| Mercedes Lourdes Frias | |
| Birth Date: | October 28, 1962 |
| Term Start: | April 21, 2006 |
| Term End: | April 28, 2008 |
| Constituency: | XII District, Tuscany |
Mercedes Lourdes Frias is an Italian-Dominican politician. She was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 2006, serving until 2008. She was the first Black woman to be a member of the Italian parliament.
Frias was born on October 28, 1962 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[1] [2] She attended the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo,[3] where she obtained a degree in geography.[1] She worked as a community activist, focusing particularly on issues affecting women and immigrants from Haiti.[3]
In 1990, Frias moved to Prato.[1] There she continued her activist work, eventually becoming an organizer with Italy's Federation of Protestant Churches.[3] She became an Italian citizen in 2004.[1]
Frias was appointed assessor of the city government of Empoli in 2004.[4] In this capacity she was responsible for a portfolio that included the environment, citizenship rights, equal opportunities, and cultural diversity in Empoli.[4]
Frias ran in the 2006 Italian general election for the Chamber of Deputies, affiliated with the Communist Refoundation Party.[5] She was elected in the April 2006 election,[4] to represent the XII District, which is a part of Tuscany.[5] Her election made her the first Black woman to be a member of the Italian parliament.[6] [2] She was also a member of a historically large cohort of Protestants elected to parliament that year.[7] As a deputy she served on the parliamentary committees responsible for constitutional affairs, Schengen implementation, and immigration issues.[5]
For the 2008 Italian general election Frias joined the list La Sinistra l'Arcobaleno (the rainbow left),[8] but she was not re-elected to the parliament.[5]