This book is the first historical study to center indigenous women's perspectives on modernization and highlight their pivotal role in grassroots movements to preserve indigenous ways of life.

Working against traditional views of indigenous people as victims of colonization, the personal narratives of twelve indigenous women illuminate their pivotal role in grassroots movements against recent processes of modernization in Ecuador. The author used oral history methodologies and archival research to examine the how women have contributed to Ecuador's rich history of grassroots protest by indigenous groups throughout history. Analyzing these women's stories through the lenses of gender, language, race, and post-colonial history reveals how these women are actively forging powerful indigenous identities in the twenty-first century in the face of modernization.