Rigoberta Menchú, a Mayan Indian from Guatemala internationally recognized for her work for social justice and cultural reconciliation for indigenous people, will speak at Vanderbilt University on Thursday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m. at Benton Chapel on Vanderbilt University’s campus.
The lecture, which will be presented in Spanish and translated into English by an interpreter, is free and open to the public.
Menchú was the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, is a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador and ran for president of Guatemala in September of 2007, the first indigenous candidate in the country’s history.
Her 1983 autobiography, I, Rigoberta Menchú, chronicles the oppression suffered by the indigenous people of her country at the hands of elite landowners and a right-wing military regime. Her book drew international attention to the atrocities of the Guatemalan army, became a staple on many college campuses and propelled Menchú to the Nobel Prize in 1992.
In 1998, I, Rigoberta Menchú, came under attack by anthropologist David Stoll in The New York Times as a fabrication, a controversy that continues to this day. Menchú has since acknowledged that some of the accusations are true, but stated that she intended her book to represent not just her life, but the collective experience of her people.
Menchú will speak at Vanderbilt about “Healing Communities Torn by Racism and Violence” as the inaugural address for the exhibition and national tour of “Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamin,” a landmark exhibition of one of the most highly recognized Latin artists of the 20th century. The exhibition will be on display at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery and Sarratt Gallery from Feb. 7 until March 20.
Menchú’s appearance is sponsored by the Center for Latin American and Iberian Studies at Vanderbilt, the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderbilt and the University Lectures Committee.
“Of Rage and Redemption: The Art of Oswaldo Guayasamin” is supported, in part, by a generous gift from Susan and Ruff Fant. Additional support has been provided by the Louise Bullard Wallace Foundation, Nashville; the College of Arts and Science, Vanderbilt University; the Departments of History of Art, and Spanish and Portuguese, Vanderbilt University; the Sarratt Center Gallery at Vanderbilt; the Fundación Guayasamín; The Hermitage Hotel, Nashville; and American Airlines.
Menchú’s appearance is part of a series of special events titled “A Place for the Humanities” in celebration of Vanderbilt University’s Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities 20th anniversary. The center promotes interdisciplinary research and study in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences. Because cooperative study in higher education is crucial to the modern university and the society it influences, the center is designed to intensify and increase interdisciplinary discussion of academic, social, and cultural issues.
Media Contact: Missy Pankake, (615) 322-NEWS
missy.pankake@vanderbilt.edu