Tuesday, Jan 13, 2009

11-11-08 Rigoberta Menchú Talk

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This episode features a lecture delivered by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum at Quinnipiac University. Menchú is a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. She has dedicated her life to organizing resistance to oppression in Guatemala and advocating for the rights of indigenous peoples. Menchú was born to a Mayan peasant family and raised in the Quiche culture in Guatemala. Reform work by her and her family aroused opposition leading to the arrest, torture and death of her parents and brother. Menchú was prominent in a 1980 strike the Committee of the Peasant Union organized for better conditions for farm workers on the Pacific Coast. She later joined the radical 31st of January Popular Front to educate the Indian peasant population in resistance to massive military oppression. Menchú co-founded The Nobel Women's Initiative in 2006 to support efforts for women's rights. She formed the indigenous political party Encuentro por Guatemala in 2007 and ran for president of Guatemala that year. Menchú offers firsthand accounts about the war between the Guatemalan military and the Mayan population in the 1983 documentary "When the Mountains Tremble." She has written two books about her life: I, Rigoberta Menchú in 1984, and Crossing Borders in 1998, both published by Verso Books.

Posted by Indigenous Politics at 2:46 PM |   

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