Page 245 - tesis
P. 245

their efforts and organization within the civil society and the political structure of the country. The Nobel Award winner, Rigoberta Mench\u00FA has been recognized for her fight on behalf of indigenous people and the peace process in Guatemala. The book Me llamo Rigoberta Mench\u00FA y as\u00ED me naci\u00F3 la conciencia (1987) gives a portrait about her life and fight in favour of indigenous communities. In this work written from the perspective of a Mayan identity and worldview and with commitment to the indigenous peoples, denounces abuses, exclusion, discrimination, repression and death to which they have been subjected for centuries. She writes about this reality after losing her parents and a brother in the context of the civil war which hasted for 36 years. She also points out the position of the Catholic Church as a hierarchy, who according to her perspective \u2018went hand in hand with the political regime\u2019, and she denounces the ideological uses of the Bible. From her position as catechist she states, \u2018I came to know what role Christians should play in the fight what is the role that Christians should have on earth\u2019. Later she underscores, \u2018We have discovered that the Bible has been used as a means to accommodate rather than to bring light for the poor\u2019 (Burgos 1987: 269-271). This criticism about the capricious use of the Bible includes both Catholics and Evangelicals. At that time, other indigenous women such as Rosalina Tuyuc joined forces with Mench\u00FA, to defend the communities and the citizen rights of indigenous widows.\u000AIn the last decade the indigenous people have obtained certain political spaces and recognition of their cultural identity as a result of their own struggles to get some spaces in the Guatemalan society with special support of the treaty for indigenous rights article 169 of the International Organization Work (OIT). Many of the indigenous young people are university graduates and some have been named as state ministers or have been elected as politicians or mayors in much of the countryside.\u000A  232\u000A


































































































   243   244   245   246   247