María Blanca Chancoso Sánchez (born 1955) is an Ecuadorian educator and indigenous leader of the Otavalo people.^[1][2][3][4]

Chancoso was born in Cotacachi, Imbabura Province, Ecuador in 1955, in an indigenous family which had moved from the countryside into the town.^[5] She studied in a rural college and has a bachelor's degree in educational sciences.^[6] She was unusual in being a teacher who spoke both Spanish and Kichwa language, and began to organise the local communities. She established the Federación de Indígenas y Campesinos de Imbabura in 1974, and in 1980 was at the forefront of campaigns for bilingual education and the recognition of multinationality in Ecuador.^[5] She is one of the founders of ECUARUNARI (Ecuador Runakunapak Rikcharimuy or Confederation of Peoples of Kichwa Nationality) and of Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (CONAIE).^[6][7]

Chancoso has written on the theme of Sumak kawsay, which can be translated as "the plentiful life".^[8] In 2014 she was a judge at the 2nd International Rights of Nature Tribunal held in Lima.^[9][10]

• Chancoso, Blanca (2014). "El Sumak Kawsay desde la visión de mujer". Sumak Kawsay Yuyay : antología del pensamiento indigenista ecuatoriano sobre Sumak Kawsay (1ª ed.). [Huelva]: Centro de Investigación en Migraciones, Universidad de Huelva. pp. 221–228. ISBN 978-84-616-8167-9. Originally published in 2010 in América Latina en Movimiento. Alternativas Civilizatorias: los viejos nuevos sentidos de humanidad, 453: 6-9

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