Maria Remedios Torres

Guatemalan educator who founded the first indigenous women's university in Latin America

Maria Remedios Torres (b. 1972) is a Kaqchikel Maya educator responsible for creating the Universidad de la Tierra (University of the Earth), the first higher education institution in Guatemala dedicated exclusively to indigenous women. Founded in 1998 during the post-war reconstruction period, the university offers courses in agroecology, cultural preservation, and community leadership using ancestral knowledge systems. Torres' 2002 book "Voices of the Ancestors: Indigenous Education in the 21st Century" became a foundational text in decolonial pedagogy. Her initiative has graduated over 3,000 women leaders, many of whom now hold municipal offices. The university's model inspired similar institutions in Mexico and Peru, earning Torres the UN Women Leadership Award in 2010. She continues to advocate for linguistic rights through the Kinich Language Institute, preserving 23 Mayan languages through digital archives.