Dr. Luis Macas has long been at the forefront of the struggle for political rights for indigenous peoples in Ecuador as a founder and then president of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE). He is now reaching beyond borders to make intercontinental alliances in the emergent pan-global indigenous peoples' movement. In this talk he discusses this grassroots form of globalization, pointing to challenges and successes of indigenous people's movements across the Americas and beyond.A member of the Saraguro indigenous community (part of the Quichua-Kichwa nation), Luis Macas is the Ecuadorian presidential candidate for Pachakutik Plurinational Unity Movement, the political branch of CONAIE, in the 2006 elections.

Luis Macas' talk will be given in Spanish and simultaneously translated by Professor Linda Belote, Department of Anthropology, University of Minnesota at Duluth.

Sponsored by: Global Studies Initiative

In conjunction with: Asian American Studies Program, Center for Democracy in a Multiracial Society, Center for Global Studies, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of History, Department of Linguistics, Department of Political Science, Department of Sociology, Environmental Council, Global Crossroads Living/Learning Community, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Native American House, Office of Continuing Education, Program in Arms Control, Disarmament, and International Security, Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory