Before her latest feat after Sunday's election, she was a lawyer, a human rights activist, an environmental campaigner, and a maid at one point.
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Young African woman, former househelp rises to become vice president of Colombia
Francia Márquez, a 40-year-old Afro-Colombian from a humble background, has blazed a trail by becoming the first black person to rise to the position of vice president of Colombia.
Francia Márquez
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![Ana Estrada suffered from polymyositis, an incurable disease that weakens muscles [Elias Alfageme/GDA via AP]](data:image/svg+xml;charset=utf8,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D'http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg'%20width%3D'100'%20height%3D'100'%20data-ring-placeholder%3D'1'%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Ana Estrada suffered from polymyositis, an incurable disease that weakens muscles [Elias Alfageme/GDA via AP]")
It is reported that she started fighting for the rights of Afro-Colombians at the age of 13.
Francia Márquez
Francia Márquez
Pulse Ghana
Colombia is a South American country that has a population of 50 million people, with African-Colombians making up about 10%, "descending from enslaved people brought from Africa to work on sugar cane plantations, goldmines, and the large estates of landowning Spanish colonists."
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Márquez will be running the affairs of Colombia together with the president-elect, 62-year-old Gustavo Petro, the country's first-ever left-wing leader.
In his third attempt at the presidency, he won 50.5% of the votes in a second-round run-off against millionaire rival Rodolfo Hernández, an independent candidate.
The Petro-Márquez team will succeed the incumbent president, Iván Duque Márquez, a Colombian politician and lawyer who has been the president of Colombia since August 7, 2018.
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According to the BBC, the rise of Márquez from poverty to vice-president has inspired many Colombians because it is a country where a political career has traditionally been the exclusive preserve of society's most connected people.
Francia Márquez
Francia Márquez
Pulse Ghana
"Ms Márquez was already a well-known environmental activist in Colombia. In 2014, she spearheaded a campaign against illegal gold mining in the community of La Toma, where she grew up. She led a group of 80 women on a 560-km (350-mile) march from the region to Bogotá, putting pressure on the government to act.
"A task force, set up by the government in 2015, helped bring an end to illegal mining, while Ms. Márquez won a prestigious environmental prize for her work.
Her charisma and background helped Ms Márquez connect with some of the country's most marginalised groups, including the afro-Colombian community to which she belongs," the news outlet reports.
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She joins Costa Rica’s Epsy Campbell Barr as one of only two black female vice-presidents in Latin America.
She is seen proudly representing Africa by wearing African fabrics beautifully.
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