The guest list included political figures. According to Tavira, the head of state himself requested the singer's participation: “when it was Cecilia Salinas Occelli's 15th birthday, he told her: ‘Come and sing’”. The performance was not the result of a conventional contract. The celebration of Cecilia Salinas Occelli's 15th birthday at Los Pinos, held in February 1989, included an unusual element for a private party: the performance of Luis Miguel, who attended by direct invitation from then-President Carlos Salinas de Gortari, according to testimonies collected by journalist Alberto Tavira. The event took place in the first months of the Salinas sexenio, within the official residence. “From that moment on, he learned it,” Tavira points out about his development in that environment. During the Miguel de la Madrid sexenio, his presence at Los Pinos became recurrent, according to the research, and was a constant until the Enrique Peña Nieto period. The author points out that the link between both figures already operated under a different logic, marked by closeness and access to spaces of power. In an interview with Shanik Berman, the journalist told the book's author that she heard rumors that, for a performance of 'The Lion King,' supposedly animals were taken from the zoo in cages. However, Tavira revealed that he had no images about this rumor, nor did he confirm if he knew about the issue. In 2003, Proceso reported at the time that Cecilia's wedding took place, to which Luis Miguel attended as part of the list of guests. The episode is part of the book 'Luis Miguel: Under the Table,' where Tavira documents encounters between the singer and various political actors in Mexico over several decades. The author describes a sustained dynamic of closeness between the performer and figures of power: “Political power allowed itself to be seduced by Luis Miguel… it gave him things in exchange for favors to be close to him”. “My contribution… are the moments in which political power has given a wink and Luis Miguel has responded to that wink,” he explained in an interview. Years after that celebration, the relationship between Luis Miguel and the federal government had one of its most visible episodes. In 1991, amidst questions about his place of birth, the singer received Mexican nationality in a public event headed by Carlos Salinas de Gortari. Tavira specifies that both moments—the party and the naturalization—did not happen at the same time, although they belong to the same political stage: “the nationality arrives later… and almost at the end of the Salinas sexenio”. The act drew attention for its format, as the delivery of documents was done in front of the media and with the direct presence of the head of the Executive. The first approaches in political circles The book also locates precedents for this relationship from early stages of the singer's career. One of the initial records corresponds to his performance at the wedding of Paulina López Portillo, daughter of then-President José López Portillo, where Luis Miguel participated while being a minor. This episode marked his entry into spaces linked to the political class.
