Soledad Becerril

Doña María de la Soledad Becerril y Bustamante, Marquise of Salvatierra (Madrid, Spain, 16 August 1944) is a Spanish noble, politician and long serving member of the Spanish Congress of Deputies who belongs to the People's Party (PP). In 1981 she served as the first female Government Minister in almost 50 years and later became the first female Mayor of Seville. Becerril is married to Rafael Atienza y Medina, 8th Marquis of Salvatierra and Chancellor of the Royal Cavalry Armory of Seville

Married with two children, Becerril graduated in philosophy and letters at the University of Madrid, specialising in English philology. She subsequently worked as a lecturer at the University of Seville. She entered politics in 1974 when she joined the Federation of Democratic and Liberal parties and subsequently joined the Democratic Party of Andalusia (PDA). The PDA joined with other parties in May 1977 to form the Union of the Democratic Centre (UCD), a coalition which won the first democratic election since the death of the dictator Franco. Becerril was elected as a UCD deputy to the Spanish Congress of Deputies representing Seville Province and was re-elected at the 1979 election.

In December 1981 the new Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo appointed her Minister of Culture. Becerril thus became the first female Minister in Spain since the Second Spanish Republic, almost 50 years earlier, and only the second female Spanish Minister in history after Federica Montseny in 1936.

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