Dolores Cacuango

{{short description|Ecuadorian indigenous rights activist}} thumb|Dolores Cacuango '''Dolores Cacuango''' (26 October 1881, Pesillo, Cayambe, Ecuador – 23 April 1971, Yanahuayco{{where?|date=August 2018}}), also known as '''Mamá Doloreс''', was a pioneer in the fight for indigenous and farmers rights in Ecuador.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=16542|title=INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY-ECUADOR: Indian Women - Still a Long Way to Go|last=Lucas|first=Kinnto|publisher=IPS|access-date=2009-10-20|archive-date=2006-10-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005135554/http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=16542|url-status=dead}} {{Cite web |url=http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=16542 |title=INTERNATIONAL WOMen's DAY-ECUADOR: Indian Women - Still a Long Way to Go |access-date=October 20, 2009 |archive-date=October 5, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061005135554/http://www.ipsnews.net/interna.asp?idnews=16542 |url-status=dead }}</ref> She stood out in the political arena and was one of the first activists of Ecuadorian feminism,{{citation needed|date=May 2018}} between the 1930s and 1960s. She founded the Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios (FEI) in 1944 with the help of Ecuador's Communist Party.<ref name=becker>Becker, Mark. [http://www.yachana.org/indmovs/biographies.php "Cast of Characters."] ''Indians and Leftists in the Making of Ecuador’s Modern Indigenous Movements.'' (retrieved 10 Aug 2011)</ref>

==Biography== Dolores Cacuango was born in 1881 in San Pablo Urco on the Pesillo Hacienda near Cayambe, Ecuador, of parents of indigenous heritage. Her parents were peons, who worked in haciendas as unpaid laborers. Growing up, she had no access to education due to lack of resources. At the age of fifteen, she worked for the owner of the hacienda as a domestic servant and was struck by the disparity between the living conditions of the landlords and the peons.<ref name=becker/>

Dolores never learned how to read or write. She learned Spanish in Quito, where she worked as a housemaid at a young age.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://library.brown.edu/create/modernlatinamerica/chapters/chapter-15-culture-and-society/essays-on-culture-and-society/the-historical-and-contemporary-role-of-women-in-ecuadorian-society/|title=The Historical and Contemporary Role of Women in Ecuadorian Society {{!}} Modern Latin America|website=library.brown.edu|language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-12}}</ref>

During her political life, she led many rebellions against the systemic abuse of the owners of haciendas (''hacendados'') and their administrators. She was a key figure in the indigenous struggle leading towards the Land Reform law in Ecuador, which was promulgated in October 1973. She had also promoted the foundation of bilingual schools; in 1946 she founded the first school of its kind in Ecuador, which taught in both Quechua and Spanish.

One of the political influences of Caucango was an indigenous man called Juan Albamocho, who was a beggar. He used to sit near a lawyer's office while eavesdropping on their conversations, which led to him reporting the creation of a law protecting indigenous people to his local community in Cayambe. This prompted them to start using the law to defend themselves from the abuse of landowners and the church.

In 1927, she married Luis Catucuamba. They lived in Yanahuayco, near Cayambe. The couple had nine children, eight of which died at a young age. The cause of death was bowel disease due to the lack of hygiene and sanitation in the area. The only child who lived to adulthood was Luis Catucuamba, who became an indigenous teacher in his homeland in 1946.

In 1971, Dolores died. During her last years, she became paraplegic and lost a significant amount of weight, making her unable to visit local communities and organizations.

