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Homage to/Homenaje a

Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Quiche Mayan

"What I treasure most in life is being able to dream.
During my most difficult moments and complex situations
I have been able to dream of a more beautiful future."

Ois Botik

"The time has come for dawn, for work to be completed, for those who
nourish and sustain us to appear, the enlightened sons, the civilized people;
the time has come for the appearance of humanity on the surface of the Earth."

Pop Wuj

"What hurts Indians most is our costumes are considered beautiful,
but it's as if the person wearing them didn't exist."

Biography

Biodiversity and Cultural Diversity

Carta al Pueblo Innu

Chiapas and Indigenous People

Comunicado de Rigoberta Mench

Despite Everything, We Are Moving Forward

Five Hundred Years of Sacrifice Before the Alien Gods

Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum

Human Rights in an Interdependent World

Indigenous Women Are Being Marginalized (China Conference)

Las Mujeres Indígenas Están siendo marginadas

Photographs

Plea for Global Education

Quotes, speeches and texts

Rigoberta Menchú Speaks

Rigoberta Menchú Tum -- A Nobel Laureate to Study

UN Fourth World Conference on Women 1995

Videos

Peace Jam

World Peace Conference

Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Human Rights Leader for Guatemala/1992 Nobel Peace Prize

Guatemala, 24 de septiembre de 1996


Nobel Lecture
her Nobel Lecture reproduced here with the
permission of the Nobel Foundation

Gifts of Speech - Sweet Briar College

When European explorers 'discovered' lands on the other continents,
there were already people living there. All too often the explorers took
the land away from the native or indigenous peoples and either killed
them or suppressed them. In many cases, the native languages and
cultures were suppressed and the natives were forced to adopt Western ways.
Unfortunately, this isn't just a thing of the past --
many indigenous peoples and their cultures are still threatened today.

The problem of racism on the threshold of the 21st Century
Delivered at the Sixth Lascasianas Symposium 5/21/96

Rigoberta Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous people.

Menchú was born into a poor Indian peasant family, and raised in the Quiche branch of the Mayan culture in Guatemala. As a teenager, she became involved in social reform programs of the Catholic Church and was active in the women's rights movement. Like her father, she joined the CUC (Committee of the Peasant Union) in 1979, after members of her family had suffered persecution.

During the 1970s and 1980s in Guatemala, tensions between the descendants of European immigrants and the native Indian population increased.

At this time Menchú became active in large demonstrations, joined the radical 31st of January Popular Front, and encouraged the Indian peasant population to resist oppression.

In 1981, because of her activism, she had to leave Guatemala and flee to Mexico, where she organized peasants' resistance movements and was co-founder of the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition (RUOG).

Through her life story, which was published as I, Rigoberta Menchú and a film entitled When the Mountains Tremble, which illustrates the struggles and sufferings of the Maya people. Menchú also became well known in the Western world as an advocate of Indian rights and ethno-cultural reconciliation. Rigoberta Menchú accepted the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize in the name of all indigenous people.


Nobel Peace Prize Laureate

by - Kim Rader

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Guatemalan leader internationally known for her work in the promotion of the defense of human rights, peace and Indigenous Peoples' rights. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, becoming the first Indigenous and the youngest person ever to receive this distinction.

For Rigoberta Menchú Tum, this Nobel Peace Prize acknowledges the struggles of Indigenous Peoples. It is also a symbolic recognition of the victims of repression, racism and poverty as well as an homage to Indigenous Women.

Rigoberta Menchú Tum was born in 1959 in the village of Chimel, Guatemala, a community continuing the millennium-old Maya-Quiché culture. In her youth she worked in the fields and later in the city as a domestic employee. She lived in the midst of the injustice, misery and discrimination suffered by the Indigenous Peoples of Guatemala. Various members of her family were tortured and asassinated by the repressive armed forces. Persecuted, Rigoberta was exiled to Mexico in 1980.

Self-educated, she has shown herself to be a natural leader of great intelligence. She became an active political worker in labor, campesino and human rights groups as well as in the defense and promotion of the rights and values of Indigenous Peoples. In 1983 her testimonial book, I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala , was published, followed by various of her texts and poems.

