Tránsito Amaguaña
Rosa Elena Tránsito Amaguaña Alba (1909-2009)
She was an Ecuadorian activist and prominent leader of the indigenous movement that developed in Ecuador between the 1920s and 1970s.
Biography
She was the daughter of indigenous slaves. At the age of six she attended the designated school for indigenous people where she was forced to learn Spanish. She began working as a domestic slave at seven years. When she was 14 years old, she was forced to marry and as a result of constant rapes she had four children.
She knew that all her human rights were violated, so she escaped from her husband and led the indigenous justice movement.
Her leadership capacity led her in 1962 to represent the indigenous people of Ecuador in the Soviet Union and in Cuba. Upon her return she was arrested on charges of having brought Soviet weapons and money. After being released, she was taken to the Ministry of Government to sign a document in which she promised to abandon her activism; she rejected the proposal and continued to devote all her strength to making the needs of the indigenous people a reality. For what she spent the rest of her life fleeing from the police and fighting for the rights of indigenous people.
Legacy and heritage of indigenous knowledge
-She managed to formalize the law that abolished indigenous slavery.
-She translated several books on traditional Kichwa medicine into Spanish. The books she translated are required reading to enter university and this traditional medicine would provide humanity with great opportunities for practices that are not harmful to the environment and of great use to human health.
-She also wrote articles to create self-sustaining systems. Where she explains how indigenous communities do not generate garbage or plastic, replacing the plastic with the palm leaf and processing it with ash and smoke to make it waterproof and resistant, with that they make houses and toilet paper.
For more information
Chasipanta, T., & Santiago, C. (2018). Proyección análoga de la obra Huasipungo de Jorge Icaza, en la vida de la lideresa indígena Tránsito Amaguaña (Bachelor's thesis, Quito: UCE).
Mosquera, V. (2014). Género y poder: biografía política de una mujer indígena de Cotopaxi. Antropología Cuadernos de investigación, (14), 13-23.
Ruiza, M., Fernández, T. y Tamaro, E. (2004). Biografia de Tránsito Amaguaña. En Biografías y Vidas. La enciclopedia biográfica en línea. Barcelona (España). Recuperado de https://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/a/amaguana.htm el 9 de diciembre de 2020.
Moreno Valdivieso, L. M., & Tierra Tierra, E. G. (2013). Creación de un estilo neo precolombino de comic y diseño de la historieta de Tránsito Amaguaña para el Colelgio Maldonado (Bachelor's thesis).