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Rigoberta Menchu Biography

Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Spanish: [riɣoˈβerta menˈtʃu]; born 9 January 1959) is a K'iche' political and human rights activist from Guatemala. Menchú has dedicated her life to publicizing the rights of Guatemala's indigenous feminists during and after the Guatemalan Civil War (1960–1996), and to promoting indigenous rights in the country.

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Rigoberta Menchu Quotes

Peace cannot exist without justice, justice cannot exist without fairness, fairness cannot exist without development, development cannot exist without democracy, democracy cannot exist without respect for the identity and worth of cultures and peoples.

Exist, Justice, Native American, Peace, Peoples, Respect

We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.

Intolerance, Jungle, Past, Racism, Zoos

No less characteristic in a democracy is social justice. This demands a solution to the frightening indexes of infant mortality, of malnutrition, lack of education illiteracy, wages not sufficient to sustain life

Demands, Democracy, Indexes, Justice, Wages

There is not one world for man and one for animals, they are part of the same one and lead parallel lives.

Animal, Man, Men, Parallel, Part, World

In Guatemala, the gap between rich and poor must be eliminated, or we will continue to be the example of conflict in America.

America, Conflict, Example, Gap, Guatemala, Poor

The inaction of the international community towards Guatemala is injustifiable. The community should play an active role with concrete measures and sanctions imposed, as was the case in South Africa, Iraq, Yugoslavia, Cuba and Haiti. Why for us no? Why legalize death in one place and somewhere else no? This is clear in our memories.

Clear, Imposed, Memories, Play, Role, Yugoslavia

The human being is to be respected and defended, not protected like a bird or a river.

Rivers, Bird, Humans, Protected, Like

I am like a drop of water on a rock. After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark, and I leave my mark in many people's hearts.

Heart, Leave, People, Rocks, Same, Water

Racism in our countries is a fact in that the indian is not allowed to be a politician or aspire to being head of state. It has reached the point that 99% of the indigenous women have not gone to school. The indigenous are condemned to live in a situation designed to exterminate them. They receive a pittance of a salary, they neither speak nor write the language, politics dictates their situation. Is this slavery? I don't know what it's called. It is not the same as before because we are in modern times.

Country, Head, Politics, Receive, School, Writing

We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.

Knees, Deny, Chains, False

The people are the only ones capable of transforming society.

People, Inspire, Transforming, Capable, Ones

We have learned that change cannot come through war. War is not a feasible tool to use in fighting against the oppression we face. War has caused more problems. We cannot embrace that path.

Peace, War, Fighting, Feasible, Change

Today the governments of Latin America should be ashamed of not havingexterminated the indigenous, at the end of the twentieth century, because weexist at the end of this century. We are not myths of the past, ruins in thejungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims ofintolerance and racism.

Havingexterminated, Latin, Past, Racism, Twentieth, Zoos

I wasn't the only orphan in Guatemala. There are many others, and it's not my grief alone, it's the grief of a whole people.

Alone, Grief, Guatemala, Orphan, People

It is said that our indigenous ancestors, Mayas and Aztecs, made human sacrifices to their gods. It occurs to me to ask: How many humans have been sacrificed to the gods of Capital in the last five hundred years?

Aztecs, Five, Lasts, Sacrifice, Said, Years

The problem in Guatemala is that there is no solution to the issue of human rights. The problem is militarization, it is the injust distribution of wealth. It is intolerance of the indigenous, it is discrimination and marginalization.

Discrimination, Distribution, Distribution Of Wealth, Issues, Militarization, Rights

I resolutely believe that respect for diversity is a fundamental pillar in the eradication of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. There is no excuse for evading the responsibility of finding the most suitable path toward the elimination of any expression of discrimination against indigenous peoples.

Believe, Respect, Suitable, Xenophobia

I think that nonviolence is one way of saying that there are other ways to solve problems, not only through weapons and war. Nonviolence also means the recognition that the person on one side of the trench and the person on the other side of the trench are both human beings, with the same faculties. At some point they have to begin to understand one another.

Begin, Mean, Saying, Thinking, War

This is why Indians are thought to be stupid. They can't think, they don't know anything, they say. But we have hidden our identity because we needed to resist, we wanted to protect what governments have wanted to take away from us.

Government, Governments, Stupid, Take, Thinking

We can only love a person who eats what we eat.

Eat, Eats, Love, Only Love, Person, Persons

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