At the turn of the 20th century, Indigenous Kichwa communities in the Andes Mountains of Ecuador existed under a cruel hacienda system. Most Kichwa people lived in small adobe huts and worked for landowners who often withheld pay, keeping them in debt, and violently punished or humiliated them for not obeying the rules. This is the scene that Dolores Cacuango was born into in 1881, and this is the scene that inspired her 30-year struggle for Indigenous rights. Cacuango—or Mama Dolores as she is affectionately known today—has been called a…
