Peace
As the song goes, “it’s a most wonderful time of the year.” It is. It is my favorite time of the year. A time of solace, introspection, rest, and renewal. Sometimes laced with sadness and grief, but primarily peace and joy.
I realize that many suffer during these days, and there is still much chaos and unkindness in the world. I hope we can all find some peace and joy during this Yule season, whether we are celebrating Solstice or Christmas, or both! May the peace and joy find you. May the light return!
I feel drawn to celebrate a very special woman, whom I have had the privilege of meeting and listening to mostly through a translator. She is a peace prize recipient, and this seems a perfect time of year to acknowledge her.
Rigoberta Menchu Tum was born on January 9th, 1959. Her family was poor and of Maya descent, living in the north central Guatemalan province of El Quiche. The family struggled to survive on the small plots of land remaining after the Spanish conquest of Guatemala. Rigoberta’s mother was a midwife, a practice she began at sixteen and continued to practice using traditional medicinal plants and educating women of good health and healing practices. They murdered her mother at age forty three. Rigoberta’s father was a prominent activist for the farmers in Guatemala.
They were a devout Catholic family, but while Rigoberta embraced many of the teachings of the church, she remained firmly connected to her mother’s Maya influence, which taught her the importance of living in harmony with nature. She often says she is the perfect mix of both parents.
Sometimes we don’t want to know, or we forget, the horrors that our neighbors endure. For me, that was the case around what was happening in Guatemala during the late seventies and early eighties. Not that I didn’t care, it was just that my life was very busy and this was happening in a far off place. It wasn’t until a trip with a Sister City Project to Nicaragua that I began to see and understand what was happening in this part of the world.
From a very young age, Rigoberta worked tirelessly with her father to advocate for the rights of indigenous farmers. Others often discriminated against her for joining male family members fighting for justice, but her mother’s teaching instilled in her a determination to “make space for herself.”
The county’s civil war lasted from 1960 to 1996. Many of the human rights violations targeted indigenous peoples, and women were targets of physical and sexual violence during that time by the military. They were brutal.
Tragically, between 1979 and 1980, the Guatemalan Army kidnapped, brutally tortured, and murdered Rigoberta’s brother Patrocino and her mother, Juana. The burning of the Spanish Embassy, following a guerrilla hostage-taking and subsequent attack by government security forces, claimed the life of her father, Vincente. After surrendering to the Guatemalan Army, they shot Rigoberta’s brother, Victor, to death.
Rigoberta was exiled in 1981, but she escaped and found refuge with the Catholic Church in Chiapas, where she continued to organize resistance to the oppression in Guatemala. Tens of thousands of primarily indigenous Maya people fled to Mexico from 1982 to 1984 at the height of Guatemala’s thirty-six-year civil war.
In 2005, Rigoberta joined the Guatemalan federal government as the goodwill ambassador for the National Peace Accords. Once again, she faced discrimination. Two years later, Rigoberta formed Encuentro for Guatemala, an indigenous political party. She also announced that she would run in the 2007 presidential election, the first Indigenous woman ever to enter a Guatemalan election. She was defeated, gaining only three percent of the vote.
In 2009, Rigoberta, not one to give up, became active in the newly formed party Winaq, and was the 2011 presidential candidate. She lost again, but Winaq became the first indigenous political party in Guatemala.
Rigoberta narrated a book about her life that was translated into five languages. Her work made her an international icon during the tie of the ongoing conflict in Guatemala and drew attention to the extreme suffering of indigenous under the oppressive government regime. Rigoberta served as the Presidential Goodwill Ambassador for the 1996 Peace Accords in Guatemala. She also awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award in Boston, MA. Rigoberta’s activism continued as she fought for the rights of her people. She is still active today.
There is much more to know about this woman’s life and work. I hope you will find her inspiring and perhaps explore her life further.
Some of her awards and honors:
1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her advocacy and social justice work for the indigenous peoples of Latin America.
1992 UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador position for her advocacy for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.
Rigoberta Menchú became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the time, and its first Indigenous recipient.
1996 Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience Award for her authorship and advocacy for the indigenous peoples of Guatemala.
1998 Prince of Asturias Prize for improving the condition of women and the communities they serve. (Jointly with 6 other women.)
1999 asteroid 9481 Menchu was named in her honor.
2010 Order of the Aztec Eagle for services provided for Mexico.
2018 Spendlove Prize for her advocacy for minority groups.
In 2022, the University of Bordeaux Montaigne, in Pessac, gave her name to its newly built library in her honor.
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