Born to a family of six in a peasant community steeped in the ancient Maya-Quiche culture, as a teenager Rigoberta Menchú participated in social reform programs led by the Catholic Church and was active in the women's rights movement in Guatemala. Helping the Indian population to resist massive military oppression, Rigoberta had to go into hiding, but she went on to win the Nobel Prize for her efforts on behalf of indigenous people.
She fled Guatemala in 1981, after various members of her family were tortured and assassinated by the armed forces, and she found refuge in the home of a Catholic bishop in Chiapas, across the border in Mexico. Like her father, Rigoberta had become increasingly involved in the Committee for Peasants Unity, a group protesting the unequal patterns of land ownership in Guatemala. While in exile, she continued to organize resistance to oppression in Guatemala and the struggle for Indian rights by co-founding the United Republic of Guatemalan Opposition. Tens of thousands of people, mostly Mayan Indians, fled to Mexico from 1982 to 1984 at the height of Guatemala's 36-year civil war.
When Rigoberta accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, it was in the name of all indigenous people. She used the prize money to fund The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation, which carries out projects in education, health care, community development and human rights. In July 1992, she returned to Guatemala but had to leave again after three attempts on her life.
Undeterred, Rigoberta moved the headquarters of the organization back to Guatemala in 1994, feeling the need for a more grassroots-oriented approach. The foundation helped in the repatriation of many refugees. Today it places emphasis on civic education to encourage citizens' participation, such as a campaign in 1994-95 to encourage women and indigenous people to vote.
An advocate of Indian rights and ethno-cultural reconciliation, Rigoberta taught herself not only Spanish but also other Mayan languages. Her belief in multilingual and multiethnic solutions means that her foundation disapproves of the creation of a ministry for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. She believes there is a risk of marginalization that it would become, in her own words, "a tiny bureaucratic office for Maya peoples".
In 1993, she was nominated by the United Nations as Goodwill Ambassador for the International Year of the Indigenous Peoples. Currently she presides over the Indigenous Initiative for Peace. Her autobiography, "I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala", was published in 1982.
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| Rigoberta Menchú Photo:Fundacion Rigoberta Menchú Tum |
