't leave

9:49

productive. Use a group of

9:51

the establishment and typical Also

9:54

bring them inside myself in

9:56

my soul. My god I

9:58

few responsibility. Some of

10:01

the books destroyed in the missile

10:03

attack were displayed at a major

10:05

literary festival in the capital Kiev

10:07

this weekend. The title was simple.

10:09

Books. Destroyed by

10:11

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