Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is an indigenous woman from the ancient culture Maya-Quiché. She was born in 1959 in the village Laj Chimel, Guatemala, which lays in the Quiché mountain range. She grew up constantly working for food and fighting for the right to own land. Both of her parents were tortured and murdered by the Guatemalan army. She watched as her brother was tortured for 16 days in the center of their village. Her family soon became the heart of Committee of the Peasant Union (CUC) which took up arms against the Guatemalan army that was destroying their homes and families. As her family fought for their freedom, each member slowly was tortured or murdered and she is currently the only one remaining of her family.

The book of the life of Rigoberta Menchu

As I lived in Antigua, Guatemala this past summer, I got the opportunity to study the life of Rigoberta Menchú. Her story conveyed the hurt and suffering that the people of Guatemala had experienced and are currently still experiencing. Having a personal connection to the people of Guatemala made her story all the more crucial. Her story is an account of contemporary Guatemala as she tells about the cultural discrimination that every indigenous individual has suffered since the Spanish conquest. Through all the horror she had survived she found the strength and the opportunity to relay her story to the public through her book, I, Rigoberta Menchú. After writing this book she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 and is now a representative and a speaker who is waging the war for the liberation of her people and all people whose voice is not heard.

She is a woman who has suffered many tragedies and in spite of everything she continues forward searching to better the lives of her people. She has changed many things within her country and continues fighting for the rights and the voices of her people, and everyone else without a voice.