Entrevista con Rigoberta Menchú

Rigoberta opens with poetic, emotionally charged reflections describing crossing the border in deep sorrow.

Identify a metaphor referring to the earth.

She describes the so‑called 'discovery' as a long night of darkness for Indigenous peoples, marked by 500 years of silence, marginalization, and oppression.

Identify a noun formed with the suffix '-ción'.

Rigoberta explains that throughout these 500 years, repression has taken different forms. This highlights systemic violence and the continuity of colonial oppression into the present.

What has been the common characteristic of repression?

She speaks about exploitation as a daily nightmare where Indigenous peoples continue to receive slave‑like treatment and salaries, particularly in agro‑export industries.

Identify an adverb of time.

Rigoberta highlights discrimination not only as disdain but also as the devaluation of Indigenous knowledge, art, clothing, and cultural contributions.

How does society often treat Indigenous art and clothing?

She points out the contradiction between celebrating the beauty created by Indigenous hands and simultaneously despising Indigenous people.

According to her, what political challenges arose regarding the treatment of Indigenous peoples at the end of the 20th century?

Rigoberta explains that Indigenous peoples of the Americas share several common elements. Despite shared suffering, they also share a common hope for collective resistance.

What shared elements unite Indigenous peoples?

Identify a possessive adjective.

She reflects on how Indigenous peoples have lived fragmentation and ignorance of one another's histories for 500 years, but now are reconnecting, refreshing memory, and building proposals for the future.

What kind of proposal do Indigenous peoples want for the future?

She explains that after 500 years there is a revalorization of Indigenous culture and a renewed pride.

What are Indigenous peoples reclaiming?

Rigoberta highlights that in Guatemala, around 80% of victims of repression, massacres, and forced disappearance have been Indigenous. She clarifies the struggle is not against ladinos but for an equal, just society where both groups can coexist respectfully.

Identify a comparative form.

She emphasizes that history is made by peoples, not by isolated persons, and the Nobel Prize carries symbolic meaning for victims of repression.

What does the Nobel Prize represent for her people?

Rigoberta reflects on the permanent danger she faces because oppressive systems try to eliminate witnesses and testimonies of violences in Guatemala.

Research: Identify the political regime Rigoberta Menchú opposed in Guatemala, the period during which this struggle took place, and the main political figures associated with it.

She shares her dreams, which always return to her childhood home and her land in Guatemala. Her emotional connection to place reflects an unbreakable bond with origin, memory, and belonging.

Identify a verb in first‑person singular and its infinitive

Rigoberta imagines a society where decisions about land, life, and the economy are made collectively and fairly.

What political dream does she describe?

She explains that she no longer dreams of material possessions but focuses on legacy, future generations, and the hope of creating meaningful continuity.

Transcribe a sentence with a metaphor related to 'semilla' (seed).