Xavier Codony

                               RIGOBERTA MENCHÚ TUM

BIOGRAPHY

          Rigoberta Menchú was born on January 9, 1959 in San Miguel Uspantán (Guatemala). She’s a Guatemalan indigenous leader and a woman fighter for peace and dignity.

        She grew up in a very poor family and she does not have any university degrees because she started working in a coffee farm, in such terrible conditions that they were the cause of the death of her brothers and friends when she was five years old.

            Her father was a farmer and her mother was a midwife. Her mother was tortured and killed by the military and her father, Vicente, was one the 37 people who the National Police of Guatemala burned alive with white phosphorous.

           Menchú is famous for her struggle in favour of the indigenous people and farmers. In 1992, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for social justice and for the rights of indigenous people. After that, in 1998 she also won the Prince of Asturias award for International cooperation. She’s a human rights defender and a goodwill Unesco ambassador.

          She’s an exemple to follow because, from total poverty, she has fought a lot for her people. She has been mentioned in the Guinness book for being the youngest woman to have won the Nobel Prize. 

April 2018