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SANTIAGO, CHILE, Chile

Chile's president-elect, Gabriel Boric, announced his 24-member cabinet on Friday. The cabinet will serve alongside him from March 11th, following his arrival at La Moneda Palace. It is a diverse, intergenerational, representative, and feminist cabinet, comprised of independent members and experts in various fields. The cabinet includes 14 women and 10 men, with an average age of 49.

In a ceremony held at the Natural History Museum of Santiago, Boric appointed the first openly lesbian woman to a ministerial position: Alexandra Benado, to head the Sports portfolio.

Alexandra is 45 years old, has a long history in the local football scene, and also a deep connection to the struggle for political activism and historical memory. A physical education teacher, she was a member of the national team for over a decade, captain of the Chilean national team, and is recognized as one of the pioneering figures in women's football in the country. She is the daughter of Lucía Vergara, a member of the MIR (Movement of the Revolutionary Left) who was murdered during Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship. Her mother's story inspired her to become involved with Londres 38, a memorial site where she has worked as general coordinator since March 2017.

But LGBTI activism is, to this day, one of their most important struggles. In Chile, if a lesbian couple decides to have children, the law only recognizes the mother who gave birth; the other does not exist. Alexandra shares motherhood with Alejandra Gallo, and together they are raising twins that one of them conceived through assisted reproductive technology. They have always wanted to be recognized as legitimate mothers, and for this reason, in 2013 they sued the Chilean state in the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.

Alexandra is also part of the Lesbian Group Breaking the Silence. Through this group, she was one of the driving forces behind the bill on parental rights, a collaborative effort between lesbian feminist and feminist groups to regulate the legal status of lesbian, trans, and same-sex parent families and grant them legal recognition.

“The project moves away from an adult-centric perspective and focuses specifically on children and their rights, even though the rights of lesbian women and diverse families are also involved. It is part of a collective struggle in which we intend to address as many situations as possible that arise in lesbian motherhood,” Alexandra told Presentes in 2020, when Congress resumed discussion of the project.

An openly gay teacher, Minister of Education

Marco Antonio Ávila, an openly gay teacher, will head the Ministry of Education for the first time. He is 44 years old, a member of the Democratic Revolution (RD) party, and holds a degree in Spanish as a teacher and a Master's degree in Education and Innovation. He served as a school principal and national coordinator for secondary education at the Ministry of Education between 2015 and 2018. He has worked at Diego Portales University, directed the educational corporation Emprender, and until now, served as Head of Projects at Fundación Chile.

Among the surprises in the cabinet, the appointments of the medical surgeon Izkia Siches stand out, the first woman to lead the Ministry of the Interior in the history of Chile, at 35 years old.

Majority of women

Maya Fernández, a Socialist Party deputy and granddaughter of former president Salvador Allende, will head the Armed Forces as Minister of Defense. Antonia Orellana, a 32-year-old journalist and the youngest member of the cabinet, will be the new Minister of Women; she is a member of the Social Convergence party and part of the Chilean Network Against Violence Against Women.

The Ministry of Environment will be headed by Maisa Rojas, a climatologist who has served as director of the (CR)2 and one of the authors of the latest report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The cabinet will also include Giorgio Jackson and Camila Vallejo, former student leaders and members of parliament who accompanied Boric as leaders of the 2011 protests demanding educational reforms.