The lecture is sponsored by the Mayo-Smith-Read Trans-Disciplinary Fund, and will be followed by a reception in the Friedmann Room of Keefe Campus Center.
Growing up as a Quiché-Mayan during the 36-year Guatemalan Civil War that started in 1960, she witnessed severe human rights violations conducted by the Guatemalan army against the poor native peoples of Guatemala. Government soldiers burned her father alive during a peaceful protest at the Spanish Embassy, raped and mutilated the dead body of her mother and shot her brother, a member of a leftist guerrilla group, after he had peacefully surrendered to the army.
Despite the brutal suppression and persecution of her family, Menchú-Tum resorted not to the violence of the guerrilla countermovement as did her two sisters, but instead devoted herself to peaceful campaigning for the rights of her fellow native Guatemalans. Menchú-Tum explains, "We understood revolutionary in the real meaning of the word 'transformation' […] If I had chosen the armed struggle, I would be in the mountains now."
While exiled in Mexico in 1982, she founded the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition. Menchú-Tum has recently formed an indigenous political party and announced her intention to run for president of Guatemala in September 2007, in order to represent her country's 13 million indigenous residents. This number represents 42 percent of the country's population. She is currently a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.
Norwegian Nobel Committee Chairman Francis Sejersted said in his presentation speech of the 1992 Peace Prize, "[There are] shining individual examples of people who manage to preserve their humanity in brutal and violent surroundings, of persons who for that very reason compel our special respect and admiration. Such people give us a hope that there are ways out of the vicious circle [of violence]. Even in the most brutal situations, one must retain one's faith that there is a minimum of human feelings in all of us. Rigoberta Menchú-Tum has preserved that faith."
Through his connection to the PeaceJam Foundation-an organization which has a mission to create a new generation of young leaders committed to positive change in themselves, their communities and the world through the inspiration of Nobel Peace Laureates- Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Physics Arthur Zajonc made the arrangements for Menchú-Tum's speaking engagement at the College. "I am delighted that Rigoberta Menchú-Tum will be on campus," he said. "She exemplifies the spirit of reconciliation and is a strong voice for the rights of indigenous peoples."
Not unlike other countries in South and Central America, there existed in Guatemala a tension between the descendants of European immigrants, called ladinos, and the indigenous population. In the 1970s and 80s, the tension of the civil war escalated to the large-scale repression of these native populations. Menchú-Tum, through her internationally known testimony "I, Rigoberta Menchú, An Indian Woman in Guatemala" (1983) and perpetual advocacy of native rights, called the plight of native Guatemalans to world attention.
In 1999, controversy surrounding Menchú-Tum arose when anthropologist David Stoll published in his book "Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans" the claim that she had falsified facts in her 1983 testimony. Stoll, over a period of 10 years, had conducted an interview-based, archival research project that focused on discrediting Menchú-Tum's validity as a public figure through the identification of errors, exaggerations, shortcomings and biases in her testimony. In the course of his research, he did not interview Menchú-Tum.
The New York Times brought the controversy to international attention when it published a front-page article based on the arguments in Stoll's book, claiming that Menchú-Tum "fabricated," "seriously exaggerated" and told "one lie after another" in her testimony. Although many academic and editorial writers supported Stoll's 1999 criticism, a collection of essays was published within the same year by established experts on Guatemala and Menchú-Tum's testimony-"Properties of Words: Rigoberta Menchú, David Stoll, and Identity Politics in Central America"-that challenged Stoll's inferences and conclusions.
The authors of this anthology agree that Stoll's research brought further information to light-information that reinforces her testimony. Stoll himself acknowledged that there is "no doubt about the most important points [Menchú-Tum makes]." In addition, Menchú-Tum has publicly addressed several of the points which Stoll raised as falsified facts.
Despite requests to the Norwegian Nobel Committee to rescind the 1992 Peace Prize, the Committee has maintained that Menchú-Tum's recognition was based on her subsequent organization of peaceful politics, and not on her 1983 testimony. Even Stoll commented that her receipt of the award was righteous, and that "she has been the first to acknowledge that she received it, not for her own accomplishments but because she stands for a wider group of people who deserve international support." Today, Menchú-Tum remains distinguished by the Committee as a "vivid symbol of peace and reconciliation across ethnic, cultural and social dividing lines, in her own country, on the American continent, and in the world."