Amalia Dolores García Medina (born October 6, 1951) is a Mexican politician and a former governor of

Zacatecas , image_map = Zacatecas in Mexico (location map scheme).svg , map_caption = State of Zacatecas within Mexico , coordinates = , coor_pinpoint = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type ...

Early life

García was born into a political family. When she was five, her father Francisco Garcia Estrada was elected governor of their home state of

, representing the

Institutional Revolutionary Party The Institutional Revolutionary Party ( es, Partido Revolucionario Institucional, ; abbr. PRI) is a political party in Mexico that was founded in 1929 and held uninterrupted power in the country for 71 years, from 1929 to 2000, first as the Nati ...

(PRI). He held office from 1956 to 1962. Rather than following in his footsteps, García instead enrolled in the outlawed

Mexican Communist Party The Mexican Communist Party ( es, Partido Comunista Mexicano, PCM) was a communist party in Mexico. It was founded in 1917 as the Socialist Workers' Party (, PSO) by Manabendra Nath Roy, a left-wing Indian revolutionary. The PSO changed its name ...

(PCM) after witnessing the student revolts of 1968 and the

Tlatelolco massacre On October 2, 1968 in the Tlatelolco section of Mexico City, the Mexican Armed Forces opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas who were protesting the upcoming 1968 Summer Olympics. The Mexican government and ...

Political Career

García's political stance became more moderate over time, and she played a key role in turning the PCM into a "neo-Communist" party. She followed the PCM into the

Unified Socialist Party of Mexico The Unified Socialist Party of Mexico ( es, Partido Socialista Unificado de México, PSUM) was a socialist political party in Mexico. It later became the Socialist Mexican Party () in 1988. History The PSUM was founded in November 1981 by the me ...

(PSUM) in 1981. After briefly being a member of the

Socialist Mexican Party The Socialist Mexican Party (, PMS) was a left-wing Mexican political party, and one of the immediate antecedents of the present Party of the Democratic Revolution. It was the last effort to unify the different Mexican left-wing parties, as well ...

, she became a founding member of the

Party of the Democratic Revolution The Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD, es, Partido de la Revolución Democrática, ) is a social democratic political party in Mexico. The PRD originated from the Democratic Current, a political faction formed in 1986 from the Institut ...

(PRD) when it was created in 1989. From 1999 to 2002, she served as president of the PRD. In 1996, she ran (unsuccessfully) for party president; she ran again, and won, in 2000. On June 24, 2018, she renounced to PRD, after 29 years of advocacy, arguing "the great debate of ideas that constituted one of its strengths, has been totally replaced by agreements for the distribution of quotas".

Governor of Zacatecas

In 2003, Garcia was selected as the PRD's candidate in the 2004 Zacatecas gubernatorial election. On July 4, 2004, she won a convincing victory and was sworn in as the first female governor of Zacatecas on September 12, 2004. She had been endorsed by a former Governor of Zacatecas, José Guadalupe Cervantes Corona, who renounced his membership in PRI to support Garcia. She was the fifth woman to serve as governor of a Mexican state. Earlier women governors were

Griselda Álvarez Griselda Álvarez Ponce de León (5 April 1913 – 26 March 2009) was the first female governor in Mexico. Álvarez was Governor of the state of Colima from 1979 to 1985.Colima Colima (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Colima ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Colima), is one of the 31 states that make up the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It shares its name with its capital and main city, Colima. Colima i ...

, 1979–1985), Beatriz Paredes (

Tlaxcala Tlaxcala (; , ; from nah, Tlaxcallān ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tlaxcala ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala), is one of the 32 states which comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipaliti ...

, 1987–1992), Dulce María Sauri (

Yucatán Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...

, 1991–1994), Rosario Robles Berlanga (

Distrito Federal A federal district is a type of administrative division of a federation, usually under the direct control of a federal government and organized sometimes with a single municipal body. Federal districts often include capital districts, and they ...

, 1999–2000).

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garcia, Amalia 1951 births Living people Governors of Zacatecas Members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) Members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico) Presidents of the Party of the Democratic Revolution Women members of the Senate of the Republic (Mexico) 21st-century Mexican politicians 21st-century Mexican women politicians Women governors of States of Mexico Women members of the Chamber of Deputies (Mexico)