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Rigoberta Menchú Tum (born in Chimel, Guatemala, January 9, 1959) was the recipient of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, given "in recognition of her work for social justice and ethno-cultural reconciliation based on respect for the rights of indigenous peoples".
Her prize is based for the most part on her 1987 autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchú. Several years after the book's publication, anthropologist David Stoll conducted a series of interviews with Menchú's former acquaintances for a follow-up book. During this time he discovered that her account was largely fabricated. Specifically, Menchú was not self-taught (she received a middle-school education) and the land dispute in which her father was killed was with family members, not the government. Her defenders claim that any dishonesties are offset by the overarching importance of her tale of Guatemalan military suppression of the Mayan populace.
Menchú states that she began migrant farm work at age five under conditions that killed siblings and friends. As an adult, she joined family members in action against military for its human rights abuses. Her interests were sparked by the deaths of her parents in 1980 at the hands of paramilitaries. They were seen as protesters that were supporting the overthrow of the Guatamalan government. Violence forced her exile in 1981. Menchú is a member of the indigenous Quiché Maya group.
In 1991 she participated in the ongoing preparation by the United Nations of a declaration of the rights of indigenous people. She is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. She returned to Guatemala to work for change.
She also sought to have Guatemala's ex-military dictator and failed 2003 presidential candidate Efraín Ríos Montt tried in Spanish courts in 1999 for crimes committed against Spanish citizens; these attempts faltered, however. In addition to the deaths of Spanish citizens, the most serious charges include genocide against the Maya people of Guatemala.
External links
- Biography at the official nobel site (http://www.nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1992/tum-bio.html)
- Nobel Peace Prize lecture (http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1992/tum-lecture.html)
- Salon.com: Rigoberta Menchú meets the press (http://archive.salon.com/news/1999/02/12newsa.html)bg:Ригоберта Менчу
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