When the Spanish colonized Ecuador in 1531 it began a rule of Catholicism, defining the figure of women as pure and virginal, and certainly in no condition to vote. Two incredibly important women: Matilde Hidalgo de Procel and Dolores Cacuango, born just 8 years apart, fought for the rights of women and indigenous people to try and incite change in a country ruled by elitist white men.

Matilde Hidalgo de Procel, the first Latin American suffragist, fought for her right to an education and subsequently her right to vote. After finishing her primary education, she pleaded to be allowed to continue at an all-boys high school at a time when further education was rare for women. Finally, the male president of the school, after a month of deliberating, allowed her to join. She was the first woman in her region to graduate from high school. She decided she would not stop there and subsequently applied to study medicine at La Universidad Central de Quito. The university’s president denied her access and even suggested more “feminine” career paths such as pharmacy or obstetrics. She ignored his sexist comments and instead applied for the same course at La Universidad de Cuenca, which accepted her onto the course. She was subject to bullying for being a woman and became a social outcast, but nevertheless, on the 29th June 1919, Matilde graduated with honours in Medicine. She went on to continue her studies and in 1921, she graduated with a doctorate in Medicine. She was the first woman in Ecuador to achieve this. When places rejected Matilde for jobs, she persevered, knowing that like-minded individuals existed. She was even awarded a Medicine Scholarship in Argentina. Her work was quite clearly defying societal ideals.

In addition to these extensive achievements, she became interested and involved in the sphere of politics, eventually finding a loophole in the 1827 constitution which meant there was no explicit law excluding women from voting. Matilde was the first woman to vote, not only in Ecuador but across the whole of Latin America. She received the National Merit Award in 1956 and subsequently in 1971. She was essential to the approval of the 1929 law promising universal suffrage for all Ecuadorian women.

However, there was a very clear difference between the introduction of the law and its everyday use and impact. The 1929 law excluded illiterate women from voting which signified that indigenous men and women were completely unable to vote.

Dolores Cacuango, also known as ‘Mama Warrior’, was a Kichwa woman born into a cruel hacienda system. Her family worked for rich white landowners north of the capital Quito, where she was exposed to the abuse indigenous peoples suffered at the hands of the wealthy elite. Afraid of her predestined fate of an arranged marriage decided by landowners, at 15 she fled to the capital where she worked as a housekeeper for a military general. There, she learned how to read and write in Spanish and with her newfound self-taught literacy skills, she returned to the hacienda to fight for indigenous workers’ rights. The conditions were so poor there that she gave birth to 9 children, but only one survived the horrific poverty. She was particularly affected by the violence inflicted on women and children and their financial exploitation against this backdrop. She helped the Social and Communist party to try and establish unions to protect workers. Dolores organised the first indigenous march to Quito to protest the law and reality of indigenous rights. She co-founded the Ecuadorian Federation of Indians in 1944, the first Indigenous organisation in the country. She even opened the first Quechua-Spanish bilingual schools in Ecuador’s indigenous communities, but despite their influence, they were not recognised by the education system as official schools. In 1963, the dictatorship of General Ramon Castro Jijón threatened her progress, closing her schools and forcing her to go into hiding in the mountains to flee the persecution she was facing from government officials. Despite this, she continued with underground activities and showed up to protests and events wearing a disguise, so that she did not miss out on the action. She gave herself tirelessly to the cause, risking her life to do so. In 1970, general Jijón passed suffocating legislation, pushing indigenous land workers into further poverty and struggle. Dolores’s family were subsequently affected by this.

Dolores fought long and hard to protect and save the identity of indigenous communities and protested the repressive regime affecting women, land rights and the subjugation of indigenous peoples. She paved the way for indigenous rights today and inspired years of continuous fighting and resistance.

Although these two powerful women have immensely contributed to the progression of indigenous and women’s rights, they are rarely taught about in schools. Teachers condemn the history curriculum which mostly revolves around their colonial past and the history of presidents in Ecuador. Activists have often stated that the influences of Matilde and especially Dolores, will not be forgotten, however, it is disheartening to see repressive legislations as recent as 2019 affecting the rights of indigenous groups. Their legacies continue to influence activists today, reminding them that change can, and should, happen.