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Is the Women's Rights movement in the U.S. setting a good standard for other countries' women's rights moments?
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Rigoberta Menchu
Regoberta Menchu was born in 1959 in a poor northern highland village of Quiche Indians. She never went to school, and started working long hours on coffee and cotton plantations at the age of 8. When the government demanded that her family give up their land, her father refused, and their family began to fight against the government. Rigoberta’s father was killed for his revolutionary actions, and his ideals in life and his death had a strong impact on Rigoberta. She taught herself Spanish, and began to involve herself in political actions geared to help the Mayan people of her country. She organized many peasant worker strikes, and spoke strongly for human rights, and took an active role against the government. She became wanted by the government, and so went into hiding with a group of her supporters. In 1981, she fled to Mexico, where she dictated an autobiography which described her life, culture, and struggles, and brought to the attention of the world the plight of the Guatemalan native people. She made public speeches on human rights in Guatemala. In 1992, for her struggles for justice and rights for her people, she was the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. She used the money from the award to open a foundation to aid indigenous people in Guatemala. Rigoberta has continued to work and make speeches to promote human rights for her people.
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