Rigoberta Menchu is probably the most famous Guatemalan of Mayan ancestry, having won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1992. While the wacky Scandinavians commended her as a representative voice of the native Indian people, just how "representative" Rigoberta Menchu is can be discerned from the results of Guatemala's presidential election. The results, released on Monday, show that Menchu came in sixth in a field of 14 with just 3 percent of the vote.
Who is Rigoberta Menchu? I first encountered her name in the Stanford multicultural curriculum while I was researching my first book Illiberal Education. Interestingly one Stanford professor described Rigoberta as a "quadruple victim" of oppression. That's right, a quadruple victim. She was a person of color and a victim of racism, a woman and a victim of sexism, a South Central American (thank you, commenters) and a victim of North American colonialism, and a Mayan of Indian descent and hence oppressed by the light-skinned ruling class of Guatemala. Rigoberta's harrowing tale of victim hood is eloquently told in her autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchu.
The only problem is that many of the actual details in that book are made up. Rigoberta tells of how the military killed her brother, but the New York Times found her brother alive and well and living in a neighboring town. Rigoberta describes how the Guatemalan right-wing military seized her family's land, but the mayor of her town said that her parents were actually involved in a longstanding inheritance feud with relatives, and that this family dispute was the reason the title to the land was undetermined. If you want the full story pick up my book Letters to a Young Conservative, but only if you are prepared to laugh out loud.
What, then, explains Rigoberta's curricular appeal at Stanford and elsewhere? The answer is pretty simple: she doesn't represent the Guatemalans, but she does represent the politics of victimization that is championed by many American left-wing professors. And of course by posing as an indigenous victim, showing up at the United Nations festooned in native garb and singing stereotypical songs of woe, Rigoberta completely fooled the wacky Scandinavians. Remember that Rigoberta won her Nobel Prize in 1992. This was the 500-year anniversary of the Columbus landing. Get it? The wacky Scandinavians were determined to stick it to Columbus by awarding the Nobel prize to a native Indian. Chief Sitting Bull has long been dead, so the choice pretty much came down to Rigoberta, some big-time Indian casino operators, or the woman who played Pocahontas in the Disney movie. That's how Rigoberta got her prize.
But the Guatemalans know that Rigoberta is a scam artist, and also that she is not one of them. Even one of her fellow-Mayans is quoted in Tuesday's New York Times saying, "She's one of us, but she's not." Another man, Diego Ramirez, complains that "Menchu has gotten all this money from the outside, and we haven't seen it." The lesson I draw from this episode is that it's easy to fool Stanford leftists and wacky Scandinavians, but it's harder to pull the llama's wool over the eyes of your own people.
Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 3)
16. THESE "PRIZES" ARE ALWAYS GIVEN TO THE "LEFT" IN OUR WORLD, (BY THIS COMMITTEE) SO I'M HAPPY TO SEE THAT THEY FINALLY GOT THEIRS... BY BEING THE ONES THAT WERE "FOOLED" THIS TIME AROUND.
MIKE at 4:31PM on Sep 13th 2007
17. I think if Ms. Menchu really wanted to bring attention to the atrocities in Guatemala, she should have written a work of fiction based on historical facts. Isabel Allende and Julia Alvarez have effectively used fiction in this regard. Had Rigoberta Menchu written her book as a novel based on a very real situation, she would not have come under fire. Lying to try to establish validity by writing under the guise of non-fiction only hurt her cause.
Tab at 4:51PM on Sep 13th 2007
18. What's the point of rehashing this old controversey?
My guess: Al Gore will be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in a few months. Therefore, it's time for the slimers on the far Right to try to diminish the Nobel Prize, the process of winning it, and the people who select the winning candidates.
Dinesh is doing what any faithful lap dog of the Hoover Institution would do. Watch for Rush and the radio Rush wannabes to take up the talking points.
strut2k at 4:57PM on Sep 13th 2007
19. Dinesh, Dinesh, Dinesh.... How Dinesh D'Souza fools AOL News into thinking he is working...
http://www.boundless.org/1999/departments/isms/a0000074.html
It seems he already hashed this one out in 1999.
