Rigoberta Menchú Tum

As a part of celebration of Cinco de Mayo the Latino Caucus invited an activist from Guatemalan activist named Rigoberta Menchú Tum to speak.

Menchú was awarded the Nobel Prize(1992 - the 500th anniversary of Columbus' landing) with a very compelling story about significant atrocities directed toward the Mayans in her country. Since the award was announced several people have come forward and suggested that Menchú's story is not accurate - that she stretched the truth a bit. The New York TImes, in a story trying to verify the claims made in her autobiography commented that the book “cannot be the eyewitness account it purports to be.”

I went to listen to her knowing the controversy. And whether all of her story is completely true or not, she is a compelling individual. She grew up in a native environment and actually had to learn Spanish to be able to be successful in her chosen pursuit. Her native language is one of the Mayan dialects - Quiché. Her success in developing a political movement and even a nascent political party demonstrates her underlying abilities. There is even controversy about how she learned Spanish. She says she learned it later in life about the time she wrote her autobiography - others suggest she learned it as a scholarship student in middle school.

Her Spanish was deliberate (in part because of the need for translators) (I appreciated that because it made her much easier to understand). Her charisma was compelling - even for my colleague who went with me and does not speak Spanish. What was interesting about her presentation was the pure power of her personality. Take away the political commentary - which in my mind was pretty predictable - and she still was a compelling person.

It reminded me a lot of the point made by Madison in Federalist #10 on the power of factions (in part driven by charisma). The risk to any political system caused by factions can be diminished by either keeping things small or by various forms of oppression. That may be why Menchú's story is so marvelous for persons of the left - it fits their perception of the role of elites.

My associate was unnerved by two brutes in the front who seemed to be Menchú's bodyguards. They were pretty large guys with dark glasses and pretty fearsome. It all added to the mystique of the event.