Transito Amaguaña

Rosa Elena Amaguaña, was an Ecuadorian indigenous woman, meek and fighter.    In Ecuador, she is better known as Tránsito Amaguaña.  During her whole life she has struggled in defense of human rights of indigenous people.

She grew up with her parents, who were workers at a Hacienda in Ecuador, therefore she knew about the exploitation to the indigenous huasipungueros.  Mama Amaguaña was born on September 10, 1909; she had four sons, about 12 grandchildren, 20 great grandchildren and 3 great-great-grandchildren.

She participated in creating the first agricultural unions of the country, the first strike of agricultural workers in Olmedo (1931) on her own initiative and without government support.  In 1945, she launched rural schools, and founded in the Cayambe area, four bilingual schools (Quechua-Spanish).

She was the leader of 26 demonstrations in Quito that claimed the rights of indigenous people, and she was one of the founders in 1994 of the Ecuadorian Federation of Indigenous people.

Her objective was to achieve that peasants were valued as human beings, and not as simple entities intended to work.

She died on May 13, 2009, being 100 years old.  Now she will be remembered for all the indigenous people of Ecuador, because of all of her fight against oppression.