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news
Nobel laureate
to speak
By Jamie Rogers
On-line Forty-Niner
Rigoberta Menchú
Tum, the self-educated, Nobel Peace Prize laureate from the
Maya-Quiche village of Chimel, Guatemala, is the keynote speaker
Wednesday during the California Faculty Association's planned
"Teach In," at Cal State Long Beach.
She will speak
about her experiences when she was in Guatemala as a member
of the Committee of the Peasant Union, where she organized
to improve conditions for farm workers. As a member of the
31st of January Popular Front she worked to educate peasants
to resist military oppression.
"It seems
like her life experience can be motivational to get [students]
to become active stakeholders [in their education] instead
of spectators," said Armando Vazquez-Ramos, lecturer
for the Chicano and Latino studies department and job action
committee chair for the CFA.
One of the goals
of the Teach-In is to discuss how the low number of tenured
faculty members at the California State University system
affects the quality of education.
"Where there
is common ground [between Menchú and the CFA] is putting
into perspective what a life of struggle and commitment to
social justice can mean to faculty and students," Vazquez-Ramos
said. "When we talk about a union campaign we are talking
about what students are paying, then not getting what they
are paying for."
Menchú's
own life is a testament to struggle for social justice. As
a teenager, she became involved with the Catholic Church and
the women's rights movement. The year Menchú joined
the Committee of the Peasant Union, her brother was tortured
and killed by the Guatemalan Army.
The following year,
Guatemalan security forces killed her father. Shortly after,
Menchú's mother died following her arrest, during which
she was tortured and repeatedly raped.
"And she had
the strength to continue [activism], even under death threats,"
Vazquez-Ramos said. "I almost compare her to Mother Theresa.
She is comparable in her peaceful, quiet and profound demeanor.
She lights up a room."
In 1982, after
Menchú was forced to flee Guatemala, she organized
the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition. In
1983, Menchú told her story to Elizabeth Burgos Debray
who wrote the internationally acclaimed book, "I, Rigoberta
Menchú." In 1992, Menchú was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize.
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