Through her work, Rigoberta has received world wide recognition and several honorary doctorates. In 1993, she was nominated by the United Nations as Goodwill Ambassador for the International Year of the Indigenous Peoples. At present, she is the Promoter of the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples, mandated by the General Assembly of the United Nations and was also appointed to be the personal advisor to the general director of UNESCO. Concurrently she presides over the Indigenous Initiative for Peace.

Goals of the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation

In view of the urgent need for change in our society,
the Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation looks
to contribute in the following ways:

Prevention of conflicts, mediation for the negociated solution
of conflicts. Preservation of peace. Development, social justice,
diversity and plurality as a base for peace.
Support of Indigenous communities affected by conflict.

Promotion of human rights.

Respect for life, social justice and democracy. Civil,
political, cultural, economic and social rights.

Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

Land, culture, liberty, sovereignty, education, development of an
integral community, health care, access to national and
international instruments of justice, community rights over individual rights.

Values of Indigenous Peoples.

Promotion of their world view. Culture, ethics, history,
harmony with nature, respect for diversity, refusal of racism, discrimination and subordination.

Women's rights.

Rights specific to the Indigenous woman, right to full participation,
to take part in all decisions that concern them, equality in all areas,
health care, education, culture, identity, right to own land and the right to organize.

Rights of children and youth as a guarantee of the future.

Better quality of life, health care, multilingual and
multi-cultural education, the right to progress.

Development.

Right to options of development with respect to the cultural
values and traditions of the communities. Development
with social justice. Right to sustainable development. Dignified quality of life.

To support the communication and relationship between
the different Indigenous Peoples. Help to obtain support for
projects of different Indigenous communities of the world.

International Decade of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide

Active promotion and participation in the development of the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples Worldwide declared by the UN in December of 1994.

Promote and divulge the causes, values and rights of Indigenous Peoples to stimulate concrete actions that support the initiatives of said people in order to improve their conditions of life and preserve their cultural identity.

In Guatemala, the Foundation carries out projects directed at education, health care, and human rights, with an emphasis on citizen's civil rights. In the area of community development, its projects involve housing and urban planning, as well as agricultural production. In the field of rights and values of Indigenous Peoples, the Foundation makes efforts to strengthen the unity between different groups of Indigenous Peoples, to promote their mutual cooperation and reflection on their rights and values.

The support of the Indigenous Initiative for Peace is one of the Foundation's priorities. As a base for the establishment of democracy, peace and reconciliation in Guatemala, the Foundation is devoting a special effort on civic education to encourage citizen participation.

The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation has received and continues to receive technical and financial support from governmental and non-governmental entities. Countries such as: Germany, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Spain, the United States, France, Greenland, Holland, Italy, England, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

In addition, it maintains important cooperative relations with various organisms of the United Nations as well as with other international institutions.

The Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation is aiding the return of Indigenous Guatemalans exiled since the early eighties in the southeast of Mexico. This return process was initiated in 1993; since then, thousands have returned to Guatemala. The Foundation provides technical and operational assistance in the acquisition of their new land. It also develops projects relating to housing, education, health care, farming and training as well as specific projects for Indigenous women and children.

In Guatemala, the Foundation is contributing to the expression of human rights through the campaign for civil participation and education for democracy and peace.

The Foundation's work is also largely aimed toward social justice and improved quality of life for the population of Guatemala, especially for Indigenous communities.

On the international level, the Foundation has played a major role in the Summits of Indigenous Leaders; through its president, it has participated in efforts to promote the peaceful solution of controversies and conflicts that affect Indigenous Peoples. It is also actively working toward the inclusion and the defense of Indigenous Peoples' claims within international institutions.


Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Premio Nobel de la Paz
Heriberto Frias 339
Col. Narvarte
03020 Mexico, D.F.
Mexico
Fax: (+52+5) 638-0439

E-mail: rmtpaz@laneta.igc.apc.org

Indigenous Peoples' Literature Return to Indigenous Peoples' Literature

Compiled by: Glenn Welker
ghwelker@gmx.com

Copyright @ 1993-2016

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