Menchú Túm, Rigoberta (1959– )

Guatemalan campaigner for the rights of indigenous peoples. She was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992 for her efforts to promote intercultural peace and she returned from exile to live and campaign in Guatemala.

Her book I, Rigoberta Menchú (1982) won international acclaim for its stark and moving depiction of the plight of the native peoples of Guatemala.

Born into a Quiché farming family in northwest Guatemala, she began work at the age of eight as a migrant agricultural labourer. From her teens, she became an active campaigner against human rights abuses and was forced into exile, in Mexico, by the military regime.