Nina Pacari grew up in an Andean village in northern Ecuador. With Kichwa nationality, she is a lawyer and renowned leader of the indigenous movement. Pacari studied law at the Central University of Ecuador in Quito, where she met other indigenous students and joined in the struggle for indigenous rights and the defence of the Kichwa language. After completing her degree she returned to her community and continued the struggle. She worked as a lawyer for the Federación de los pueblos Kichwa de la Sierra Norte del Ecuador (FICI). Subsequently, she legally supported indigenous communities in the province of Chimborazo. In 1989, she became Legal Adviser of the indigenous confederation CONAIE, and in May 2007 was elected judge of the Constitutional Court. Pacari is highly critical of the long history of Western imperialist neo-colonialist abuse on indigenous cultures and has been a central figure in the struggle for the preservation of indigenous cultural identity, the building a multinational state and the land rights of indigenous communities. Among her published works are Las cultures nacionales en el estado multinacional ecuatoriano. Antropolgía, cuadernos de investigación, 3 (1984); Los indios y su lucha jurídico-política. Revista ecuatoriana de pensamientomarxista, 12 (1989); Levantamiento indígena. In Sismo étnico en el Ecuador: Varias perspecti-vas, edited by José Almeida (1993); Taking on the Neoliberal Agenda. NACLA Report on the Americas 29, no. 5 (March-April 1996).