Childhood & Beyond
It was into this era of government repression that Rigoberta Menchú was born in 1959, in a remote village called Chimel. As one of nine children born to Vicente Menchú and Juana Tum Cotojá, she learned from a young age that her life would be difficult, but also filled with joy from her community and culture.
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Menchú's family owned a small plot of land in the altiplanos [mountainous region], but was forced to work on the fincas [large plantations]. The conditions on the fincas were often hazardous; the underpaid laborers had polluted water, rotten food, lack of sufficient space, and were poisoned by sudden pesticide sprays.
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"We'd been in the finca for fifteen days, when one of my brothers died from malnutrition...His name was Nicolás...He was two then. When my little brother started crying, crying, crying, my mother didn't know what to do with him because his belly was swollen by malnutrition...The time came when my mother couldn't spend any more time with him or they'd take her job away...He lasted fifteen days and went into his death throes, and we didn't know what to do...Who was there to turn to? There was no one we could count on... |
Source: When the Mountains Tremble, 1983
"Chronic child malnutrition is at about 50%, the highest rate in Latin America, and the fourth-highest rate in the world." "Chronic undernutrition in indigenous areas is 69.5 percent. Fifty-three percent of the population lives in poverty, and 13 percent in extreme poverty." |
Death Comes to the Family
"Menchú's childhood experiences had a huge impact on her desire to make a difference for her people. She saw the unfairness they suffered, both in terms of how they were chased off their land in the altiplanos and how terribly they were treated at work on the fincas. When government got more dangerous, jailing and killing anyone who disagreed with their views on land distribution, including Menchú's family members, that only increased her desire to work for change." |
In her "desire to work for change", Menchú became an outspoken leader in the CUC (Peasants' Unity Committee), making her a military target. Fearing for her life, she fled to Mexico in 1980. |