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Rigoberta Menchu

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The Resume

    (January 9, 1959- )
    Born in Chimel, Guatemala
    Member of the indigenous Quiche-Maya ethnic group
    Campaigned against human rights violations by the Guatemalan army
    Helped prepare the UN Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1991)
    Subject of the biography 'I, Rigoberta Menchu' (1982)
    Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (1992)
    Ran for president of Guatemala (2007)

Why she might be annoying:

    An investigation by anthropologist David Stoll found that many of her claims were false or exaggerated.
    For example, she claimed her father denied her an education, but she actually attended a series of Catholic schools.
    She falsely claimed her father had founded the peasant movement known as the Committee for Campesino Unity.
    A land dispute involving her father, which forms the central narrative of her story, was not with the government as she claimed but with his in-laws.
    She falsely claimed that her brother Petrocinio had been burned alive by Guatemalan soldiers while she and her family were forced to watch.
    One of her supporters suggested the discrepancies occurred because she related her story 'without notes in 24 hours of taped conversation over an eight-day period.' (Somehow, even under those conditions, I think I could remember if I had actually witnessed my brother being burned to death.)

Why she might not be annoying:

    Her parents, two brothers (including Petrocinio), a sister-in-law, and three nieces and nephews were killed by the Guatemalan army and security forces.
    Stoll himself said that there was 'no doubt about the most important points' Menchu made.
    The Nobel Committee dismissed calls to revoke her Prize on the grounds that the Prize 'was not based exclusively or primarily on the autobiography.'
    She said she received the Nobel Prize not for her own achievements but because she stood for 'a wider group of people who deserve international support.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 75.00% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 22 Votes: 31.82% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 30 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 22 Votes: 63.64% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 20 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 14 Votes: 64.29% Annoying
    In 2010, Out of 53 Votes: 69.81% Annoying
    In 2009, Out of 30 Votes: 70.0% Annoying
    In 2008, Out of 49 Votes: 73.47% Annoying
    In 2007, Out of 59 Votes: 69.49% Annoying