Dolores Cacuango, Also known as Mama Dulu, she was an Ecuadorian activist who fought for the recognition of the indigenous and peasants of her country. Born into a family of Gañanes Indians in 1881, her education was self-taught and she did not learn to speak Spanish until she moved to Quito to work as a domestic worker..
His childhood was spent in a context of discrimination against indigenous people. The hard work of her parents in the field and the indigenous heritage were fundamental for the young woman to forge her thought and her iron personality.
After his time in Quito, Cacuango returned to his land and became one of the leaders in the struggle for the indigenous people. In 1926, she was one of the leaders in the attempt of the people of Cayambe so that their community lands were not sold. This vindictive experience laid the foundations for other future movements.
In 1944, Cacuango, with the support of the Communist Party of Ecuador, founded the Ecuadorian Federation of Indians. Two years later, with Luisa Gómez de la Torre, he created the first Quechua-Spanish bilingual school. Her work made her an inspiration for the left and for feminism in her country.
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Dolores Cacuango Quilo was born on October 26, 1881 in the large estate of San Pablo Urco, near Cayambe, in the Ecuadorian province of Pichincha..
His parents were Gañanes Indians, a term applied to those indigenous people who worked on the haciendas without a salary. In exchange for their work, they only obtained a piece of land called huasipungo.
The young Dolores spent her childhood in the large estates, unable to go to school due to limited resources. For this reason, he could not learn to read or write. This circumstance became one of their motivations to fight for the improvement of indigenous access to education..
When she was 15 years old, at an age at which many indigenous young women were forced to marry, Cacuango went to Quito to look for a job as a domestic worker. In one of the houses where he worked, owned by a military man, he took advantage of the extensive library to learn to read and write in Spanish in a self-taught way.
Despite his youth, already then he began to become aware of the precarious situation in which indigenous peoples and peasants lived..
After some time in the capital, Cacuango returned to her hometown ready to fight for the rights of the most disadvantaged.
One of the great influences on his political life was an indigenous person from his Cayambe community, Juan Albamocho..
Albamocho used to disguise himself as a beggar and begged outside the doors of important law firms. The man took advantage of the situation to listen to what was said there.
One afternoon he returned to his community with great news: he had heard that there were laws that protected the Indians. From that moment, Cacuango and the rest of his people wanted to know what those laws were, in order to defend themselves from the abuses they suffered..
In 1926, a popular rebellion in Cayambe made Dolores Cacuango one of the leaders of the indigenous movement.
That year, the inhabitants of the area rebelled against the planned sale of their community lands. At the forefront of the protests, promoted by the Juan Montalvo Peasant Workers' Union, was the Indian Jesús Gualavisi.
Caucango, for his part, dedicated himself to promoting the strike on the estates in the area. To achieve this, he gave several speeches in Spanish and Quechua that stood out for their strength and energy..
The indigenous leader took advantage of her knowledge of the situation suffered by women in the area to make her speeches. Soon they began to reach the entire population thanks to phrases such as the following: “We want the indigenous people to know who they are giving birth to so that they are never raped again by their devil boss, so that no more children are born without a father and are despised children ".
Dolores Cacuango married Luis Catucuamba in 1927. The couple established their domicile in Yanahuayco, near Cayambe. His main work was in agriculture.
The couple had nine children, of whom eight died at a very young age due to intestinal diseases derived from the lack of hygiene and sanitation in the area. The only survivor was Luis Catucuamba, who through maternal influence became a teacher of the indigenous people of his town over the years..
The last years of Dolores Cacuango's life were quite painful. His health suffered and his strength was disappearing. The activist suffered paraplegia, lost weight and fatigue prevented her from visiting communities and organizations.
Cacuango died on April 23, 1971, accompanied by her husband, son, daughter-in-law and her best friend, María Luísa..
Dolores Cacuango was characterized by her strong and energetic character. By conversing, he was able to generate empathy without losing his assertiveness. Although he did not get to attend any educational stage, his oratory allowed him to convince his listeners about what was correct.
The activist had the ability to capture reality and offer a response to each circumstance. Another of his virtues, according to his biographers and acquaintances, was his kindness to listen to people's problems. Her house was always open to those who were going through difficulties, who visited Dolores to try to find a solution..
In addition to his efforts to improve the education of his community, Cacuango devoted himself to trying to change the situation of female employees on the haciendas. Its main objective was that the rights of indigenous people were the same as those of the rest of society. To do this, he never hesitated to stand up to the authorities.
