Meet the 90-year-old woman from Malaga aiming to be president of Andalucía

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Never too old for politics: María Luz Gómez, born in 1935, leads the candidate list for independent party For a Fairer World, which calls for more inclusion of older people in today's society

Carlos Zamarriego

Malaga

Tuesday, 21 April 2026, 12:34

Every morning at Guijarro, a bakery that is an institution in La Cala del Moral (they say a baker first set up shop on the site in 1852), you’ll find María Luz Gómez Martín indulging in her daily weakness: a pastry after her traditional bread and olive oil.

To her, the bakery is proof that being a "classic" doesn't mean being "old" - a philosophy she applies to her own life as she prepares to blow out 91 candles this year.

María is a woman defined by movement. When she isn't stepping around the rocks on the coastal path to Rincón de la Victoria or heading to the Avante Claro beach bar, she is pacing her living room with an energy that belies her birthdate.

When women had no right to open their own bank account, she worked hard, becoming a chartered accountant.

Born in Granada in 1935, her life is a map of modern Spanish history. She was an infant during the Civil War and a young woman during the decades of the Franco dictatorship - an era where she defied social norms by earning a business degree and working as an accountant at a time when women couldn't even open bank accounts without a husband’s permission.

Now, decades after raising six children and witnessing the first moon landing, she has set her sights on a new, historic goal: becoming the President of the Junta de Andalucía.

Running as the head of the list for Malaga for the Por Un Mundo Más Justo (M+J) party in the 17 May elections, María is shattering political records. She is older than veteran politicians like Manuel Fraga or Miguel Ángel Revilla were during their final runs, but she rejects the very concept of "old age," calling it an "awful term."

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