In a history-making election, Epsy Campbell Barr, co-founder of Costa Rica’s Citizen’s Action Party, became the country’s first vice president of Afro descent—and the first black female vice president in Latin America.
As the former head of the Center for Women of African Descent, the Alliance of Leaders of African Descent in Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Black Parliament of the Americas, Campbell has been an outspoken critic of racism, sexism, and closing the country’s wage gap.
Costa Ricans of African descent comprise roughly percent of the population (according to a 2011 census poll) so the win is significant for the country’s black citizens. Needless to say, its magnitude is not lost on the incoming vice-president.
“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 Barr told news outlet CRHoy. “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.”
A third-generation Costa Rican of Jamaican heritage, Campbell Barr will begin her term on May 8.
Congratulations to vice-president-elect Campbell Barr and the people of Costa Rica!
