Rigoberta Menchu

For the next few weeks I'll be posting (or having posted) reflections I've written for our mission team in Guatemala. I will be out of the office December 28- January 15 spending some time with family and on a mission trip to Lemoa, Guatemala. These reflections should allow the readers of this blog to pray with our team as we experience life among the Maya.

Rigoberta Menchu is an indigenous Guatemalan, of the Quiche-Maya ethnic group. In 1992 she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her work towards helping the world understand the plight of ethnic Guatemalans, then engaged in a bloody civil war. Here is an excerpt from her acceptance speech.

That is why I dream of the day when the relationship between
the indigenous peoples and other peoples is strengthened; when they can combine their potentialities and their capabilities and contribute to make life on this planet less unequal, a better distribution of the scientific and cultural treasures accumulated by Humanity, flourishing in peace and justice.

We have in our mind the deepest felt demands of the entire human race, when we strive for peaceful co-existence and the preservation of the environment. The struggle we fight purifies and shapes the future.

Our history is a living history, that has throbbed, withstood and survived many centuries of sacrifice. Now it comes forward again with strength. The seeds, dormant for such a long time, break out today with some uncertainty, although they germinate in a world that is at present characterized by confusion and uncertainty.

There is no doubt that this process will be long and complex, but it is no Utopia and we, the Indians, we have new confidence in its implementation. The peoples of Guatemala will mobilize and will be aware of their strength in building up a worthy future. They are preparing themselves to sow the future, to free themselves from atavisms, to rediscover their heritage. To build a country with a genuine national identity. To start a new life.

By combining all the shades and nuances of the "ladinos", the "garífunas" and Indians in the Guatemalan ethnic mosaic, we must interlace a number of colors without introducing contradictions, without becoming grotesque nor antagonistic, but we must give them brightness and a superior quality, just the way our weavers weave a typical huipil blouse, brilliantly composed, a gift to Humanity.

How have you encountered the gifts of the Guatemalan people during your time here? These words were spoken in the early 1990’s. In 1996, Guatemala entered into a significant peace agreement. How have you seen this peace in action here?