María Cleofé Sumire de Conde (born in an indigenous community in

Canchis Province Canchis Province is one of thirteen provinces in the Cusco Region in the southern highlands of Peru. Geography The Willkanuta River or Willkamayu is one of the largest rivers of the province. Siwinaqucha, the biggest lake of the province, is a ...

Cusco Region Cusco, also spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu suyu ), is a department and region in Peru and is the fourth largest department in the country, after Madre de Dios, Ucayali, and Loreto. It borders the departments of Ucayali on the north; Madre de D ...

) is a

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = Seal (emblem), National seal , national_motto = "Fi ...

vian politician. She belongs to the

Union for Peru Union for Peru ( es, Unión por el Perú) was a Peruvian political party founded by Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, an ex- UN Secretary General, in 1994 to run for the Presidency of Peru in the 1995 general elections. Originally a social democratic pa ...

party and was a

Congresswoman A Member of Congress (MOC) is a person who has been appointed or elected and inducted into an official body called a congress, typically to represent a particular constituency in a legislature. The term member of parliament (MP) is an equivalen ...

representing

Cusco Cusco, often spelled Cuzco (; qu, Qusqu ()), is a city in Southeastern Peru near the Urubamba Valley of the Andes mountain range. It is the capital of the Cusco Region and of the Cusco Province. The city is the list of cities in Peru, seventh m ...

for the period 2006-2011 and was a candidate for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize.

Biography

Sumire is the daughter of the founder of the Peasants' Federation of Cusco ''(Federación Departamental de Campesinos del Cusco)'', Eduardo Sumire, and was raised in the community of Collachapi (Layo district, Canas province, Cusco region). Her mother tongue is

Quechua Quechua may refer to: *Quechua people, several indigenous ethnic groups in South America, especially in Peru *Quechuan languages, a Native South American language family spoken primarily in the Andes, derived from a common ancestral language **So ...

. Sumire is an experienced lawyer from Cusco, who has provided legal advice for the Farmer Federation of Cusco in its struggle for land and women's organisations. She is a leader of the Association of Andean Women (AMA) and was one of th
1,000 women candidates for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize
She said that she will seek to legislate in favour of the development of poor communities from the southern Andes and the decentralisation process in the country. Moreover, she will seek to monitor regional governments and to battle against corruption.

Congress

Sumire was elected to the Peruvian Congress in 2006, where she was the first Peruvian parliamentarian who was sworn in in

, for which she was sharply criticised by

Martha Hildebrandt Martha Luz Hildebrandt Pérez-Treviño (13 January 1925 – 8 December 2022) was a Peruvian linguist and Fujimorist politician. She was first elected to Congress in 1995 and, in 1999, she became the second woman to serve as President of the Co ...

and some other members of Congress.Mayra Castillo: En el nombre del quechua. El Comercio, 31 de marzo de 2007
María Sumire focuses on indigenous language and land rights of the poor communities in the Andes and indigenous people across Peru. After supporting protests of indigenous people against mining in the Amazon in 2009, she and several other congressmen were suspended for three months.

Recognition

Sumire was given th
national personality award
by the Cultural Ministry of Peru for all her work on support of the indigenous culture in Peru. Th
promulgation of law 29735
of native languages of Peru marked a new beginning for all the indigenous communities with respect to their own languages. Finally, indigenous communities will have the right to education, justice, transactions among others on their own language and culture.

References

External links

María Sumire's personal blogIbis Liulla Torres: Maria Sumire – Woman of Faith and Strength
(Methodist website) {{DEFAULTSORT:Sumire, Maria Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Quechua politicians Union for Peru politicians Members of the Congress of the Republic of Peru 21st-century Peruvian women politicians 21st-century Peruvian politicians Women members of the Congress of the Republic of Peru People from Cusco Region