Quote

In my opinion, peace has not come to America, to Nicaragua, or to El Salvador. A hungry people is a people without peace. If the demands of the people are not met, what kind of peace are we talking about?

Rigoberta Menchu

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Rigoberta Menchu
Age: 65
Born: 1959
Born: January 9
Activist
Autobiographer
Human Rights Activist
Politician
Writer
Without
Hungry
Kind
Mets
People
Demand
Opinion
Talking
Salvador
Peace
America
Nicaragua
Come
Demands

More quotes by Rigoberta Menchu

Image
The Bible has been used as a way of making us accept our situation, and not to bring enlightenment to the poor.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
I resolutely believe that respect for diversity is a fundamental pillar in the eradication of racism, xenophobia and intolerance. There is no excuse for evading the responsibility of finding the most suitable path toward the elimination of any expression of discrimination against indigenous peoples.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
Impunity should be condemned in any corner of the world.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
... only those of us who carry our cause in our hearts are willing to run the risks.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
The human being is to be respected and defended, not protected like a bird or a river.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
In Guatemala, the gap between rich and poor must be eliminated, or we will continue to be the example of conflict in America.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
... together we can build the people's Church, a true Church. Not just a hierarchy, or a building, but a real change inside people.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
I am like a drop of water on a rock. After drip, drip, dripping in the same place, I begin to leave a mark, and I leave my mark in many people's hearts.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
To be a light to others you will need a good dose of the spiritual life. Because as my mother used to say, if you are in a good place, then you can help others but if you're not well, then go look for somebody who is in a good place who can help you.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
I wasn't the only orphan in Guatemala. There are many others, and it's not my grief alone, it's the grief of a whole people.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
In the case of my country, Guatemala, 65% of the inhabitants are indigenous. The constitution speaks of protection for the indigenous. Who authorized a minority to protect an immense majority? It is not only political, cultural and economic marginalization, it is an attempt against the dignity of the majority of the population.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
I wish that a conscious sense of peace and a feeling of human solidarity would develop in all peoples.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
We say no to the peace that keeps us on our knees, no to the peace that keeps us in chains, no to the false peace that denies the values and contributions of our peoples.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
I think that if one's role doesn't correspond to what one says, if one's life doesn't correspond to what one preaches, if one is not true to one's people, someone else will come as a substitute.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
The problem in Guatemala is that there is no solution to the issue of human rights. The problem is militarization, it is the injust distribution of wealth. It is intolerance of the indigenous, it is discrimination and marginalization.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
No less characteristic in a democracy is social justice. This demands a solution to the frightening indexes of infant mortality, of malnutrition, lack of education illiteracy, wages not sufficient to sustain life
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
We are not myths of the past, ruins in the jungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims of intolerance and racism.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
Today the governments of Latin America should be ashamed of not havingexterminated the indigenous, at the end of the twentieth century, because weexist at the end of this century. We are not myths of the past, ruins in thejungle, or zoos. We are people and we want to be respected, not to be victims ofintolerance and racism.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
The people are the only ones capable of transforming society.
Rigoberta Menchu
Image
It is said that our indigenous ancestors, Mayas and Aztecs, made human sacrifices to their gods. It occurs to me to ask: How many humans have been sacrificed to the gods of Capital in the last five hundred years?
Rigoberta Menchu