March 23, 2022

ESSAY

Intercultural State

This presentation is going to talk about the intercultural State in Ecuador. The intercultural
state is a model of state that is implemented in Ecuador. Firstly, I will explain the meaning of
intercultural state and the origins of it. Then, I will describe how the intercultural state works
in the social reality. Finally, I will make some conclusions.

The intercultural state is a model of state that includes several forms of political organization
and diverse cultural expressions. In Ecuador, the intercultural state has been recognized since
the Political Constitution of 1998. This Constitution was created by the participation of social
movements such as indigenous movement.

The indigenous movement has been known as a group of people that fight for cultural
diversity. For example, this movement created the first intercultural schools in 1945 in
Ecuador. One important event about indigenous movement was the big national mobilization
in 1991 that showed the life conditions of indigenous people. The aims of this movement have
been related with the interculturality.

Currently, Ecuador recognized the state as multinational and intercultural. This means that the
public institutions must protect the rights of indigenous people. We can see the
implementation of interculturality in some public spaces such as the education or the justice.
In the education, Ecuador has intercultural schools that teach in native languages. In the
justice system, Ecuador admits the practice of indigenous justice.

In conclusion, the intercultural state is a path to protect the right of indigenous people and the
interculturality has been implemented in the education and the justice. However, nowadays
there are some problems about the interculturality. So, it is important to improve the public
policies about the interculturality and it is necessary to teach about the real meaning of
interculturality in Ecuador.