by Rigoberta Menchu

Born in Chimel, a hamlet in northwestern Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchú was the sixth child of laborers who became Indian rights activists. Her father, Vicente, a founding member of the influential Peasant Unity Committee (Comité Unidad Campesina; CUC), died during a protest at the Spanish embassy in 1980. Menchú’s mother and younger brother were tortured and killed by the Guatemalan army in separate incidents. Despite these violent deaths, Menchú carried on her family’s work, becoming a leader of the CUC in 1979. In 1981 she was forced to flee to Mexico; the following year, she traveled to Europe to speak on behalf of the Quiché Indians. During that period, she met Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, to whom she related her story in a week-long series of interviews that would become the autobiography I, Rigoberta Mench...