==Activism== In 1930, Cacuango was among the leaders of the historic workers' strike at the Pesillo hacienda in Cayambe.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest|last=Ness|first=Immanuel|isbn=9781405184649|date=2009-04-13}}</ref> The strike was a milestone for indigenous and peasant rights,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Indians and leftists in the making of Ecuador's modern indigenous movements|last=Becker|first=Marc|date=2008|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=9780822381457|location=Durham|oclc=246726784}}</ref> and was later the subject of Jorge Icaza's novel Huasipungo (1934).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorians Facing the Twenty-First Century.|last=Marc.|first=Becker|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=9781443869119|location=Newcastle upon Tyne|oclc=893739594}}</ref>

During the May 1944 Revolution in Ecuador, Cacuango personally led an assault on a government military base.<ref name="becker" /> Along with fellow activist Tránsito Amaguaña, she founded the Indigenous Federation of Ecuador (FEI), one of the first primary organisations to position, demand and fight for indigenous rights.<ref>{{Cite journal|date=2014|title=Where Did the Women Go? Gender Inequalities in Ecuador's Ethno-Politics|journal=Social Development Issues|volume=36}}</ref>

While Cacuango never received a formal education, she helped establish the first bilingual Indian schools. Aware of the terrible conditions that the children of indigenous peoples suffered in the schools, she ultimately founded bilingual schools, taught in both Spanish and Quechua, the indigenous language. She established these schools in the Cayambe zone in 1945. Cacuango proposed that these schools teach the pupils to read in both languages. Her schools functioned for 18 years, but the military junta closed them in 1963, considering them as communist ''focos''.<ref>[http://www.eluniverso.com/2009/03/15/1/1447/D5C2F65930514DF5B5F4EA84193AD254.html Dolores Cacuango. Tributo a una líder indígena], ''El Universo'', March 15, 2009</ref>

Cacuango was an outspoken Communist and was imprisoned for her activism.<ref name=becker/>

==Death and legacy== Dolores Cacuango, or Mama Dulu, as she was known, died in 1971. Her son, Luis Catucuamba Cacuango (b. 1924), taught at the Yanahuaico Indigenous school from 1945 to 1963, until the schools were shut down by the junta.<ref name=becker/>

In 1988, the Ministry of Education recognized the necessity of bettering the education of the indigenous people of Ecuador.

The National Direction of Bilingual Intercultural Education was also created. The ''Aleiodes cacuangoi'' species of wasp is named after her.<ref>{{Cite journal|pmc = 4023268|year = 2014|last1 = Shimbori|first1 = E. M|title = Twenty-four new species of Aleiodes Wesmael from the eastern Andes of Ecuador with associated biological information (Hymenoptera, Braconidae, Rogadinae)|journal = ZooKeys|issue = 405|pages = 1–81|last2 = Shaw|first2 = S. R|pmid = 24843275|doi = 10.3897/zookeys.405.7402|doi-access = free}}</ref>

On October 26, 2020, Google celebrated her 139th birthday with a Google Doodle.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://doodles.google/doodle/dolores-cacuangos-139th-birthday/ |title=Dolores Cacuango's 139th Birthday |website=Google |date=26 October 2020 }}</ref>

In 2023, a new species of snake found in Ecuador and probably endemic to the country was named ''Tropidophis cacuangoae'' after her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newsendip.com/fr/decouverte-en-equateur-dune-nouvelle-espece-de-serpent-nain-tropidophis-cacuangoae/|title=Découverte d'une nouvelle espèce de serpent nain probablement endémique à l'Équateur|first=Clément|last=Vérité|date=January 6, 2023|website=Newsendip. De l'actu internationale}}</ref>

== Notes == {{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cacuango, Dolores}} Category:1881 births Category:1971 deaths Category:People from Pichincha Province Category:Ecuadorian people of indigenous peoples descent Category:Ecuadorian Indigenous rights activists Category:Ecuadorian women activists Category:Ecuadorian communists Category:Ecuadorian rebels Category:Indigenous Ecuadorian activists Category:Indigenous people of the Andes Category:Women in war in Ecuador Category:Women in 20th-century warfare Category:Indigenous military personnel of the Americas Category:20th-century Ecuadorian women Category:20th-century Ecuadorian people Category:20th-century indigenous women of the Americas Category:20th-century indigenous people of the Americas