{"id":592,"date":"2012-10-18T14:01:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-18T19:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/modernlatinamerica\/?page_id=592"},"modified":"2012-10-18T14:01:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-18T19:01:15","slug":"indigenous-women","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/chapters\/chapter-6-the-andes\/moments-in-andean-history\/indigenous-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Indigenous Women"},"content":{"rendered":"

Leaders and Revolutionaries<\/strong>
\nBy Emma Bainbridge<\/p>\n

Women and Indians in Ecuador have often suffered from similar discriminatory practices employed by elite white males.\u00a0 Both groups were subordinated under Catholic, patriarchal, colonial society; both were denied citizenship status and voting rights until long after independence had been achieved, and both continue to face discrimination and under-representation despite nominal equality. \u00a0Because indigenous women are subject to discrimination because of both gender and<\/em> race, as well as class, their lot is often referred to as the \u201ctriple burden\u201d of indigenous women (Becker, \u201cCitizens\u201d).<\/p>\n

While Ecuador was the first Latin American country to grant women the vote in 1929, the move was actually used to check more radical liberal forces in Ecuadorian society, including the growing feminist movement and the Communist Party. As Becker states, \u201cWomen were associated with tradition, religion, and conservatism… The conservative political coalition which extended the vote to women did so in order to create a bulwark against<\/em> what they perceived as a growing socialist threat in society\u201d (Becker, \u201cCitizens\u201d). Furthermore, the stipulation in the 1929 constitution that citizens must be literate perpetuated the exclusion of most indigenous people from voting and other citizenship rights.<\/p>\n

In 1944, an event called the May Revolution pushed women into the political arena.\u00a0 The Revolution involved a popular movement against President Carlos Arroyo del Rio, and various women played important roles in this rebellion.\u00a0 For example, Dolores Cacuango, an indigenous leader in Cayambe, organized an attack on a local army barracks; in Quito, white feminists arranged for protestors to circle the Government Palace; and following Arroyo\u2019s resignation, white feminist Nela Mart\u00ednez served as a minister of government for three days (Becker, \u201cCitizens\u201d).\u00a0 However, when Jos\u00e9 Mar\u00eda Velasco Ibarra became president shortly thereafter, he excluded women from his government and failed to acknowledge the contribution they made to the Revolution.\u00a0 While the constitution drafted in 1945 incorporated many advances, including the elimination of child labor, the establishment of public education, and the recognition of workers\u2019 right to strike, it did not grant further rights to women or Indians (Becker, \u201cCitizens\u201d).<\/p>\n

In 1967, a constitution was drafted that made voting obligatory for Ecuadorian women as it already was for men (Hanratty).\u00a0 Another constitution in 1979 dropped the literacy requirement for citizenship rights and forbade discrimination based on race or sex.\u00a0 Nevertheless, women still played a very limited role in political life; in 1984 only 15% of congressional candidates were women, and only three women gained seats out of seventy-one congressional deputies (Hanratty).\u00a0 In 1998, however, a new law came into force which declared that 30% of congressional candidates in 2000 must be women, and that by 2008 50% of candidates must be women (\u201cEcuador\u201d). A 1987 law also gave women equality with men in the areas of divorce, property rights, and inheritance rights.\u00a0 Thus women in Ecuador have gained tremendous legal ground in Ecuador in the last fifty years. Although, of course, law does not always translate into practice.<\/p>\n

Dolores Cacuango (1881-1971)\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Cacuango, who led attacks on army barracks during the May Revolution of 1944, was also one of the founders of the Ecuadorian Federation of Indians (FEI), which attempts to promote economic development, cultural awareness, and unity among Ecuadorian Indians (Becker, \u201cRace, Gender, and Protest in Ecuador,\u201d 134). Born on an hacienda <\/em>in 1881 in northern Ecuador, Cacuango worked as a servant in Quito from the age of 15, and later returned to the hacienda<\/em> where she was born in order to advocate for indigenous rights (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 129).\u00a0 Although illiterate, she helped set up the first Quechua-Spanish bilingual schools in Ecuador\u2019s indigenous communities, organized hacienda workers in the fight for land rights and the end of the diezmos<\/em> and huasicama<\/em> systems, and served on the central committee of the Ecuadorian Communist Party along with white feminists such as Luisa G\u00f3mez de la Torre and Nela Mart\u00ednez (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 129-130).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tr\u00e1nsito Amagua\u00f1a (1909-2009)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Tr\u00e1nsito Amagua\u00f1a, Courtesy of Natalia Cartolini<\/p><\/div>\n

A mother by the age of 15,\u00a0Tr\u00e1nsito Amagua\u00f1a made over 25 trips on foot to Quito to bring indigenous demands to the central government, traveled to Cuba and the Soviet Union as a representative of Ecuadorian Indians in 1962, and became heavily involved in leftist politics (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 130-131).\u00a0 She also helped to organize some of the first unions of agricultural workers and participated in the first strike of these workers in 1931 (\u201cTr\u00e1nsito Amagua\u00f1a\u201d).\u00a0 Despite the burdens of class, race, and gender, Amagua\u00f1a became an important voice for Ecuadorian Indians both in Ecuador and in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Nela Mart\u00ednez (1912-2004)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nela Mart\u00ednez was the daughter of an upper-class landholding family from southern Ecuador (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 131).\u00a0 Born in 1912, she was an active member of the Communist Party from 1934 to 1956, and became one of its most important leaders (\u201cNela Mart\u00ednez. Un cap\u00edtulo de la historia ecuatoriana\u201d).\u00a0 Along with other upper-class women in Quito, she helped found the Alianza Femenina Ecuatoriana (AFE) in 1939; this organization aimed to promote world peace and to help women become leaders in anti-government movements (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 131-132).\u00a0 She also assisted Dolores Cacuango in the formation of the Ecuadorian Federation of Indians (FEI), and served as a Minister of Government for three days in the aftermath of the 1944 May Revolution (Becker, \u201cCitizens\u201d). In 1945 she participated in the National Assembly as a representative of the working class; in this position she advocated for women\u2019s rights and sought to end gender discrimination in political and social life (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 131).\u00a0 Mart\u00ednez was also a skilled writer and wrote various poems and stories, as well as hundreds of articles about the condition of women in Ecuador and in support of the Cuban Revolution (\u201cNela Mart\u00ednez\u201d).\u00a0 Mart\u00ednez forwarded the cause of Ecuadorian women not only through her advocacy work, but also as an example of a capable female leader.<\/p>\n

Mar\u00eda Luisa\u00a0G\u00f3mez de la Torre (1887-1976)<\/strong><\/p>\n

More commonly known as \u201cLucha\u201d (Becker, \u201cRace\u201d 132).\u00a0 Born in Quito, she, like Mart\u00ednez, was involved in the Communist Party, Alianza Femenina Ecuatoriana (AFE), and the Ecaudorian Federation of Indians (FEI); she also helped found the Ecuadorian Socialist Party in 1926 (Becker, \u201cRace,\u201d 132).\u00a0 However, she is best known as a teacher; she became the first woman to teach at the prestigious all-male school Colegio Mej\u00eda in Quito, and also worked at the school Diez de Agosto, which served girls from poor families (\u201cMaria Luisa Gomez De La Torre\u201d).\u00a0 Like other female leaders during this time period, she helped to break down centuries-old gender boundaries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Leaders and Revolutionaries By Emma Bainbridge Women and Indians in Ecuador have often suffered from similar discriminatory practices employed by elite white males.\u00a0 Both groups were subordinated under Catholic, patriarchal, colonial society; both were denied citizenship status and voting rights … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":462,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-592","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/592\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}