Estercilia Simanca was born in Caicemapa, a Wayuu community on the Colombian side of the Guajira.  She is a writer, an entrepreneur, and a lawyer. As a writer she has been widely recognized, both nationally, and internationally, and she was named one of the best Latin American woman writers of all time by the Spanish newspaper 20 minutos.  She writes mostly short stories, and among them are “El Encierro de una Pequeña Doncella” and “Manifiesta no saber firmar.”  “Manifiesta” inspired a documentary which won an Indigenous Contemporary Biennial Award in 2002.