Indigenous women in Ecuador take on soccer by inventing a sport: handball in traditional skirts

By GONZALO SOLANO

TURUCU, Ecuador (AP) — In the Indigenous community of Turucu, near the active Cotacachi volcano in northern Ecuador, soccer had always been a man’s thing. The only gleaming green field belongs to them, especially on weekends. But things changed a year ago when a group of women decided to create a new version of the sport: handball with anaco, an ancient skirt worn by Indigenous women. It is a game only for women. It was created by a group of entrepreneurial women from Turucu, located 67 kilometers north of the capital, a picturesque indigenous Quichua community, near Cotacachi, one of the great attractions of northern Ecuador.