Margarita Zavala

Margarita Ester Zavala Gómez del Campo (born on 25 July 1967) is a Mexican lawyer and politician serving as Member of the Chamber of Deputies for Mexico City's 10th District since 2021.

She is married to the former President of Mexico Felipe Calderón and served as the First Lady of Mexico during her husband's tenure.

Margarita Zavala was born on 25 July 1967 in Mexico City.

She is the fifth of seven siblings: Diego Hildebrando, Mercedes, Pablo, Juan Ignacio, Rafael and Mónica.

Her parents, Diego Zavala Pérez and Mercedes Gómez del Campo, were lawyers.

Her father was a magistrate in the Tribunal Superior de Justicia del Distrito Federal.

She attended the Instituto Asunción, an academy run by nuns.

She became a youth leader of the Partido Acción Nacional at age 17.

She first met Felipe Calderón in 1984, when both were activists for the PAN party.

Zavala studied law at the Escuela Libre de Derecho, where she graduated with a 9.5 (out of ten) grade point average.

Her thesis, La Comisión Nacional de Derechos Humanos: antecedentes, estructura y propuestas, was on the National Human Rights Commission.

Zavala worked for the private law firms Estrada, González y de Ovendo and Sodi y Asociados.

Zavala was a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana (1991-1992) and also taught law at the Instituto Asunción (1990 to 1999), her high-school alma mater.

Zavala is a regular op-ed contributor to El Universal.

Zavala has been a national councilor for the National Action Party (PAN) since 1991, and was the PAN's Legal Director of the National Executive Committee from 1993 to 1994.

Zavala was a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District between 15 September 1994 and 14 September 1997.

In 1995, she was a Mexican delegate to the Fourth World Conference on Women.

Zavala was named by Luis Felipe Bravo Mena to head the Secretaria de Promoción Política de la Mujer, which is the party's office for the promotion of the participation of women in politics, serving from 1999 to 2003.

During her four years as head, the proportion of female PAN federal deputies increased from 19% to 32%, the largest of any political party.

She was part of the transition team of Vicente Fox, advising on women's issues.

She was a founding member of the Junta de Gobierno del Instituto Nacional de las Mujeres (2001), which is the government office that works toward gender equality and elimination of discrimination and violence against women.

Zavala was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 2003, as part of the LIX Legislature of the Mexican Congress.

She was nominated through the National Action Party's list under the principle of proportional representation.

She served on three Chamber of Deputies commissions: Commission on Labor and Social Security (2003–06), Commission on Justice and Human Rights (2003–06), Commission on National Defense (2003–06).

She was also a member on the Law Studies and Parliamentary Investigations Center Committee (2004–06).

Additionally, she served as Sub-Coordinator of Social Politics of PAN's Parliamentary Group.

Zavala resigned in April 2006 to campaign for her husband's 2006 bid for the Mexican presidency.

Margarita's primary objective in the changing Mexican government was to help her newly elected husband run the educational programs throughout the country.

As the wife of Felipe Calderón, President of Mexico during 2006-2012, Margarita Zavala was considered "First Lady" although such function is not defined by the legal framework.

She is the only First Lady to have served in Congress, although she served as non-elected member through a position defined as plurinominal by the Mexican law.

She served as president of the civic advisory board to the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, a government agency that promotes child and family development.

She supported organizations that fight drug addiction and others that help migrant children returning from the United States.

Zavala became a pledged organ and tissue donor upon death in 2009 to help promote organ donation in Mexico.

During her husband's administration her family was involved in corruption scandals, including a privately run, publicly funded day care facility in Hermosillo, Mexico, which caught fire on June 5, 2009, resulting in the death of 49 children.

It later became known that the facility never met safety standards, and among the owners was Marcia Matilde Altagracia Gómez del Campo Tonella, a cousin of the first lady.

Though she was not found guilty by a jury, many people question a possible interference from the executive branch of the government given the family ties.

Moreover, her brother's company, Diego Hildebrando Zavala, was awarded some public contracts both during the administration of Felipe Calderón, and before when he was Secretary of Energy, an issue which some Corruption Watch organizations point out as evidence of conflicts of interest from the former president.

She launched an anti-addiction program called Nueva Vida, which planned to have 310 centers nationwide as of 2011.

Zavala continued to hold influence in the PAN, with the election of Gustavo Madero Muñoz for PAN presidency cited as an example of her lobbying.

Zavala also ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico between 12 October 2017 and 16 May 2018.