Ericka Ñanco

Coca Ericka Ñanco Vásquez is a Mapuche Chilean politician who serves as a deputy in the Chamber of Deputies of Chile.

Biography

She is originally from the Hualacura sector in Nueva Imperial. She is the daughter of Luis Ñanco Pichulmán and Ericka Beatriz Vásquez Lagos.

She completed her primary education at the Ernesto Wilhem School in the commune of Saavedra, the Araucanía School in Temuco, and the San Francisco de Asís School in Nueva Imperial. She completed her secondary education at the Pablo Neruda High School in Temuco.
While studying Agronomy at the University of La Frontera, she obtained third place in the 2019 narrative and oral expression contest «UFRO habla y escribe en Tiempo de Wetxipantu» with the work «Curiqueo».

She ran as an independent candidate for the Constitutional Convention in District No. 23, within the quota of the Social Green Regionalist Federation and on the Apruebo Dignidad list, but was not elected.
Prior to this candidacy, she served as secretary of the Academia Intercultural Pelontxaro Foundation and as a representative of the Assembly of Women of Ngulumpu. She has also participated as an activist in feminist and Mapuche collectives. Then, she served as president of Democratic Revolution in the Araucanía Region.
In the parliamentary elections held on 21 November 2021, she was elected Deputy for District No. 23, comprising the communes of Carahue, Cholchol, Cunco, Curarrehue, Freire, Gorbea, Loncoche, Nueva Imperial, Padre Las Casas, Pitrufquén, Pucón, Saavedra, Temuco, Teodoro Schmidt, Toltén, and Villarrica, in the Araucanía Region.
She was elected as part of the Apruebo Dignidad electoral pact, representing RD, obtaining 9,715 votes, equivalent to 4.04% of valid votes cast. She became the first Mapuche woman to hold this office in that area of the country.
Since July 2024, she has been a member of the Frente Amplio Party.