Cristina Lizardo
Cristina Altagracia Lizardo Mézquita is a politician and academic from the Dominican Republic. She was Senator for the province of Santo Domingo from 2006 to 2020. Lizardo became the first woman to preside the Senate and the Congress of the Dominican Republic.
Early life
Lizardo was born on 20 January 1959 in San Juan de la Maguana, which was then part of the San Juan Province in the Dominican Republic. She is the daughter of Simón Lizardo Cabrera, a public accountant, and Enoe Mercedes Mézquita. She had three other siblings: Simón, who was the former general manager of the Reserve Bank of the Dominican Republic, Elizabeth, and Juan.Wanting to enter the vocation of being an educator, she moved to Santo Domingo for her education. She obtained a degree in education from the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo. In 1978 she joined the Dominican Liberation Party.
Political career
In 1990 she took on her first position, becoming councilor of the City Council of the Distrito Nacional, which she did for two terms, leaving her seat in 1998. In addition, from 1996 to 1998 she was an administrative undersecretary in the Dominican government. Afterwards, from 1998 to 2006, she was a Deputy in the Congress of the Dominican Republic.Personal life
In 2007, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. She had a successful mastectomy and survived the disease. She is married to Freddy Antonio Madera Durán, with whom she has two daughters: Natalia and Noelia.In her 2010 sworn statement of assets, she indicated that her net worth was RD$ 11.8 million.