Nicolasa Machaca

Last updated

Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro (born 1952) is a Bolivian union leader and health care worker.

Contents

A child of indigenous Quechua farmworkers, Machaca learned to read and became a literacy advocate. She coordinated community aid efforts and worked to empower women through forming mothers' clubs. [1] In 1980, she was involved in the founding of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, the primary union organization of peasant women in Bolivia. [2] Later that year, she was imprisoned and tortured for her social activism, and she was forced to flee the country. [3] After a stay in Cuba, she returned to Bolivia and studied to become a paramedic. [4]

In 2005, she was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize as part of PeaceWomen Across the Globe's initiative to nominate a group of 1,000 women for that year's honor. [5]

Biography

Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro was born in 1952 in the Bolivian municipality of Poopó. She grew up in a farming family, which raised sheep and cows and planted potatoes and fava beans. [3] Machaca did not begin school until age 10, and she was bullied for being so much older than her classmates, so she dropped out shortly after enrolling. [6] However, a few years later, she learned to read and began leading literacy courses in her community. She also became involved in the community's Mothers' Club, although she was not yet a mother herself.

Machaca began meeting provincial leaders and forming a network there, and in 1974 she represented Kurawara, her ayllu (indigenous community), at the Congress of Peasant Women in Oruro. [7]

In 1977, Machaca left Kurawara and settled in Oruro, having been chosen to oversee programs for women in her province. [7]

In 1980, she came to be considered a threat to the regime of Luís García Meza, and one night she was taken by military forces and imprisoned in the Oruro jail. After two months of imprisonment, interrogation, and torture, in early 1981 Machaca's body was thrown in the cab of a truck and she was brought to Obispo Santistevan Province, where they left her. She managed to find another truck to bring her to La Paz. She took refuge in the house of a fellow activist, who found a doctor and helped her flee the country. [7] She traveled to Cuba via Lima, and in Havana she was brought to the hospital. Her condition was critical, and it was feared that she would have to have both legs amputated, but the doctors managed to save them. [3]

Machaca stayed in Cuba for a year and a half, returning to Bolivia after García Meza was ousted. She continued her activist work and worked for Radio Pío XII in Oruro. In 1985, she enrolled in the Instituto Politécnico Tomás Katari, graduating as a paramedic. [7] She went on to lead projects at that institution to bring medical staff to remote communities. [8]

As a founding member of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation, Machaca continued her union activism, but she paired it with work on social services. [9]

She was among the 1,000 women nominated by PeaceWomen Across the Globe for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. [5]

In 2011, she was named the first president of the "Juana Azurduy" Social Organization of Quechua Women, which aims to empower women in peri-urban neighborhoods of Sucre. [10]

Personal life

In 1991, she married Benjamín Cuéllar, whom she met during her work providing medical services to communities in Potosí Department. The couple moved to Sucre, where they raised their three children: Rosa, Ernesto, and Carmen Julia. [7]

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aymara people</span> Indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America

The Aymara or Aimara people are an indigenous people in the Andes and Altiplano regions of South America; about 2.3 million live in northwest Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, and Peru. Their ancestors lived in the region for many centuries before becoming a subject people of the Inca in the late 15th or early 16th century, and later of the Spanish in the 16th century. With the Spanish American wars of independence (1810–1825), the Aymaras became subjects of the new nations of Bolivia and Peru. After the War of the Pacific (1879–1883), Chile annexed territory with Aymara population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Túpac Katari</span> Indigenous Aymara leader of a major insurrection in colonial-era Upper Peru

Túpac Katari or Catari, born Julián Apasa Nina, was the indigenous Aymara leader of a major insurrection in colonial-era Upper Peru, laying siege to La Paz for six months. His wife Bartolina Sisa and his sister Gregoria Apaza participated in the rebellion by his side. The rebellion was ultimately put down by Spanish loyalists and Katari was executed by quartering.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Juana Azurduy de Padilla</span>

Juana Azurduy de Padilla was a guerrilla military leader from Chuquisaca, Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata. She fought for Bolivian independence alongside her husband, Manuel Ascencio Padilla, earning the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. She was noted for her strong support for and military leadership of the indigenous people of Upper Peru. In 2015, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, a statue of Azurduy replaced the one of Christopher Columbus in front of the Casa Rosada, causing some controversy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gregoria Apaza</span>

