In addition to his education career, Quelca was active in trade union activity and has been a member of the Communist Party of Bolivia (PCB) since 1989, serving as secretary and later national executive secretary of the Confederation of Urban Education Workers until 2016, when he joined the Bolivian Workers' Center as a cultural consultant. In 2018, he returned to the Simón Bolívar Higher School to serve as its rector, a position he held until 2020.
