Margarita Zavala
Current Member of Congress of Mexico and Former First Lady
Margarita Ester Zavala Gómez del Campo is a Mexican lawyer and politician. Since 2021, she has served as Representative at the Chamber of Deputies for Mexico City’s 10th District and was reelected for a new 3-year period in June 2024.
Between October 2017 and May 2018, Zavala ran as an independent candidate for the presidency of Mexico. In 2019, she founded Mexico Libre, a political organization that was to become a national party.
In 2003, Zavala was elected to the Chamber of Deputies of the Mexican Congress as a PAN Federal Representative. In April 2006, she resigned to join her husband’s bid to become the PAN’s presidential candidate, and in December 2006, she became Mexico’s First Lady.
During her early professional life, she worked for Estrada, González y de Ovando, and Sodi y Asociados, large private law firms. From 1994 to 1997, she was elected Representative of the Legislative Assembly of the Federal District. Since 1991, Zavala has been a law professor at the Escuela Libre de Derecho, the Universidad Iberoamericana, and the Instituto Asunción (1990 to 1999), her high school alma mater. In 2014, she was a Harvard visiting scholar.
She is also a regular contributor to El Universal newspaper and has written multiple articles for national and international papers and magazines. In addition, she has written two books: “La Hora de Mexico” in 2017 and “Mi Historia” in 2016.
Zavala was awarded the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the Dannerbrog from the Danish Government and the Dame Grand Cross of the Order of Isabella the Catholic from the Government of Spain.
Zavala graduated with a Summa Cum Laude distinction from the prestigious Escuela Libre de Derecho, where she obtained her Law Degree in 1992.