The School's Name:

School of Spanish and Mayan languages “Rigoberta Menchú Tum” It is an honor for the School of Spanish and Mayan Languages to carry Rigoberta Menchú Tum’s name, as she is a Guatemalan woman with a long social history, contained in the following short summary of her life:

Dr. Rigoberta Menchú Tum is a Kiché indigenous woman, who is known for her leadership in the forefront of social struggle at the national and international levels, a path that was recognized in 1992 with the Nobel Peace Price, currently making her the youngest person to receive this recognition.

Beginning at the age of ten, she had an intense involvement in religious activity, participating as a Mayan girl, as catechist in pastoral activities in her community.  She was exposed to the injustices, discrimination, racism, and the exploitation that is part of the lives of thousands of indigenous people in extreme poverty areas of Guatemala.  Misery forced her to look for support in the capital city of the country, to help her parents and her siblings, but it was in the indigenous communities where she learned to defend herself by organizing herself.  During the armed violence she lost her father, Mr. Vicente Menchú, in the burning of the Spanish Embassy, her mother, Mrs. Juana Tum, who was kidnapped and disappeared, and her brother, Víctor, who was assassinated by the Guatemalan army.  

From a very young age she was involved in the fight to reclaim the identity of the people of the indigenous and farming villages, which won her political persecution and exile.  In the year 1979, she was the founding member of the Comité de Unidad Campesina (Committee of the Farming Union) – CUC – and of the Representación Unitaria de la Oposición Guatemalteca (United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition) – RUOG, which helped form part of her direction until 1992.  In the year 1988, she returned to Guatemala and was detained.  Under these circumstances she met Nineth Montenegro, who with the help of the organization Grupo de Apoyo Mutuo (Mutual Support Group) – GAM – and the pressure of thousands of university students, was freed. 

She had an active participation in the United Nations, helping with the annual sessions of the Human Rights Commission, the sessions of the Commission for the Prevention of the Discriminated and Protection of the Minorities, and was part of the group of work for indigenous populations.       

The platform for the Nobel Peace Prize allows her to continue advancing in important initiatives, national and international, such as the Iniciativa Indígena por la Paz (Indigenous Initiative for Peace).  She was named the Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations for the International Year of the Indigenous Villages, at the World Conference of Human Rights in Vienna, Austria, June 1993, and in 1996 she was named the Goodwill Ambassador of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Along with her closest colleagues, she established the Fundación Vicente Menchú (Vicente Menchú Foundation) that is now called the Fundación Rigoberta Menchú Tum (Rigoberta Menchú Tum Foundation), of which she is president and through which she has supported the neediest populations with educational, productive, and infrastructural projects.

Dr. Menchú Tum has excelled because of her commitment to justice, and through the support of her foundation she has advanced in diverse cases that look for access to justice for the victims of the genocide committed in Guatemala, and the defense of the victims of discrimination and racism. 

She has received many national and international recognitions, among those highlighted are the following awards: the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in the year 1990, the decoration “Legión de honor en el máximo grado de Comandante,” received from the hands of the French President Jacques Chirac on June 20, 1996, and the Príncipe de Asturias de Cooperación Internacional (Prince of Asturias Award) award in the year 1998.  

She has been granted more than 30 Honorary Doctorates, from different universities of the world, including the University of San Carlos of Guatemala, in the year 1996.

Rigoberta Menchú Tum has published several books including, “Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú Tum y así me nació la conciencia” (My Name is Rigoberta Menchú and this is how my Conscience was Born), a testimonial book published in 1983, that has been translated into more than twelve languages and has earned dozens of international acknowledgements; the book “La nieta de los Mayas” published in the year 1998, and in recent years she has published books for children such as, “Li Mi’n, una niña de Chimel” and “El vaso de miel.”    

Her commitment to Guatemala brought her to actively participate in the signing of the Peace Accords in Guatemala between the Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca (Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unit) – URNG – and the Guatemalan government, and she later accepted the invitation to establish herself as the “Goodwill Ambassador of the Peace Accords,” a position that she held until the year 2007. 

Rigoberta Menchú Tum is married and the mother of two Kiché indigenous children.  She is probably the most internationally known Guatemalan woman.