san jose, oct 16 (ips/latin american desk) -- the fogs of norway
may seem strange to rigoberta menchu, an indian woman born under
the splendid guatemalan sun, when she goes to oslo, possibly in
december, to receive the nobel peace prize.
but the norwegian mist would be of little consequence for
menchu, after the dark night of massacres and exile she has been
through.
for many, this 33-year old woman who affirms ''i am an
'indian' as some call me with scorn,'' is a symbol of the
hundreds of peoples decimated and exploited since the european
conquest of the americas.
''rigoberta is a symbol because she represents the indigenous
race and she is a reality because she is creating consciousness
throughout guatemala,'' prospero penados, catholic archbishop of
the central american country, said recently.
she is small of stature, her hair is a shiny black, her smile
constant. she wears typical guatemalan garments: blouses, skirts
and shawls woven in a labyrinth of colours which seem infinite.
she speaks with a fine, low voice in spanish, a language she
learnt as an adolescent -- her mother tongue is quiche, a variant
of the mayan language. ''they have always said: 'the poor
indians. they cannot speak. so many speak about them.' this is
why i decided to learn spanish,'' she once said.
impoverished, illiterate and despised, indigenous amerindians
make up 65 percent of guatemala's population. many of them die
early from malnutrition, poverty and exploitation in a country
where not even their languages are recognized.
rigoberta menchu was born in 1959 in a village which used to
exist in the municipality of san miguel uspantan, quiche
province. it no longer exists: the village was razed during a
scorched earth campaign by the military in the early 1980s.
brought up in the mayan religion by her mother and in the
christian faith by her father, rigoberta began working on coffee
plantations in southern guatemala at the age of eight and by the
age of 12 she was a very active catechist.
''my father used to say: i am not forcing you to stop being a
woman. but your participation in the struggle must be equal to
that of your brothers,'' she recalls.
rigoberta's father was burnt alive by the security forces in
1987 when he led a peasant occupation of the spanish embassy in
guatemala to demand a meeting with guatemala's president on army
slaughters. (more)
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(story received incomplete)
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