Peace Jam with Rigoberta Menchu

This past semester, the students have read I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala translated by Elizabeth Burgos in preparation for their trip. I, Rigoberta Menchu is about the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu's early life in Guatemala during its civil war. Ms. Menchu grew up as a young indigenous peasant woman to the K'iche'Maya ethnic group, suffering through injustice and hardships that included the murders of her parents and brother by the Guatemalan military. Ms. Menchu has dedicated her life to getting the rights for the Guatemalan indigenous people, as well as publicizing their everyday plights during the civil war. After being exiled to Mexico in the early 1980s, Rigoberta Menchu met with Elizabeth, an anthropologist from Venezula and conducted a series of interviews that lasted twenty-seven hours. From those twenty-seven hours of tape, I, Rigoberta Menchu came about.

By a sheer stroke of luck, our principal discovered that Rigoberta Menchu herself was coming to Houston March 27-29 as the guest speaker for PeaceJam Houston. PeaceJam is a non-profit foundation looking to create a new generation of young leaders who will create positive changes within themselves, their communities and the world through the insight and motivation from Nobel Peace Laureates such as Rigoberta Menchu, The Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu.

On Friday, March 27, our students and staff went to Rothko Chapel, near the Menil Museum, to hear Rigoberta Menchu speak about ending racism and hate. It was an absolute wonderful experience having read Ms. Menchu's novel about her early life and then hearing her speak in real life and drawing inspiration from her continuous effort to fight for the rights of the indigenous people of Guatemala. Six of our students were also able to participate in the PeaceJam conference with Ms. Menchu.