Kisapincha, Ecuador

Indigenous Kisapincha people come from the high-altitude Quisapincha Alto region in Ecuador’s Tungurahua province, where subsistence farming predominated until the 1990s. Most speak Kichwa as a first language and Spanish as a second, while still identifying as Kisapincha. In the face of economic and political marginalization, many Kisapincha people have migrated to Ecuadorian cities, and since 2007 hundreds have also come to the major Ecuadorian hub of Bushwick.