Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchu

Maybe you think that a hero are the cartoons of the comic’s magazine that has super powers and can do everything without any mistake, but I don’t think this is the best description of a hero. For me, a hero is a person who is important to you. Someone who has done something that, not only you but other people appreciate. Someone who had done something remarkable in your life and maybe in the world’s life.

My hero is Rigoberta Menchu. She was born in Chimel, on January 9, 1959. She is an indigenous Guatemalan. Since little she learned to love and respect the environment. She also learnt the injustice and the extreme poorness in which many Mayan people live. She received a normal primary education. After she finished she started to work as an activist campaigning against human rights violations committed by Guatemalan sources during the civil war from 1962 to 1996. This forced Rigoberta to go to Mexico in 1981. The same year, her father suffered an accident in which he died in Guatemala.

"In 1991, Menchu participated in the ongoing preparation by the United Nations of a declaration of the rights of indigenous people. Since the civil war has ended, Menchu has also campaigned to have members of the Guatemalan political and military establishment tried in Spanish courts. In 1999, she filed a complaint before a court in Spain because prosecutions of crimes committed during the civil war are practically impossible in Guatemala. These attempts stalled as the Spanish courts determined that the plaintiffs had not yet exhausted all possibility of seeking justice through the legal system of Guatemala."

Rigoberta was the first Guatemalan to receive the NOBEL PEACE PRIZE because of her job for the social justice and for her respect to the indigent’s rights. In the prize lecture she fought for the indigenous people’s rights, etc, finally she proclaimed the peace and the social justice in her country in Guatemala. Also the respect for the environment and the woman’s equality.

Rigoberta Menchu

I consider her my hero because she’s a very brave woman and above all she is fair with everyone. No matter their sex she will always be fair and generous. This could help me to be fair with everyone, starting with my family, not to be racist and respect those who isn’t my same color, to protect others of bad people who can hurt them emotionally or physically, and to demonstrate that there are some other persons that still are good and generous.