Elba Esther Gordillo took control of the national teachers’ union, the SNTE, on April 24, 1989. Expansión called her one of the most powerful women in Mexico. She was known simply as la Maestra, the Teacher. She had become a rural teacher in her native Chiapas.
In a 2015 profile, Expansión cited press investigations reporting that she “nunca tramitó su título” (never processed her title) at the teachers’ college where she studied.