Gregoria Apaza, was an indigenous leader in Bolivia. In 1781, she participated with her brother Julian Apaza and sister-in-law Bartolina Sisa in a major indigenous revolt against Spanish colonial rule in Bolivia. These Aymara leaders laid siege to the cities of La Paz and Sorata before being defeated and executed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bartolina Sisa</span>

Bartolina Sisa Vargas was an Aymaran woman and indigenous heroine who led numerous revolts against the Spanish rule in Charcas, then part of the Viceroyalty of Peru and present-day Bolivia. Alongside her husband, the indigenous leader Túpac Katari, she participated in the organisation of indigenous military camps that took part in the siege of La Paz. She was betrayed and turned in to the Spanish authorities, who later executed her.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010 Bolivian regional elections</span>

The 2010 Bolivian regional elections were held on 4 April 2010. Departmental and municipal authorities were elected by an electorate of approximately 5 million people. Among the officials elected are:

The Pact of Unity is an evolving national alliance of Bolivian grassroots organizations in support of indigenous and agrarian rights, land reform, the rewriting of the 1967 constitution through a Constituent Assembly, and a left-indigenous transformation of the Bolivian state. Since 2005, the Pact has been a close ally of Bolivian President Evo Morales, and it forms the nucleus of the National Coordination for Change, a pro-government alliance.

NemesiaAchacollo Tola is a Bolivian political and union leader. She served as the Minister of Rural Development and Lands for nearly five years, and is past president of the Bartolina Sisa National Federation of Campesino Women of Bolivia. She was appointed to the Ministry by President Evo Morales in January 2010, following a long career of union leadership in her native Santa Cruz.

The Bartolina Sisa National Confederation of Campesino, Indigenous, and Native Women of Bolivia is the primary union organization of peasant women in Bolivia, and the women's organization with the largest membership in the country. The organization was founded as the Bartolina Sisa National Federation of Peasant Women of Bolivia in January 1980, shortly after the 1979 protests against the de facto presidency of Colonel Alberto Natuschfounding and the founding of the Unified Syndical Confederation of Rural Workers of Bolivia (CSUTCB). The founding members were Lucila Mejía de Morales, Irma García, Isabel Juaniquina and Isabel Ortega. The name Bartolina Sisa refers to the Aymara peasant leader of the 18th century, the wife of Túpac Katari, and reflects the strong influence of the Katarista movement in peasant politics. The current name was adopted in the organization's Organic Congress of 29-30 November 2008, redefining the organization as a confederation and adopting the phrase Campesino, Indigenous, and Native from the text of the new Bolivian constitution. Their main aims are to organize and facilitate women's participation in national terrain. They achieve these aims by giving indigenous women political, economic, cultural, and social decision making power; unifying peasant women's political, cultural, and social rights under a single framework; and promoting economic development on the basis of traditional peasant Indigenous peoples’ knowledge. Through this work their ultimate mission is the decolonization of women and encouragement of their equal and meaningful participation in protest. The Bartolina Sisa Confederation is a member of the Pact of Unity in Bolivia, and of the National Coordination for Change, and a constituent organization in the Movement toward Socialism party. The president of the Constituent Assembly in Bolivia, Silvia Lazarte, was elected Executive Secretary at the National level at the 8th national congress in April 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machu Such'i Qhuchi</span> Mountain in Bolivia

Machu Such'i Qhuchi or Machu Such'i Q'uchi is a mountain in the Apolobamba mountain range in the Bolivian Andes, about 5,679 metres (18,632 ft) high. It is situated near the Peruvian border in the La Paz Department, Franz Tamayo Province, Pelechuco Municipality, east of Such'i Lake.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bolivian Civil War</span>

The Bolivian Civil War, also known as the Federal War was a civil war in Bolivia fought from 1898 to 1899. The war saw two factions, a conservative side supported by the political, economic and religious elite of the country with control of the armed forces and who defended a unitary state, and a liberal faction opposed to the policies set by the state and that intended to transform the country into a federation, with support of the peasantry, the indigenous peoples and small Catholic businesses.

Julia Damiana Ramos Sánchez is a Bolivian nurse and politician. She was a Plurinational deputy from 2006 to 2009, and Minister of Land and Rural Development from 2009 to 2010, during the first government of Evo Morales.

