This article is part of a Women and Leadership special report highlighting women who are charting new pathways and fighting for opportunities for women and others.
For the first 10 years of her life, Tarcila Rivera-Zea lived a cloistered existence. Growing up in the Peruvian Andes as part of the Quechua Indigenous community, she spoke only the Quechua language. She ate Quechua foods. She dressed in simple clothing. And she experienced deep poverty.
“I used to have one piece of clothing, a dress, for the whole year,” she said. She often went without shoes. And, she said, “We ate mostly maize and potatoes.”
The only nearby school taught in Spanish, and Ms. Rivera-Zea left after a year because she couldn’t communicate with the teachers and other students and comprehend what was being taught.
Now 74, Ms. Rivera-Zea has spent decades focused on reaching out to Indigenous peoples in Peru and beyond in an attempt to lift up other women, create more economic opportunities and make sure their voices are heard.
Her drive is rooted in her past, she said.
“My father was a Quechua but white and came from a family of colonizers, and my mother was brown,” she said, “so his family used to make derogatory comments against me and comment on my skin tone since I look like her.”
But her life began to turn around when she was 10 and her mother sent her to Lima to stay with her father, who had recently moved to the city for work to support their family. She was able to enroll in public school and learn Spanish.
With her meager wardrobe and her struggle with the language, she said, she was still bullied. But, she said, “At school, I proved to myself that by reading and writing, I could aspire to other things.”
Ms. Rivera-Zea graduated from high school at 21 and worked for the Indian Council of South America, which advocates for Indigenous rights. Over the years, she extended her advocacy to the region and then globally, founding and participating in organizations that support Indigenous peoples. They include the Continental Network of Indigenous Women of the Americas (ECMIA); the International Indigenous Women’s Forum; CHIRAPAQ, Center for Indigenous Cultures of Peru; and the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change.
She was interviewed by email with the help of a translator and by phone in Lima, where she lives. The exchanges have been edited and condensed.
Can you tell me more about what led you to advocate for the rights of the Quechua people and how your work has evolved?
I enjoyed the work I was doing with the Indian Council of South America, but I decided to start my own advocacy group, ECMIA, because I wanted to fight specifically for the rights of women.
In 1999, our group hosted the International Workshop of Indigenous Women in Lima in collaboration with women leaders of Indigenous groups worldwide, including Asia, the Arctic and Africa.
Our work caught the attention of the Assembly of First Nations of Canada. The group’s leaders offered to pay the tickets and expenses for 100 Indigenous women from all over the world to participate in a special session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, which was focused on gender equality for women (officially called Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century.). It was the first time Indigenous women were present. We officially established the International Indigenous Women’s Forum when we were there.
My work continued to be more globally recognized from then on.
Could you tell me more about how the rights of the Quechua people are threatened?
Quechua communities are threatened by the impact of climate change, loggers, poachers and foreign actors that bring consumerist and predatory habits to the communities.
Despite the efforts made by parents to educate their children, the new generation does not find opportunities to grow economically and professionally, and become easy prey for illegal activities such as drug trafficking and working in illegal gold mines. Girls and young women are trafficked.
How does being public about your mission help your cause?
I am part of the 480 million Indigenous people who are in the seven geocultural regions of the world fighting for our full rights. These include living with self-determination, preserving life in our territories, and enjoying full dignity free of racism and exclusion.
By being public, I have become part of an alliance we have built over the years with supportive people, institutions, foundations and investors to achieve positive changes in our societies. We act in our own territories with our initiatives but share a common goal.
You also advocate for initiatives to combat climate change because of its impact on the Quechua people. Can you tell us more?
Testimonies about the effects of drought in the Andes and in the forests tell us heartbreaking realities because everything dies: Rivers, plants and fruits are scarce, and biodiversity is lost.
In Quechua communities, the impact of extreme weather mainly threatens the food production cycle. If there is a drought, frost or hail, the year’s food supply for the families is lost. And, if people have cattle, sheep or camelids, their economic capital is lost because there is no grass or water.
What do you want for the Quechua people today and in the forthcoming years?
We, Indigenous women, talk about the future of our sons and daughters with a dream that they will be global citizens without prejudice or discrimination and that racism will be eradicated from the most local level to the global one.
I would also like to see my people have more opportunities for education and economic and professional advancement.