Nobel winner speaks her peace
10/23/04
By LEAH ETLINGNEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
Nobel Peace Prize winner Rigoberta Menchu Tum made a whirlwind tour through Santa BarbaraCounty on Friday, spending an emotional morning with the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians before making more formal speeches in Solvang and Santa Maria.
At the Tribal Hall on the Chumash reservation, Ms. Menchu Tum, the 1992 Nobel laureate for her efforts to secure rights for indigenous people, admired a painting on the wall with images of American Indians and a wolf.
Her hosts took it off the wall and gave it to her.
In her talks, the diminutive, 45-year-old Mayan woman, dressed in traditional clothing from her native Guatemala, spoke about the ongoing efforts to identify bodies of Mayans killed in the Guatemalan civil war and the oppression of indigenous people elsewhere.
The 36-year conflict left more than 140,000 people dead or missing. It ended in 1996 with a peace agreement between the government and Guatemalan National Revolutionary unity movement rebels. The country is still reeling from the struggle, which began when the united States backed the overthrowing of the Guatemalan president. The resulting military dictatorship was opposed by peasant rebels like Ms. Menchu Tum's family.
Her horrific firsthand experiences during the civil war are recounted in her controversial book "I, Rigoberta Menchu."
Scholars have disputed the accuracy of some of her stories, but the Nobel committee stood by its decision to award her the Peace Prize.
Ms. Menchu Tum, who travels with three bodyguards, lost two brothers and her parents to the conflict. Her father, a member of the Committee of the Peasant union, died in the Spanish Embassy when it was stormed by security forces in 1980. Her mother died after being raped and tortured.
until recently, Ms. Menchu Tum thought her mother's body was left to be eaten by animals.
She told several dozen members and employees of the Chumash tribe that just last week, she learned it may be possible to find the remains of her brothers and mother in mass graves with the help of forensic anthropologists and DNA evidence.
"Westerners don't understand. They say, why bother? Why would you want to suffer more? But for us, the peace of our dead is our peace," Ms. Menchu Tum said in Spanish. She was accompanied by a translator.
Friday was the first time she has visited an American Indian reservation.
"I don't believe I've ever been caught speechless. I had a feeling I've never had before," tribal Chairman Vincent Armenta said. He broke into tears upon meeting Ms. Menchu Tum.
She thanked the tribe for the painting and joked that the day of her birth -- in the Mayan calendar, each day is accorded a level of energy from one to 13 -- might have influenced her request.
"If I had 13 levels of energy, instead of wanting the picture I'd want the whole casino," she said to hearty laughs.
At her speech to the "Building Bridges to Peaceful Families" conference in Solvang, she revealed that the death of her second child led her to resolve to write 13 children's books. She has finished three, which deal with themes such as the importance of grandparents in children's lives.
Ms. Menchu Tum, who said she spent 13 years in Mexico after threats on her life, established the Rigoberta Menchu Tum foundation in 1994. It helps exiled Guatemalans return home.
LEN WOOD / NEWS-PRESS
Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu Tum admired a painting on the wall of the Tribal Hall, so the Chumash gave it to her.