Natalia Zaracho
Natalia Zaracho | |
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National Deputy | |
Assumed office 16 December 2021 | |
Constituency | Buenos Aires |
Personal details | |
Born | Villa Fiorito, Argentina | 5 July 1989
Political party | Patria Grande Front |
Other political affiliations | Frente de Todos (2019–present) |
Profession | Scrap collector |
Natalia Beatriz Zaracho (born 5 July 1989) is an Argentine scrap collector, activist and politician, currently serving as a National Deputy of the Argentine Congress. She is a member of the Patria Grande Front.
Early life and career[]
Zaracho was born on 5 July 1989.[1] She grew up in Villa Fiorito, a working-class neighbourhood in the Greater Buenos Aires conurbation.[2] She lives with her two sons.[3]
In the midst of the 1998–2002 Argentine great depression, Zaracho began working as a cartonera, a street scrap collector.[4] When she was 25, she joined the Movimiento de Trabajadores Excluidos ("Rejected Workers' Movement", MTE), which sought to group and fight for the demands of informal sector workers.[2] Led by Juan Grabois, the MTE would later become part of the Patria Grande Front.
Political career[]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/7d/Natalia_Zaracho_jura_como_diputada_de_la_Naci%C3%B3n_16_de_diciembre_2021.jpg/220px-Natalia_Zaracho_jura_como_diputada_de_la_Naci%C3%B3n_16_de_diciembre_2021.jpg)
Zaracho's political career began as a legislative aide for Itai Hagman. She has stated that she was initially reluctant to run for office, as she considered traditional politics to be a "very hostile place".[4] In the 2019 general election, with the Patria Grande Front as part of the broader Frente de Todos (FDT) coalition, Zaracho ran for a seat in the Argentine Chamber of Deputies as the 26th candidate in the Frente de Todos list in Buenos Aires Province. The list received 52.64% of the vote, not nearly enough for Zaracho to make it past the D'Hondt cut.[5]
In 2021, FDT deputy Daniela Vilar resigned from her seat in order to take office as a government minister in Buenos Aires Province. Zaracho was called in to fill in Vilar's vacancy for the remainder of the 2019–2023 term. She took office as deputy on 16 December 2021. Nationwide media highlighted her as "the first cartonera congresswoman".[2][3] During her swearing-in ceremony, she swore her oath "for the patria cartonera and for the struggle of the poor of our country", while wearing her scrap collector uniform.[6][7]
As deputy, Zaracho has stated she wants to push for the implementation of a universal basic income in Argentina, citing the shortcomings of the universal allocation per child (AUH) and other similar social assistance programmes introduced during the progressive governments of Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.[4]
References[]
- ^ "Planilla de precandidatos/as y candidatos/as" (PDF). argentina.gob.ar (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ a b c "Asumió Natalia Zaracho, la primera diputada nacional cartonera: ¿de quién se trata?". iProfresional (in Spanish). 16 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ a b "Quién es la primera cartonera que llega a Diputados". El Cronista (in Spanish). 16 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ a b c Risso, Natalí (17 December 2021). ""No vamos a discutir solo la agenda de los pobres, vamos a discutir todo, como ellos discuten todo lo nuestro"". Página/12 (in Spanish). Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ "El Frente de Todos anotó lista de diputados encabezada por Massa y copada por La Cámpora". Ámbito (in Spanish). 22 June 2019. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- ^ "Quién es Natalia Zaracho, la primera diputada nacional cartonera". Perfil (in Spanish). 16 December 2021. Retrieved 17 December 2021.
- ^ "La diputada Natalia Zaracho juró por "la patria cartonera"". Ámbito (in Spanish). 16 December 2021.
External links[]
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Natalia Zaracho. |
- Living people
- 1989 births
- People from Lomas de Zamora
- Argentine trade unionists
- Members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies elected in Buenos Aires Province
- Women members of the Argentine Chamber of Deputies
- 21st-century Argentine politicians
- 21st-century Argentine women politicians
- Scrap collectors