First Lady of Mexico

First Lady of Mexico
Flag of Mexico
Incumbent Angélica Rivera since December 1, 2012
Residence	Los Pinos
Term length	6 years
Inaugural holder	Virginia Salinas de Carranza
Formation	1917

First Lady of Mexico (Spanish: Primera Dama de Mexico, Primera Dama de los Estados Unidos Mexicanos) is the unofficial title of the wife of the President of Mexico. The post is highly ceremonial and in fact once caused severe controversy when it was thought that the First Lady took too much involvement in their husband's post. Angélica Rivera is the wife of current president Enrique Peña Nieto.

María Flores de Lascuráin, spouse of President Pedro Lascuráin, was Mexico and the world's briefest ever First Lady, since her husband served as president for less than an hour. However, since the title is not official in Mexico (unlike other Latin American countries), this fact is not actually acknowledged.

Role of the First Lady

The first lady is not an elected position, carries no official duties and brings no salary. Nonetheless, she attends many official ceremonies and functions of state either along with or in place of the president. There is a strict taboo against the First Lady holding outside employment while occupying the office. Usually the First Lady takes an important (ceremonial) post as head of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) ("Integral Family Development"). However, this did not occur during the Fox administration when First Lady Marta Sahagún founded the national philanthropic organization Vamos México.

Two First Ladies have been active politicians: Martha Sahagún, who married Vicente Fox during his tenure (2002–2006), had been a party activist and candidate for Presidenta Municipal of Celaya on the PAN party ticket, and was briefly considered a contender for PAN's nomination to run for either the Jefe de Gobernación (Governor of the Federal District) or President in the 2006 election. Margarita Zavala, wife of Felipe Calderón, was a deputy from 2003 to 2006.

First Ladies of Mexico

This is a list of the post-Revolutionary era First Ladies of Mexico.

Portrait	Name	President	Period
	Virginia Salinas de Carranza	Venustiano Carranza	1917–1920
	Clara Oriol de De la Huerta	Adolfo de la Huerta	June 1, 1920 – November 30, 1920
	María Tapia de Obregón	Álvaro Obregón	1920-1924 (1928[1])
	Natalia Chacón de Elías	Plutarco Elías Calles	1924–1928
	Carmen García de Portes	Emilio Portes Gil	1928–1930
	Josefina Ortiz	Pascual Ortiz Rubio	1930–1932
	Aída Sullivan de Rodríguez	Abelardo L. Rodríguez	1932–1934
	Amalia Solórzano de Cárdenas	Lázaro Cárdenas	1934–1940
	Soledad Orozco de Ávila	Manuel Ávila Camacho	1940–1946
	Beatriz Velasco de Alemán	Miguel Alemán Valdés	1946–1952
	María Dolores Izaguirre de Ruiz	Adolfo Ruiz Cortines	1952–1958
	Eva Sámano de López	Adolfo López Mateos	1958–1964
	Guadalupe Borja de Díaz Ordaz	Gustavo Díaz Ordaz	1964–1970
	María Esther Zuno de Echeverría	Luis Echeverría	1970–1976
	Carmen Romano de López Portillo	José López Portillo	1976–1982
	Paloma Cordero de De la Madrid	Miguel de la Madrid	1982–1988
	Cecilia Ocelli de Salinas	Carlos Salinas de Gortari	1988–1994
	Nilda Patricia Velasco de Zedillo	Ernesto Zedillo	1994–2000
	Marta Sahagún de Fox	Vicente Fox	July 2, 2001 – 2006[2]
	Margarita Zavala	Felipe Calderón	2006–2012
	Angélica Rivera	Enrique Peña Nieto	2012–Present

See also

• List of heads of state of Mexico
• Politics of Mexico

References

Notes

1. President Obregón was assassinated just after being reelected and declared President Elect, thus he was never sworn in, and therefore she did not assume the role.
2. The post was vacant from December 1, 2000 to July 1, 2001 (since Vicente Fox was unmarried upon assumption of the presidency), until July 2, 2001 when he wed Marta Sahagún, who would then assume the role.

External links