Dolores Cacuango (1881-1971) fought for and asserted the identity and rights of indigenous peoples against a backdrop of centuries of brutality and disenfranchisement. She reclaimed the instruction of her language, Quechua, and founded the first bilingual schools in Ecuador.
Dolores Cacuango (1881-1971) fought for and asserted the identity and rights of indigenous peoples against a backdrop of centuries of brutality and disenfranchisement. She reclaimed the instruction of her language, Quechua, and founded the first bilingual schools in Ecuador.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica.
This month, we’re highlighting Indigenous women from around the globe.
Today, we’re talking about a woman who fought for and asserted the identity and rights of indigenous peoples against a backdrop of centuries of brutality and disenfranchisement. She reclaimed the instruction of her language, Quechua, and founded the first bilingual schools in Ecuador. Please welcome Dolores Cacuango.
Dolores Cacuango was born in Cayambe, a town in the northern Andes in Ecuador, on October 26, 1881. She was born on a hacienda, a Spanish estate that can be likened to the American plantation -- colonists instituted the hacienda system to produce goods by enslaving or exploiting their workers. Dolores’ parents worked in exchange for a small piece of land called a “huasipungo’. Dolores grew up this way with no resources or schooling.
When she was 15 years old she escaped to the capital, Quito. She found work as a domestic worker in the house of a military official. While Dolores never learned to read or write, she did learn Spanish in her jobs.
After experiencing rampant discrimination toward indigenous peoples in Quito for many years, her political awakening came when she found out, through an indigenous activist named Juan Albamocho, that there were some national laws in place that protected indigenous peoples.
A seed was planted, and not long after, Dolores returned to Cayambe. There she married and had 9 children. Only one son survived the conditions in which the family was forced to live.
In 1926, Dolores helped challenge the sale of their community land, setting the tone for future challenges. Dolores and other women in her community became activists and leaders in a fight against the exploitative hacienda system. An agricultural strike that they organized in 1931 sparked an indigenous social movement that eventually resulted in the first indigenous labor unions in the country.
In 1944, they founded the Indigenous Ecuadorian Federation (with the abbreviation FEI in Spanish), a shared space where urban and rural activists worked together in the struggle for Indigenous rights. Dolores also fought for education for her community -- that same year she also founded the first bilingual, Spanish and Quechua, school in Ecuador.
Dolores spent the rest of her life organizing and fighting for land rights, accessible education, and economic justice for Indigenous people.
While she regularly traveled to Quito to join protests and other efforts, she lived the rest of her life in Cayambe. She died on the 23rd of April, 1971. She was 89 years old.
All month, we’re talking about Indigenous women.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
Talk to you tomorrow!