Rigoberta Menchu

Rigoberta Menchu is a Guatemalan Indian who became the spokesperson of the native people. She was born in 1959, in a small Guatemalan village of Chimel located in the northern highlands. In 1992, Rigoberta Menchu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, because she led a campaign for social justice brought international attention to this conflict between indigenous Indians and the military government of Guatemala. Her family members were tortured and killed by the authorities because they were forcing the landowneres to give the land back to the natives. She also wrote an autobiograohy, ''I..Rigoberta Menchu''(1984), telling the world not only her own story, but also about the lives of her fellow Indians.