Abril Tamara Ithzel Espinoza Gutiérrez

Abril Ithzel Espinoza (she/her) is a Quechua Indigenous woman, sociologist, and human rights advocate. She currently serves as Regional Program Consultant for the Ayni Fund at the International Indigenous Women’s Forum (IIWF). Based in Bolivia, she works with Indigenous women’s organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean, supporting grantmaking processes, project management, capacity strengthening, and spaces for exchange and collective learning. Her work focuses on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous women, political participation, territorial rights, climate and gender justice, and self-determination.

Growing up as an Indigenous woman in a context shaped by forced migration and urban discrimination, Abril became involved from an early age in community organizing and processes of cultural and identity reclamation, supported by her mother, an Indigenous leader. She later worked with Indigenous women’s organizations across Bolivia, supporting leadership development, political participation, organizational strengthening, and territorial defense. Her current work seeks to build bridges between Indigenous communities and regional and global decision-making spaces, helping ensure that Indigenous women’s voices, knowledge, and priorities are heard and that they are recognized as political actors, rather than simply as beneficiaries.

Abril is a participant in the 2026-27 Human Rights Advocates Program at the Institute for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University.