Cristina Fernández de Kirchner as a child
Cristina Elisabeth Fernández was born on February 19th, 1953 in La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina. During the 1970’s she attended the National University of La Plata where she studied law and politics. While at the university she met Néstor Carlos Kirchner, whom she married on March 9th, 1975. The couple had their first child, Máximo, in 1977, and their second child, Florencia, en 1980.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and Néstor Kirchner after his presidential victory
During the 1970’s, when Argentina was under the authoritarian rule, Kirchner was involved in the Peronist Youth movement, but dropped out of politics to focus solely on law in Río Gallegos during the national political reorganization process. She reentered the political realm however in 1989, when she was elected to the Santa Cruz Province provincial legislature – “a position to which she was re-elected in 1993.” The subsequent years proved to be very successful for Kirchner’s political career: in 1995, Kirchner was elected to represent Santa Cruz in Argentine senate; in 1997, she was elected to the Chamber of Deputies (the lower house of the national congress); and in 2001, she, once again, was elected to the senate.
While Cristina’s political career was flourishing, so was Néstor’s. In 2003, amidst an economic, social, and political crisis, Néstor ran for president against two other Justicialist candidates and the president at the time, Carlos Saúl Menem. After a long and at times disputed campaign, Néstor won the presidency and was inaugurated on May 25th, 2003.
Throughout her husband’s term, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner proved to be not only a decisive politician, but also a key member in gaining support from the Argentine population. For this reason, “she was the main candidate for Senator of the Front for Victory faction of her party in the province of Buenos Aires, [during] the October 2005 elections…Kirchner won the elections by a 25 percent margin” over Hilda González de Duhalde, the other candidate.
In 2007, Néstor decided not to run for reelection, but rather, he decided to support Cristina’s run for the presidency. The campaign proved to be very successful for Cristina – she not only won the presidency, but beat her nearest opponent, Elisa Carrió, by 22 percentage points.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after being elected president
On December 10th, 2007, when Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was inaugurated, she became the first elected female president – Argentina’s first female president was Isabel Martínez de Perón became president after her husband, Juan Perón, died while in office.
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