Emilio
Lezama

Emilio Lezama is a Mexican writer and one of Latin America's leading communications strategists. As founder and CEO of Los Hijos de la Malinche, based in Mexico City, he has developed high-level strategies and campaigns for filmmakers Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro González Iñárritu, actors Diego Luna and Gael García Bernal, conductors Gustavo Dudamel and Alondra de la Parra, companies and institutions including Bimbo, GNP, Bosque de Chapultepec, the Royal Opera House and Chanel, governments in Latin America and Europe, and presidential and mayoral campaigns.

He is an opinion columnist for El Universal and El País, and his writing on politics, power and Mexico's role in the world has appeared in The New York Times, Le Nouvel Observateur, Libération and Folha de São Paulo. He writes for GQ, and for three years, until 2019, he was a panelist on Debatitlán, the political debate table on Brozo's television show. He is the author of the novel El mejor mundo posible (Cal y Arena), a bestseller in Mexico, and of 4T 2.0: narrativa de una transformación, and is among the contributors to En busca del presente, an anthology of twenty years of essays from Letras Libres. He wrote and directed the short film Almost True.

Lezama speaks internationally on storytelling, politics and culture. In 2026 he presented "How to tell stories that change the world" at the Volcano Summit in Guatemala and the Startup Venezuela Summit. He has lectured at Harvard University, Georgetown University, The George Washington University, Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de La Sabana, Universidad del Istmo, UDLA, UNAM and the Mexican Senate, and in 2018 was invited by the EZLN to speak at its Semilleros gathering in Chiapas. A songwriter since the age of fourteen, he wrote for the rock band LEZ and now leads DESVELO, a project blending rap, reggaeton, cumbia, salsa and Mexican music. He is co-founder and Head of Business Development at Orita, an agave-based artisanal soda, and a partner in the brewery Monstruo de Agua. He played for Club Atlético Independiente in Panama in 2020 and 2021, winning the Panamanian first division, and holds a coaching license from the Mexican Football Federation. He votes for The World's 50 Best Restaurants and publishes MX City Vibes, his guide to Mexico City's restaurants and bars. He founded Tzapotl, a project to recover Mexico's endemic fruits, and holds a master's degree from The George Washington University; he also studied at Sciences Po and Sorbonne-Assas in Paris and at UNAM.

Based in

Mexico City

Company

Founder and CEO, Los Hijos de la Malinche; co-founder, Orita

Clients

Cuarón, González Iñárritu, Luna, García Bernal, Dudamel, de la Parra, Bimbo, GNP, Bosque de Chapultepec, Royal Opera House, Chanel; governments in Latin America and Europe; presidential and mayoral campaigns

Columns

El Universal, El País; GQ

Television

Debatitlán, Brozo's political debate table (three years, until 2019)

Books

El mejor mundo posible; 4T 2.0: narrativa de una transformación; contributor to En busca del presente (Letras Libres)

Music

LEZ; DESVELO

Football

Panamanian first-division champion with CAI (2020–2021); FMF-licensed coach

Speaks on

Storytelling, Mexico and the world, narrative and power, culture as diplomacy

Lectured at

Harvard, Georgetown, The George Washington University, Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de La Sabana, Universidad del Istmo (Guatemala), UDLA (Ecuador), UNAM, Mexican Senate, Volcano Summit, Startup Venezuela Summit

Gastronomy

Voter, The World's 50 Best Restaurants; MX City Vibes, guide to Mexico City

Education

Master's, The George Washington University; Sciences Po (Paris); Sorbonne-Assas (Paris); UNAM