Mariel Fernández

Mariel Fernández (born 12 June 1977) is an Argentine politician who has served as mayor of Moreno Partido, in Buenos Aires Province, since 2019. A member of the Evita Movement, she previously served as a municipal councillor from 2011 to 2015.

Fernández was the first woman elected mayor of Moreno and the first politician formed within Argentina's social movements to become a mayor in the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area.

Early life and career Fernández was born on 12 June 1977 and grew up in the San Norberto neighbourhood of Cuartel V, a neighborhood in the periphery of the Moreno city center. She was the second of three siblings.

During her childhood, Fernández participated in community activities associated with the Catholic Church and local Peronist priests. At the age of 15, she and her sister began teaching catechism. Her father was shot during an attempted robbery in 1996 and died from his injuries three weeks later, when Fernández was 18. Following her father's death, a neighbour introduced her to El Colmenar, a community-run transport mutual established in response to the limited bus service connecting Cuartel V with central Moreno. Fernández initially provided educational support for children and later worked in its reception office, sold tickets and coordinated youth groups and summer programmes.

Political career Fernández became the Evita Movement's main representative in Moreno and joined its provincial women's and leadership organisations. In 2011, she was elected to the Moreno Deliberative Council as a member of the Front for Victory, serving until 2015. She took office in December 2019, becoming the first woman to govern Moreno.

Fernández began her administration amid an economic recession, a housing shortage, financial and administrative problems within the municipality and, several months later, the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina. Her government transferred several previously contracted services to municipal or mixed public-cooperative administration. These included municipal tax collection, paid parking and rubbish collection, the latter operated through an arrangement between the municipality and a cooperative associated with the truck drivers' union.

Personal life Fernández is married to Esteban Castro, a social-movement and trade-union leader who formerly served as a Moreno municipal councillor and as secretary-general of the Confederation of Workers of the Popular Economy (, CTEP).

She has two sons, Jonathan, also known as Joni, and León. Fernández met Jonathan while working at Asociación El Arca and later adopted him when he was a young child. León is her son with Castro.