Amalia García

Amalia García
Governor of Zacatecas
In office September 12, 2004 – September 11, 2010
Preceded by	Ricardo Monreal
Succeeded by	Miguel Alonso Reyes
Personal details
Born	Amalia Dolores García Medina (1951-10-06) October 6, 1951 Zacatecas, Zacatecas
Nationality	MEX
Political party	Mexican Communist Party (1968–1981) Unified Socialist Party (1981–1987) Socialist Mexican Party (1987–1989) Party of the Democratic Revolution (1989–present)
Alma mater	Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Sociologist

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

García was born into a political family. When she was five, her father Francisco Garcia Estrada was elected governor of their home state of Zacatecas, representing the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). Rather than following in his footsteps, García instead enrolled in the outlawed Mexican Communist Party (PCM) after witnessing the student revolts of 1968 and the Tlatelolco massacre. Her 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 (PSUM) in 1981. After briefly being a member of the Socialist Mexican Party, she became a founding member of the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) when it was created in 1989.

In the 1990s she served as both a deputy and a senator for the PRD. In 1996 she ran (unsuccessfully) for party president; she ran again, and won, in 2000.

Governor of Zacatecas

In 2003 she was selected as the PRD's candidate in the 2004 Zacatecas gubernatorial election. In the election of 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 suuport Garcia.

She was the fifth woman to serve as governor of a Mexican state. Earlier women governors were Griselda Álvarez (Colima, 1979–1985), Beatriz Paredes (Tlaxcala, 1987–1992), Dulce María Sauri (Yucatán, 1991–1994), Rosario Robles Berlanga (Distrito Federal, 1999–2000).