Guatemala

I Rigoberta Menchú
by Kadiatou Diallo

“They've always said, ‘Poor Indians, they can't speak,’ so many speak for them. That's why l decided to learn Spanish."

In her mission to end the oppression of her country’s indigenous population, Nobel Peace Prize-winner Rigoberta Menchu realised she had to use words as her weapon, and learnt the language of her oppressors in order to be able to use it against them. She acted as a public voice for the peoples of rural Guatemala, before coming to Europe in 1982 to meet Ann Wright and share her story.

Translated by Ann Wright
Verso, 2009
First published in 1984
ISBN 9781844674183