Nina Pacari (

Kichwa Kichwa (, , also Spanish ) is a Quechuan language that includes all Quechua varieties of Ecuador and Colombia (''Inga''), as well as extensions into Peru. It has an estimated half million speakers. The most widely spoken dialects are Chimborazo ...

''nina'' "fire", ''paqariy'' "to appear, dawn"), born as María Estela Vega Conejo (born 9 October 1961 in Cotacachi, Imbabura) is a

politician,

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

and

indigenous Indigenous may refer to: *Indigenous peoples *Indigenous (ecology), presence in a region as the result of only natural processes, with no human intervention *Indigenous (band), an American blues-rock band *Indigenous (horse), a Hong Kong racehorse ...

leader from

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Biography

Nina Pacari studied

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

at the

Central University of Ecuador , image = Escudo de la Universidad Central del Ecuador.png , caption = , alt = , motto = ''Omnium Potentior est Sapientia'' , established = , type = National university , president = , ...

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

, where she got to know other indigenous students and began to fight for indigenous rights and the defense of the

language. At the age of 24, she changed her Spanish name officially to the Kichwa ''Nina Pacari''. Nina Pacari worked as a lawyer for the ''Federación de los pueblos Kichwa de la Sierra Norte del Ecuador'' (FICI), an organization in Imbabura which is now a member of ECUARUNARI. After that, she supported Kichwa communities as a lawyer in the

Chimborazo Province Chimborazo () is a province in the central Ecuadorian Andes. It is a home to a section of Sangay National Park. The capital is Riobamba. The province contains Chimborazo (6,267 m), Ecuador's highest mountain. Cantons The province is divided in ...

. In 1989, she became a legal adviser of the indigenous confederation

CONAIE The Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador ( es, Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador) or, more commonly, CONAIE, is Ecuador's largest indigenous rights organization. The Ecuadorian Indian movement under the le ...

, founded in 1986. In the uprising of 1990 she supported indigenous communities in Chimborazo and participated in the negotiations with the government. In 1994, she worked out an alternative draft against the draft law of president

Sixto Durán Ballén Sixto Alfonso Durán-Ballén Cordovez (14 July 1921 – 15 November 2016) was an Ecuadorian political figure and architect. He served as Mayor of Quito between 1970 and 1978. In 1951, he co-founded a political party, the Social Christian Party. ...

, which was not realized due to the peasants' resistance.

Political career

In 1997, she was the representative of Chimborazo in the National Assembly and collaborated in the elaboration of the new constitution. In August 1998, she was the first indigenous woman to be elected to the Ecuadorian parliament, as a member of the newly established Pachakutik movement. In 2003, she became the foreign minister in the government of

Lucio Gutiérrez Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbúa (born 23 March 1957 in Quito) served as 43rd President of Ecuador from 15 January 2003 to 20 April 2005. Early life Lucio Gutierrez, in full Lucio Edwin Gutiérrez Borbua, (born 23 March 1957, Quito, Ecuador), ...

, but soon after she resigned together with the agriculture minister

Luis Macas Luis Macas Ambuludí (born 1951) is a Kichwa politician and intellectual from Saraguro Ecuador. Macas has honorary university degrees in anthropology, linguistics and jurisprudence. He was one of the founders of the CONAIE and of the Pachakutik ...

because of the neoliberal policy of Gutiérrez. In May 2007, she was elected judge of the Constitutional Court of Ecuador.El TC elegido en plancha
El Comercio, 1 de junio de 2007

Works

*''Las cultures nacionales en el estado multinacional ecuatoriano.'' Antropolgía, cuadernos de investigación 3 (noviembre de 1984): 113-22. *''Los indios y su lucha jurídico-política.'' Revista ecuatoriana de pensamientomarxista 12 (1989): 41-47. *''Levantamiento indígena.'' In Sismo étnico en el Ecuador: Varias perspecti-vas, edited by José Almeida et al., 169-86. Quito, Ecuador: CEDIME—Ediciones Abya-Yala, 1993. *''Taking on the Neoliberal Agenda.'' NACLA Report on the Americas 29,no. 5 (March–April 1996): 23-32 "The Political Participation of Indigenous Women in the Ecuadorian Congress: Unfinished Business"lInternational IDEA, 2002, Women in Parliament, Stockholm (http://www.idea.int).

External links

CV of Nina Pacari (PDF)
(248 kB)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pacari, Nina 1961 births Living people People from Cotacachi (city) Ecuadorian people of Quechua descent Central University of Ecuador alumni 20th-century Ecuadorian lawyers Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador politicians Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement – New Country politicians Members of the National Congress (Ecuador) Foreign ministers of Ecuador Constitutional court judges Ecuadorian judges Ecuadorian women judges Ecuadorian women lawyers Female foreign ministers Women government ministers of Ecuador Ecuadorian women diplomats 21st-century Ecuadorian women politicians 21st-century Ecuadorian politicians