Teresa Zapeta

Teresa is a Mayan Indigenous Woman from Guatemala. For over 25 years now, she has been fighting for the individual and collective rights of Indigenous Women and Peoples. 

From 2004 to 2008, she was an official of the Guatemalan government, where she acted as a defender of Indigenous Women. She worked at UNIFEM and UN Women for five years, where she led the Indigenous Women program for Central America and Mexico.

She is a founding member of several Indigenous Women’s organizations, including the Political Association of Mayan Women, the National Coordinator of Mayan, Garífuna and Xinca Women, the More Women, Better Politics Initiative and the Alliance of Indigenous Women of Central America and Mexico.

Teresa has a degree in Social Communication and a master’s degree in Public Administration. She also studied legislative management and local development. These achievements did not come easy to her: only a small portion of the Guatemalan Mayan population makes it to university.
In the future, Teresa plans to write the story of her family, as a testimony to an incessant search for justice. That story will be filled with milpas, squash flowers, and messenger birds of time.