Overview
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. Zavala also ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico between 12 October 2017 and 16 May 2018.
Early life
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.
Career
Zavala worked for the private law firms Estrada, González y de Ovendo and Sodi y Asociados. Zavala was a Deputy of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District between 15 September 1994 and 14 September 1997. 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.
National Action Party leadership roles
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. 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.
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