![]() She suffered first hand the exploitation experienced by child laborers and the extreme poverty and discrimination endured by the indigenous people at the hands of the landowners, the Guatemalan army, and the paramilitary death squads. ![]() As soon as she turned 5 she started working in the region´s coffee plantations. Her mother, Juana Tum, was a midwife carrying on this indigenous tradition which made up for the lack of specialized medical care in the most isolated and remote places. Her father, Vicente Menchú, was a farmer who was involved in the protection of peasants’ rights. On January 9th, 1959, Rigoberta Menchú was born in this mountainous region and grew up there in a large family. It is home to 17 families, all of Mayá/ K'iche' descent, who live together deep in the cloud forest. One of these communities is called Laj Chimel and you can only get to it on foot or by four-wheel-drive because the roads are unpaved. The municipality of San Miguel Uspantán, made up of a series of communities which are situated fairly close to the municipal seat, is located in the inland Guatemalan department of El Quiché. ![]()
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