Tomasa Yarhui Jacomé is a Bolivian lawyer and politician. She became the country's first indigenous government minister when she occupied the portfolio of Peasant Affairs and Indigenous Peoples during the government of President Jorge Quiroga on 5 March 2002.

María Eugenia del Valle de Siles was a Chilean-Bolivian historian, researcher, and university professor.

Sabina Orellana Cruz is a Bolivian unionist and politician of Quechua origin serving as Minister of Cultures, Decolonization and Depatriarchalization since 20 November 2020. She is a member of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation of indigenous women.

María Magdalena Cajías de la Vega is a Bolivian academic, historian, and politician who served as minister of education from 2007 to 2008. Cajías spent most of her professional career teaching history at the Higher University of San Andrés, in addition to holding a number of consultancy posts for intergovernmental organizations and government bodies. She authored multiple published historical titles, focusing on the fields of women's and labor history. In 2006, Cajías was brought on as a consultant for the Ministry of the Presidency before being appointed to head the Ministry of Education the following year. After a brief return to academia following the conclusion of her ministerial term, Cajías returned to public administration as consul general in Santiago, where she served from 2014 to 2019. In 2021, she was named as a member of the editorial board of the Bolivian Bicentennial Library.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lidia Patty</span> Bolivian politician (born 1969)

Lidia Patty Mullisaca is a Bolivian educator and politician who is the ambassador-designate of Bolivia to Paraguay. A member of the Movement for Socialism, Patty previously represented La Paz in the Chamber of Deputies, first as a substitute under Manuel Canelas from 2015 to 2018 and later as a full member in her own right until 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ancelma Perlacios</span> Bolivian politician (born 1964)

Ancelma Perlacios Peralta is a Bolivian cocalera activist, politician, and trade unionist who served as senator for La Paz from 2015 to 2020. Born in the rural community of Chicaloma, Perlacios ascended the ranks of women's union leadership throughout the mid-2000s and early 2010s, starting at the local and later municipal levels before reaching the national level as part of the Bartolina Sisa Confederation. Her membership there facilitated her inclusion on the Movement for Socialism's 2014 electoral list, through which she was elected to the Senate. As a legislator, Perlacios occupied a unique position in Bolivian parliamentary history as the first-ever Afro-Bolivian to serve in the Senate. She shares, together with Andrea Bonilla, the distinction of being one of the first two Afro-Bolivian women in parliament, and is one of just three overall, after Jorge Medina.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Plácida Espinoza</span> Bolivian politician (born 1948)

Plácida Espinoza Mamani is a Bolivian educator, politician, and trade unionist who served as senator for Oruro from 2015 to 2020.

References

  1. ↑ "Confederación Nacional de Mujeres Campesinas Indígenas Originarias de Bolivia "Bartolina Sisa" - CNMCIOB-BS". Agencia Plurinacional de Comunicación. Archived from the original on 2016-08-28.
  2. ↑ "Falleció en Bolivia Ana Mar. Un ícono del periodismo y de la defensa de la humanidad". eldia.com.bo. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  3. 1 2 3 "Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro (Bolivia) | WikiPeaceWomen – English". wikipeacewomen.org. Retrieved 2020-09-05.
  4. ↑ "Nicolasa Machaca Alejandro – Bolivia". World People's Blog. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  5. 1 2 Ortiz, Julio (2005-07-04). "Tres bolivianas van por el Nobel de la Paz". El Deber. Archived from the original on 2010-05-01.
  6. ↑ "¿Quién es Nicolasa Machaca?". El Deber. 2005-07-24.
  7. 1 2 3 4 5 Ortiz, Pablo (2005-01-05). "Las cosas que se te suelen perder: Nicolasa Machaca, como la gota en la piedra". El Deber. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  8. ↑ Barrios Villegas, Franz (2014). Instituto Politécnico "Tomás Katari": Un Instrumento de Liberación (PDF). Sucre.
  9. ↑ "1000 Mujeres para el Premio Nobel de la Paz 2005: Bolivia". www.wloe.org. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
  10. ↑ "Posesionan a directiva de Mujeres Quechuas "Juana Azurduy"". Correo del Sur. Retrieved 2020-09-07.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.