Rigoberta for President

Photo Source:  University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth

In the news today, it was announced that Rigoberta Menchu is expecting to run in the election for President of Guatemala.  She will most likely be the candidate representing Frente Amplio de Izquierda (Humanitarian News). For those unfamiliar with Rigoberta, she is a K’iche’-Maya activist who has worked for decades to protect the indigenous people of Guatemala.   

In 1983, Rigoberta told her life story to a journalist.  The notes of that interview became the basis for the book, I, Rigoberta Menchu.  The book documented the loss of several of Rigoberta’s family members to rape, torture, and murder during the years of the Guatemalan Civil War.  Because of Rigoberta’s book, the international community woke up to the genocide that was happening in Guatemala (Nobel Peace Prize).  Rigoberta, along with other survivors, brought to trial a number of the perpetrators of the genocide. 

In 1992, Rigoberta became the youngest person to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize.  The speech given at her award ceremony can be read here.