10/29/2022 0 Comments Cual es mi nahual maya![]() ![]() Īfter leaving school, Menchú worked as an activist campaigning against human rights violations committed by the Guatemalan armed forces during the country's civil war, which lasted from 1960 to 1996. Her early activism focused on defending her people from colonial exploitation. She believes that the roots of Indigenous oppression in Guatemala stem from issues of exploitation and colonial land ownership. Menchú often faced discrimination for wanting to join her male family members in the fight for justice, but she was inspired by her mother to continue making space for herself. She lives with her family in the municipality of San Pedro Jocopilas, Quiché Department, northwest of Guatemala City, in the heartland of the Kʼicheʼ people.įrom a young age, Menchú was active alongside her father, advocating for the rights of Indigenous farmers through the Committee for Peasant Unity. They adopted a son, Mash Nahual Ja' ("Spirit of Water"). They had a Catholic wedding in January 1998 at that time they also buried their son Tz'unun ("hummingbird" in Mayan), who had died after being born prematurely in December. In 1995, Menchú married Ángel Canil, a Guatemalan, in a Mayan ceremony. ![]() In 1984, Menchú's other brother, Victor, was shot to death after he surrendered to the Guatemalan army, was threatened by soldiers, and tried to escape. In January 2015, Pedro García Arredondo, a former police commander of the Guatemalan army who later served as the chief of the now defunct National Police (Policía Nacional, PN), was convicted of attempted murder and crimes against humanity for his role in the embassy attack Arrendondo was also previously convicted in 2012 of ordering the enforced disappearance of agronomy student Édgar Enrique Sáenz Calito during the country’s long-running internal armed conflict. Her father, Vicente Menchú Perez, died in the 1980 Burning of the Spanish Embassy, which occurred after urban guerrillas took hostages and were attacked by government security forces. In 1979-80 her brother, Patrocinio, and her mother, Juana Tum Kótoja, were kidnapped, brutally tortured and murdered by the Guatemalan army. She believes in many teachings of the Catholic Church, but her mother's Maya influence also taught Menchú the importance of living in harmony with nature and retaining her Maya culture. Menchú considers herself to be the perfect mix of both her parents. Both of her parents regularly attended Catholic church, and her mother remained connected to her Maya spirituality and identity. ![]() Her father was a prominent activist for the rights of Indigenous farmers in Guatemala. ![]() Menchú's mother began her career as a midwife at age sixteen, and continued to practice using traditional medicinal plants until she was murdered at age 43. Her family was one of many Indigenous families who could not sustain themselves on the small pieces of land they were left with after the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Rigoberta Menchú was born to a poor Indigenous family of K'iche' Maya descent in Laj Chimel, a rural area in the north-central Guatemalan province of El Quiché. 4.2.1 Controversies about her testimony.She ran for president of Guatemala in 20, having founded the country's first Indigenous political party, Winaq. She is the subject of the testimonial biography I, Rigoberta Menchú (1983) and the author of the autobiographical work, Crossing Borders (1998), among other works. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 and the Prince of Asturias Award in 1998, in addition to other prestigious awards. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala's Indigenous peoples during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting Indigenous rights internationally. Rigoberta Menchú Tum ( Spanish: born 9 January 1959) is a K'iche' Guatemalan human rights activist, feminist, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. ![]()
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