metrics
- 500+
- sponsorship applicants
- 32
- states running Aúna candidates
- 27
- winning candidates in 2024
In 2020, what began as a WhatsApp group quickly grew into something much larger: a movement for feminist leadership in Mexican politics. Aúna was founded by a collective of more than 100 women, organizers, academics, technologists, and activists, united by the belief that Mexico’s political parity laws could be a turning point, not just in representation, but in real progressive power.
Now a national platform operating across Mexico’s 32 states, Aúna identifies, trains, and supports women leaders running for office, especially those whose voices have historically been excluded from formal political life. As co-founder Mónica Tapia puts it, Aúna is “a tangible sign that the union of diverse and committed women can generate profound and significant changes in our society.”
Taking parity further: a vision for inclusive, feminist leadership
Mexico’s 2019 constitutional reforms established full gender parity across political institutions, meaning all positions require 50% women candidates on the ballot. But as Aúna’s leaders make clear, parity alone isn’t enough.
“We are not supporting women just because they are women... Many women were the cousin or the wife of the same powerful men. Let's take this chance as an opportunity to make women more prepared and have a progressive agenda with a female rights perspective and gender equality.”
Aúna’s focus isn’t just on getting women elected. It’s about supporting women with a vision for justice, equality, and sustainable development. The organization works across party lines to identify candidates with progressive, intersectional agendas, with a particular emphasis on those from marginalized backgrounds. This includes indigenous, Afro-descendant, and LGBTQ+ women. In the most recent elections, 18 Aúna-supported candidates won their elections, including Clara Brugada, the current Mayor of Mexico City.
Small team, big reach: scaling grassroots power across Mexico
Running a nationwide political network with just 11 core team members and a group of volunteers would be daunting for anyone, but Aúna has met the challenge head-on.
With only five formal territorial chapters and dozens of civic participants nationwide, the team coordinates everything from training programs to annual meetings with over 100 attendees. Building this kind of infrastructure without a technical department or IT lead has required creative problem-solving, especially when navigating language barriers and local infrastructure.
“Because we're such a small team, there's no one in charge of technology. Finding programmers in Mexico who know Liquid has been challenging, but we’ve been working with Corey from CodeNation, and that’s helped a lot.”
Why NationBuilder: the infrastructure behind a feminist political movement
From the start, Aúna needed a digital infrastructure that could do more than track contacts. They needed something that could support their democratic processes, organize volunteers, and manage two distinct yet connected programs: civic membership and political nominees.
“We compared in the beginning other CRMs... And this one just made sense for us, for the membership part and the nominee part.”
NationBuilder powers both programs: civic members vote on nominee selections, participate in events, and stay connected to the movement, while political nominees receive tailored training, campaign support, and community visibility. The platform also enables Aúna to:
- Replace Google Forms with dynamic surveys tied to their database
- Manage volunteer permissions and data security
- Host in-person and digital events, including their annual national meetup
- Process donations through a locally compliant payment interoperability system
Democratic by design: participatory processes and localized outreach
Aúna’s commitment to feminist leadership doesn’t stop at representation, but extends into how they make decisions. Civic members select, nominate, and hold candidates accountable to a shared agenda.
“The civic membership people are the ones who... decide who is going to be the nominee. It's a participatory process to make sure that they represent our collective agendas.”
Reaching the right audiences means meeting people where they are, including rural and indigenous communities. In 2024, Aúna began broadcasting calls for applicants via Radios Comunitarias, extending their reach beyond urban centers and mainstream media.
“We are sharing our call on Radios Comunitarias... Radio programs in indigenous or very far away communities. That is super cool.”
Looking ahead: from national to regional impact
While continuing to scale their work in Mexico, Aúna is also setting its sights on building a Latin American consortium. With interest from allied organizations in Colombia, Brazil, and Argentina, the team is laying the groundwork for a shared model of progressive women’s political organizing.
At the same time, Aúna is deepening its own infrastructure. A new training cohort selection launches in August 2025, and an improved curriculum tailored to the background, position, and skill level of the women running for office in January 2026. The team plans to document and share its processes with other movements, both in Mexico and beyond.
A model for feminist political infrastructure
What sets Aúna apart isn’t just who they support, it’s how they do it. By building participatory, inclusive, and scalable systems of engagement, they’ve created a replicable model for political transformation.
And with NationBuilder as their digital backbone, they’ve proven it’s possible to grow from a grassroots WhatsApp group into a national movement without losing the democratic, member-driven ethos at their core.
“We think it’s kind of a sign of [what’s possible]... we want to translate all this knowledge to our nominees, and we see an opportunity to share this with other organizations, not just us.”
By the numbers:
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27 winning candidates in the last round of local and national elections
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500+ women applied to the most recent cohort
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Nationwide operations across Mexico
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Cross-party reach, from left to right
- 100+ attendees at their most recent annual meeting
Follow Aúna to learn more:
Web: Aúna
FB: Aunamexico
IG: Auna México
X: Aunamexico
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