In the following video you can see Dolores Cacuango expressing her demands:
Dolores Cacuango's dedication to agricultural work within the family did not prevent her from continuing with the fight for indigenous rights and to improve access to education.
Among its achievements are the formation of unions that allowed workers to organize to claim their rights, the organization of various protest movements to demand an end to violence against women, and the creation of bilingual schools..
Abuses by landowners in the region led Dolores Cacuango to participate in the Olmedo agricultural strike. There, the also called Mamá Dulu joined Tránsito Amaguaña and other women to demand labor and social improvements..
At the same time he collaborated with Jesús Gualavisi in the organization of the First Agricultural Congress of Ecuador, which was to be held in Cayambe with the support of the new Socialist Party..
The response of the government of President Isidro Ayora was to send an army battalion to close the roads, and thus prevent the meeting from taking place. The soldiers also set fire to the huts in which the activists lived. As a result, Dolores Cacuango and her family were left homeless and helpless..
This retaliation, to which must be added the 15 years that Amaguaña had to go underground, did not prevent the indigenous social movement from gaining strength and culminating in the formation of the first indigenous unions in Ecuador..
Together with Tránsito Amaguaña and Jesús Gualavisi and with the support of the Communist Party, Dolores Cacuango founded the Ecuadorian Indigenous Federation in 1944, the first organization of its kind in the country..
In those years, Cacuango began to be called "the crazy Dolores" by her enemies, who feared her leadership skills and her charisma. Meanwhile, large groups of indigenous people traveled to visit her in Cayambe and she dedicated herself to training young indigenous people to continue the struggle..
One of the great objectives of Cacuango was that the indigenous people could access education. For the activist, the training was the best way to end the abuses to which they were subjected by the powerful. His opinion was that breaking with ignorance was the first step forward..
This interest led Cacuango to found the first autonomous indigenous school in 1945. For this, she had the support of her best friend, María Luisa Gómez de la Torre. Dolores' own son, Luis, taught classes in Quechua and Spanish at the center.
This project, however, never had the endorsement of the Ministry of Education, which considered it as a focus for the formation of communists and social unrest.
Despite this attitude on the part of the authorities, the educational project of Cacuango spread to localities where the indigenous movement had a strong presence, such as Chimba, Moyurco or Pasillo.
In 1963, under the dictatorship of Ramón Castro Jijón, the government banned teaching in Quechua. In retaliation, he destroyed Dolores's house, which she had to hide to avoid being arrested. The activist, however, continued with her activities and secretly visited her colleagues at night.
After a year of continuous popular pressure and clandestine activities, the Castro Jijón government was forced to pass an agrarian reform. In this process, Cacuango played a fundamental role by leading several indigenous youths in the rebellions against the landowners and their administrators..
Although the approved reform did not include all the activists' requests, Dolores Cacuango decided to support it. Under his leadership, more than 10,000 indigenous people from Cayambe marched to Quito to show the strength of their movement..
The march concluded with one of Cacuango's most memorable speeches. This took place at the University Theater and the activist decided to do it in Quechua. Although many did not understand it in full, some fragments became a symbol of the struggle for civil rights.
The Ecuadorian educational authorities created in 1989 the Directorate of Indigenous Bilingual Intercultural Education. With this measure, the government took the first step to end the law that had banned schools in Quechua in 1963.
A few years later, in 1998, the National Constituent Assembly recognized the right of indigenous people to receive intercultural bilingual education.
The School for Women Leaders in Ecuador, the first of its kind in the country, today bears the name of Dolores Cacuango, like a street in the country's capital, in a humble and working-class neighborhood..
In 2009, Dolores Cacuango was honored by UNESCO on International Women's Day and organized an exhibition in Paris dedicated to her work.
- This is life, one day a thousand dying, a thousand being born, a thousand dying, a thousand being reborn. This is life.
- First the people, first the peasants, the Indians, the blacks, and mulattoes. They are all companions. For all we have fought without lowering our heads, always on the same path.
- I always understood the value of school. That is why I sent my children to the nearest school, to learn the lyrics.
- We are like mountain grass that grows back after being cut, and like mountain grass we will cover the world.
- A natural attached like a knitted poncho, pattern will not be able to bend.
- Just as the sun shines the same on everyone, men or women, so education should shine on everyone, whether rich or poor, masters or laborers..
- If I die, I die, but one has to remain to continue, to continue.
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