[Shanghai Stories] From Politics to President, Evelyn Figueroa in Shanghai

Spanish at breakfast. German at bedtime. English and Chinese somewhere in between. That's a normal weekday in the Figueroa household in Shanghai.

"If I'm being honest, sometimes it feels complicated," said Evelyn Figueroa, a Mexican expat who for three years has lived in Shanghai with her husband Oliver and their two small children, Elin and Enzo. "But for them (her kids), their natural environment is just switching languages all the time."

Evelyn Figueroa is president of Shanghai Mamas (SHM), one of the largest expat organizations in the city, with more than 6,000 members and roughly 20 different WeChat groups. She began leading SHM "a few months" after moving from Beijing.

Within the Shanghai expat community, Figueroa said, "people are moving all the time, so we must create a sense of community. This is why Shanghai Mamas is a very important part of my life, because I feel like I am connecting with all these moms going through the same story."

These shared experiences among expat parents lead to a certain amount of camaraderie. But where the similarities end is how each of these foreigners got to Shanghai in the first place. Those stories are as unique as fingerprints. For Figueroa, her journey to Shanghai started with a rocket ship when she was 15 years old.

A rocket ship at 15

Evelyn Figueroa is no stranger to living in a metropolis. She spent years in Mexico City.

"When I was around 15, I was into philosophy, and I used to write for like a local newspaper and work with a painter from South America," she said. "There was this contest about winning a pass for the first La Ciudad de las Ideas," or City of Ideas.

From 2008-2021, La Ciudad de las Ideas (or CDI) attracted hundreds of speakers and thousands of attendees to Puebla, Mexico, to discuss science, technology, art, design, politics, education, culture, business, entertainment and more every November. Imagine TEDx, but bigger. More like the Aspen Ideas Festival.

CDI was a big deal. Figueroa, 15 at the time, was captivated and wanted in. She remembers CDI's essay contest prompt: "If you had a chance to fly a rocket to the moon with some people, like important people, who would be in" with you. "I don't even remember what I wrote," she said. What she remembers, however, is that she won. Two CDI tickets that changed the trajectory of her life.

After the first CDI, Figueroa was hooked. "I started as a volunteer, then got a job." The job was entry level. She was still a teenager. But Figueroa started rubbing elbows with intelligent and influential people. "I was in charge of the bookshop… with books from all the speakers that would be in our event." This evolved into roles in sponsorship and PR. Like the rocket ship in her winning essay, Figueroa was heading toward the stars.

Spotlights, startups and politics

While she was finishing her Master's in Business Administration, CDI's sponsorship director got a new opportunity. "He moved to the Auditorio Nacional (one of the most prominent concert and performing arts venues in Mexico City) and he brought me with him." There, she helped organize Las Lunas del Auditorio, a national award show for live performances.

"I moved from the intellectual world (at CDI) to the celebrities" at Auditorio Nacional, Figueroa said.

Despite Auditorio Nacional's high profile and with a freshly minted MBA, she yearned to strike out on her own, starting several businesses, though none worked out. Always one to aim a rocket ship at her goals, Figueroa got into politics. A candidate she supported was elected, and she took a job in government. In her mid twenties, she became Director of Economic Development, Jilotepec, Estado de México, from 2016–2019. The role gave her jurisdiction over investment, tourism, business licences, and public–private partnerships.

"I was around 25, 26, and I had already a very high position," she said. "I felt very powerful. I felt that I had a great future." Not long after, something unexpected happened: a Düsseldorfer named Oliver Rosenthal.

Oliver worked as BMW's head of electric vehicles in Mexico. "He can speak Spanish…I learned to speak German." They fell in love, got married. "I always thought we would move to Germany," she said. Oliver's company had other plans: China.

COVID babies in Beijing

Newly married and "happy and excited" to move to China, Evelyn and Oliver arrived in Beijing, just in time for the pandemic.

"My kids, they were born in Beijing. We were all surrounded by a changing world. They (Enzo and Elin) were COVID babies," Figueroa said. "We left China when my daughter turned one so that we could baptize her, and then it was so difficult for us to come back." Evelyn and Oliver spent a month in a hotel room with their two young kids. "We were losing our minds."

Crucibles can strengthen or weaken people. For Evelyn – thousands of miles from her family in Mexico – she felt isolated and alone. So, she did something about it. She put herself out there, got connected.

In Beijing "during that time, the only social interaction that we could have was either with our friends, our neighbors, or expats going through the same situation. And I must say that actually the best friends that we have made were the friends that we met during COVID. One of our neighbors is the godparent of my son."

Her community relationships deepened, but after three years, it was time to move. This time, Shanghai.

Raising her hand

Evelyn Figueroa had to start over. Again. She had risen through La Ciudad de las Ideas, through Auditorio Nacional, through moving to China, through COVID. Evelyn has a bias for action.

Throughout her life, she knows the power of relationships. COVID proved that what she learned in Mexico was valid globally.

After settling her family in Shanghai, "whenever I saw an opportunity, I decided to raise my hand." Not long after, Shanghai Mamas, one of the largest expat groups in one of China's largest cities, needed a new president.

"I wanted to feel that connection again, that I could build a team, that I could be in charge of something, but at the same time, I could be still a mom, a present mom," she said. "I have never been the type of person who goes to an office and follows the rules. So I feel like I'm a little bit more independent, and this was exactly what I was looking for."

Shanghai Mamas put her at the spoke of a large wheel that connects women and mothers across the city. The organization has many internal groups – coffee meet-ups, nights out, wellness, book clubs, toddler moms, newborns, teenagers, twins. "We recently have a new one about menopause."

"Shanghai Mamas for me was actually an opportunity to connect with the person that I was before becoming a mom. I have always been a very passionate woman with a lot of ambitions."

As a 15-year-old, Evelyn Figueroa wrote an essay about taking a rocket to the moon with famous people. It was a thought piece that revealed her character. Those famous people are gone, replaced by two kids, a husband, and an organization of 6,000 women. The rocket, however, remains. It's Evelyn's life. And it's still going up from her base here in Shanghai.