Maya Alejandra Fernández Allende (born 27 September 1971, in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

) is a Chilean biologist, veterinarian and politician, a member of the

Socialist Party of Chile The Socialist Party of Chile (, or PS) is a centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing political party founded in 1933. Its historic leader was President of Chile Salvador Allende, who was deposed in a 1973 Chilean coup d'état, coup d'état by ...

(PS) who served as Minister of National Defense of Chile between 2022 and 2025. Since March 2018, she has served as a deputy of the Republic, representing the 10th district, Metropolitan Region. In her first legislative year, she presided over the Chamber of Deputies between March 2018 and March 2019.

Early life and education

Born in Chile to Cuban diplomat Luis Fernández Oña and Beatriz Allende Bussi, she is a grandchild of the Chilean President

Salvador Allende Salvador Guillermo Allende Gossens (26 June 1908 – 11 September 1973) was a Chilean socialist politician who served as the 28th president of Chile from 1970 until Death of Salvador Allende, his death in 1973 Chilean coup d'état, 1973. As a ...

. She and her family had to emigrate to

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

due to the military coup of 11 September 1973 against her grandfather, staying on the island until she was 21 years old. She returned to Chile in 1990, settling permanently in 1992. The same year she began studying biology at the

University of Chile The University of Chile () is a public university, public research university in Santiago, Chile. It was founded on November 19, 1842, and inaugurated on September 17, 1843.

. She subsequently also studied veterinary medicine at the same university and obtained a BSc in both.

Political career

In 1992 she joined the Socialist Party of Chile. In the 2008 municipal elections, she was elected councilor for the Nuñoa commune, which she stayed until 2012. During the presidency of

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

between 2006 and 2012, she worked in the Ministry of Foreign Relations. In the municipal elections of 2012, she ran for the mayorship of

Ñuñoa Ñuñoa (; from Mapudungun ''Ñuñohue'', "place of yellow flowers") is a communes of Chile, commune located in the Northeastern zone of Santiago, northeastern sector of Santiago de Chile, Santiago, the capital of Chile. Bordered by Providencia, C ...

for the Socialist Party on the Concertation list. The favorite to win the elections was

Pedro Sabat Pedro is a masculine given name. Pedro is the Spanish, Portuguese, and Galician name for ''Peter''. Its French equivalent is Pierre while its English and Germanic form is Peter. The counterpart patronymic surname of the name Pedro, meaning ...

, who had been serving as mayor of Nuñoa for the past 16 years. Fernandez at first won the elections by a slim margin of twenty votes, a result which was appealed by Sabat, who in turn came out victorious after a recount which gave him a thirty-vote lead.

Member of Parliament

In the 2013 parliamentary elections, Fernández ran for the position of deputy for the 21st district, which includes the communes Nuñoa and Providencia from the metropolitan communes of Santiago. From 11 March 2014 to 11 March 2018, she represented the 21st district for the PS in the

Chamber of Deputies The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures. Description Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourb ...

. In the 2017 parliamentary elections, she was re-elected deputy, this time for the newly created

District 10 District 10 may refer to: Places * District 10 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam * District 10 (Zürich), in Switzerland * District 10, an electoral district of Malta * District 10, a police district of Malta * District 10 School, a historic school in ...

of the Metropolitan Region. On the 11 March 2018, she became president of the Chamber of Deputies. She left office in March 2019.

Minister of Defense

Since March 2022 Fernández serves as the

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

in the Cabinet of

Gabriel Boric Gabriel Boric Font (; born 11 February 1986) is a Chilean politician and the President of Chile since 2022. He previously served two four-year terms as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile, Chamber of Deputies. Boric first gained prom ...

. Referring to the military coup her grandfather and former

President of Chile The president of Chile (), officially the president of the Republic of Chile (), is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of Chile. The president is responsible for both Government of Chile, government administration and s ...

was killed, she saw the role of the

Chilean Military The Chilean Armed Forces () is the unified military organization comprising the Chilean Army, Air Force, and Navy. The President of Chile is the commander-in-chief of the military, and formulates policy through the Minister of Defence. In recent ...

to defend Chile as a country and not to get involved in internal security.

Personal life

She is the daughter of Cuban diplomat and politician of the

Cuban Communist Party The Communist Party of Cuba (, PCC) is the One-party state, sole ruling party of Cuba. It was founded on 3 October 1965 as the successor to the United Party of the Cuban Socialist Revolution, which was in turn made up of the 26th of July Movem ...

Luis Fernández Oña and surgeon Beatriz Allende Bussi, and the youngest granddaughter of former President

. She is also a niece to Senator

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the magical realism genre, is known for novels such as '' The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

. Being a

volunteer firefighter A volunteer fire department (VFD) is a fire department of volunteers who perform fire suppression and other related emergency services for a local jurisdiction. Volunteer and retained (on-call) firefighters are expected to be on call to respond ...

of Nuñoa, she is married to Tomás Monsalve Egaña and has two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fernandez, Maya University of Chile alumni Living people People from Santiago Province, Chile 1971 births Chilean people of Cuban descent Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile Socialist Party of Chile politicians 21st-century Chilean women politicians Women members of the Chamber of Deputies of Chile Ministers of defense of Chile Women government ministers of Chile Female defence ministers Allende family Deputies of the LIV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile Deputies of the LV Legislative Period of the National Congress of Chile