Background Info: Family

Rigoberta's mother was a midwife and traditional healer, and her father, Vincente, was a day laborer, catechist, and community leader. He too stood for the rights of the Indian people in the community by leading a band of people against the Spanish Embassy, and was also active in the Peasant Unity Committee, a group that fought for peasant land rights. Both parents belonged to one of the many Indigenous groups in Guatemala, the Quiché Maya, and spoke little Spanish. She had three brothers and a sister, and all seven of them were faced with unimaginable horrors that left Rigoberta practically alone. Her family amongst other things was a main inspiration that she looked to as she grew and became politically active.

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