Epsy Campbell becomes First Black Female Vice President of Costa Rica

Although Carlos Alvarado was elected President in the Costa Rica elections, all eyes are on his running mate Epsy Campbell, who becomes the first black female person to be elected vice president in the country.

According to Newsweek, Epsy Alejandra Campbell Barr is one of the founders of the Part ido Accion Cuidadana (PAC), and she joins the ranks of Thelma Curling, the first Afro-Costa Rican legislator (1982-1986), Victoria Garron, the first vice-president (1986-1990) and Laura Chinchilla (2010-2014) the first president, with her landmark achievement.

Speaking on her election, Campbell said:

It would not be the first only in Costa Rica but in Latin America. And eventually, if the president leaves the country, [I would be] the first woman of African descent to assume the presidency of the entire American continent. It’s a big responsibility.

It will be a responsibility not only to represent people of African descent but to represent all women and men in the country, a country that gives us all the same opportunities.

Campbell’s paternal grandparents migrated from Jamaica to Costa Rica, where she was born in 1953 and named after her grandmother, Epsy.

The election was a clear win, Alvarado triumphing against Fabricio Alvarado, an evangelical singer who ran on an anti-same sex marriage campaign.

Photo Credit: @AfrolatinProjec