Tabea Casique Coronado was born into a large family in Yarina Cocha district, Ucayali, Peru during a turbulent time in the country. The Peruvian state was under military rule, a new constitution was about to be promulgated in 1979, and Peru’s most violent subversive group, the Shining Path (Sendero Luminiso), was starting to form.  

Because of this, Tabea grew up amid murders, forced recruitments, forced displacements, and sexual violence that often-targeted Indigenous People. Although the fall of the Shining Path leader, Abimael Guzman, occurred in 1992, it was not until 1999 that the confrontation between the armed forces and the remaining members of the guerrilla group finally ended. This hostile context did not prevent her from actively working to better her community.   

Inherited community work  

Ucayali, a young region of the Peruvian Amazon established in 1980, is a vast territory. Contrary to its size and vast forests, it’s the eighth least populated region in the country. This region is home to 12 Indigenous Peoples, including the Ashéninka, of which Tabea is a part.  

Tabea’s parents were community leaders and evangelists’ translators of the Ashéninka language, which was common among the Indigenous leaders of Ucayali due to the influence of the evangelizing companies and the Catholic religion in the Peruvian Amazon that’s been present since colonial times.  Being Church ministers and community leaders made Tabea’s parents a target for threats and persecution by the guerrilla group. So persistent was the persecution that in 1990 Tabea’s family had to take refuge in the Evangelical missionaries’ Summer Institute of Linguistics in the city of Pucallpa, where they would remain for two years before returning to the community of Chicosa, where Tabea would live part of her childhood and adolescence. 

From the time she was a child, Tabea alternated her studies with work. During the week she worked as a domestic cleaner; on Saturdays and Sundays, she followed from a distance the community activities of her parents, who kept being involved in defending the rights of the Asheninka and in evangelization. However, she was denied entry to these spaces because she was young and a woman, and she didn’t have the confidence to speak up at the time.  

“I couldn’t speak in public, I was submissive, I was a person who had very low self-esteem, so I have overcome all those obstacles to be able to get to where I am,” said Tabea Casique Coronado. 

The expectations of being an Indigenous adolescent woman  

Being from a religious family meant being immersed in its strict and conservative rules. Although her family supported her education, Tabea says she felt constant pressure to stay away from Indigenous activism and decision-making spaces in her community. 

Over time, the pressure to fulfill her domestic and academic responsibilities became too much, causing Tabea to move out of the house at the end of elementary school and become an adult prematurely. Tabea moved to Atalaya, a bigger town in Ucayali, to continue with the 5th year of secondary school, because the community of Chicosa did not have this level of education. At the age of 18, Tabea became a mother and had to face the struggles of urban life, motherhood, working life, and everything that  studying in a new place entailed. 

While this was occurring, Tabea also suffered racial and gender violence, which made her educational process and her path as a future leader even more difficult. In addition, she recognizes that, as a woman, she faced a series of external expectations about how she should be and act and be aware of political and decision-making scenarios that were crucial for her Indigenous community. 

Despite these challenges, she was lucky her family supported her education, so much so that they stepped in to help take care of her son so that Tabea could not only finish high school as a young mother but also study to be a nurse technician and then obtain a university degree in Social Work. These achievements have served as an example of self-improvement among the Indigenous women in her community. 

Challenging the status quo 

As an adult, Tabea started to get involved in advocacy efforts as soon as she saw the opportunity to do so. Being a woman nurse with Indigenous linguistic and cultural knowledge helped Tabea play a key role in facilitating access to health for the Indigenous Peoples in Atalaya. Her technical skills also made her stand out in Indigenous decision-making spaces such as the Regional Indigenous Organization of Atalaya (OIRA). However, there were limitations to active participation in those spaces because she was a woman.  

 “There are always limitations for a woman who wants to participate in decision-making spaces because it means taking on more responsibility as a single mother if women want to occupy high-level positions. Men also close doors for them at the beginning. They recognize that women do a good job, but that work is not recognized,” said Tabea Casique. 

According to Tabea, many Indigenous women are unable to participate in decision-making spaces due to the control that male partners and family members have over the women in their families. Additionally, women are kept out because of the hostility and perpetuation of roles by men in co-ed Indigenous organizations. As an adult, Tabea felt pressure from her partner to fulfill traditional gender and care roles at home. According to Tabea, he went so far as to exercise control over her actions, limiting participation in the OIRA. 

“But men say: is a woman going to boss me around? A woman can’t boss me around!” said Tabea Casique. 

A new era focused on her vocation as a leader  

Seeing the constant questioning and conflicts that arose from her partner due to her role in the OIRA, Tabea decided to get a divorce in 2012 and pursue a career as an Indigenous leader. She accepted a leadership position in the OIRA that allowed her to quickly rise in the ranks. 

Since assuming her first position in 2017, Tabea has held roles in regional, national, and international organizations: She was coordinator of the Department of  Women and Youth at OIRA, as well as treasurer of the Regional Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of Atalaya (CORPIAA); Coordinator of Education, Science and Technology of COICA, and she is currently responsible for the Forests, Climate and Health program of AIDESEP. 

“Every day, we must thank the universe for life, and we must always meditate. I always get up in the morning, and I give myself strength. As they say, self-esteem is missing in this issue. First is to empower ourselves; it is to be good with oneself so that you can transmit that message to others,” said Tabea Casique. 

After decades of struggle, some Indigenous, Afro-descendant, and local community women in Latin America have achieved conditions of equality and equity in their rights and have managed to overcome violence and/or gender discrimination in decision-making spaces. 

However, for many other women, barriers persist. Promoting technical training, building support networks, and creating resources for direct financing for community women can help empower women’s leadership and participation in decision-making events for their territory.  

Join our “The Pledge We Want” campaign for equitable, inclusive funding. 

This life story is part of the analysis Challenges, barriers and leadership strategies of Indigenous, Afro-descendant and local community women, launched by RRI in 2025