Emma Coronel Aispuro

Emma Coronel Aispuro married Joaquín Guzmán Loera on July 2, 2007, her 18th birthday, in La Angostura, Durango. The couple separated in 2019, while a biographical account states that they remained legally married. She has described Guzmán as an excellent father, friend, brother, son, and partner, and continued to express support for him during his trial.

In 2011, Coronel traveled to Lancaster, California, where she gave birth to twin daughters, María Joaquina and Emali Guadalupe. Guzmán's name was omitted from the children's birth certificates because he was a fugitive with a five-million-dollar United States bounty.

Coronel grew up in the remote village of La Angostura in Durango, Mexico. She entered the 2007 Coffee and Guava Festival beauty pageant in Canelas, where she won the title. As part of the competition, each contestant hosted a party supporting her candidacy, and Coronel held hers on Three Kings Day.

She later studied journalism in Culiacán. That education contributed to her confidence in dealing with the press, although she generally gave few interviews.

Coronel became a familiar public figure through her appearances at Guzmán's federal trial in New York. She attended the proceedings nearly every day for three months, including testimony describing murder, torture, rape, and Guzmán's relationships with other women. She and Guzmán exchanged thumbs-up gestures after the verdict, and they wore matching burgundy jackets during the proceedings as a display of solidarity.

She discussed her husband in a 2016 Telemundo interview with Anabel Hernández and was later interviewed on VH1's reality show Cartel Crew. Coronel also used Twitter and Instagram to express her support for Guzmán, including a courthouse photograph captioned with a statement that the trial testimony had not changed her feelings about him.

Coronel was arrested at Dulles International Airport on February 22, 2021. She pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia to conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and amphetamines for unlawful importation, conspiracy to launder monetary instruments, and engaging in transactions involving property connected to a designated foreign narcotics trafficker.

On November 30, 2021, she received a three-year federal prison sentence followed by four years of supervised release. The prison term was later reduced to 31 months. She served her sentence at Federal Medical Center, Carswell, and was released from federal custody on September 13, 2023.