Claudia Nicholson at 5:13PM on Sep 13th 2007
20. AL QAEDA AND MOVEON.ORG SPEAKS WITH ONE VOICE!
GEORGE SOROS SAID, "WE BOUGHT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IT IS OURS NOW". SADLY HE IS RIGHT. WHY ELSE WOULDN'T THE LEADING DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT SPEAK OUT AGAINST THAT OUTRAGEOUS AD SAYING GEN. DAVIS PETRAEUS WAS A TRAITOR. COWARDS THAT IS WHY!!
CHARLIE at 5:51PM on Sep 13th 2007
21. SEORGE SOROS SAID,"WE BOUGHT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IT IS OURS NOW"
MOVEON.ORG AND AL QAEDA SPEAK WITH THE SAME VOICE.
CHARLIE at 6:03PM on Sep 13th 2007
22. I have a great deal of respect for you, Mr. D'Souza; less for some of your readers. But you undermine yourself when you use a term like "wacky Scandinavians" four times in one article. Certainly a man of your education can come up with three more insightful and cutting adjectives, saving us from feeling like you're slapping this stuff out too fast to be clever. If you're overworked, hire someone, mentor them. Share your wisdom, maybe even some of the limelight.
CMC at 6:00PM on Sep 13th 2007
23. In your article you mention picking up your book, "Letters To A Young Conservative", but "only if you want to laugh out loud"...For once, Mr. D'Souza you've printed something accurate: ANY thinking person would find a book penned by you laughable...
AzValu at 7:49PM on Sep 13th 2007
24. I think the Nobel "Peace" Prize is a joke. They gave one to Jimmy Carter for crying out loud! He was one of the worst leaders in our history (mismanagement of an energy crisis, Iran holding U.S. hostages with no consequences, boycotting the Olympics instead of going into Moscow and kicking ass, etc.). And he's even worse as an ex-President who doesn't have the class to keep his mouth shut. Even George H.W. Bush held his tongue during the embarassing Clinton scandals. This Menchu woman is just another example of how ridiculous this "honor" really is. They'll probably give one to Ward Churchill next.
Amanda at 6:33PM on Sep 14th 2007
25. OH DEATH, I THOUGHT I WAS GOING TO GET THRU THE DAY WITHOUT YET ANOTHER IMBECILE TRYING TO GET ME TO APOLOGIZE FOR BEING CAUCASIAN.
IRONBLUEEYES at 7:57PM on Sep 13th 2007
26. THANK GOD TOOKIE WILLIAMS WASN'T COMPETING FOR THE NOBEL YHAT YEAR, IT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DEAD HEAT.
IRONBLUEEYES at 8:00PM on Sep 13th 2007
27. I notice not many on this thread actually can or even try to stick to the tpoic at hand; that of this Menchu woman.
Other than the factual point about the location Guatemala, I notice only childish carping with no discussion of this woman, or why she would have lied like she did, or indeed how so many people were fooled by her.
Ken Berg at 8:01PM on Sep 13th 2007
28. Dinesh, I don't think this is one of your best columns. If Yasser Arafat can be given the Nobel why not this person? People can not be righteous! We are all human. I can guarantee you that the Nobel Committee has looked into the work she has done before awarding the Nobel. I think you should let her live out her life without overt criticism!
Rishi Kumar Sushley at 10:28PM on Sep 13th 2007
29. Oh good grief. Flaunt your ignorance by referring to "llama's wool"------ llamas are from South America, Dinesh, not Central America...which happens to be where Guatemala is situated. They don't raise llamas in Guatemala. Sheesh!!!
Karen at 12:27AM on Sep 14th 2007
30. While your comments on Rigoberta Menchu may be true, you haven't shown any real proof of anything. This he said, she said, garbage is just that. Why would you try to slander someone 17 years after the fact? If you're going to try to convince me that she is not who she portrayed herself to be you're going to need more than someone's opinion. Put some facts that we can follow up on instead of trying to defame someone you don't even know.
Jim Henderson at 3:18AM on Sep 14th 2007