{"id":34050,"date":"2024-05-30T12:30:25","date_gmt":"2024-05-30T19:30:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=34050"},"modified":"2024-05-30T12:30:26","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T19:30:26","slug":"rigoberta-menchu-tum-i-met-my-main-teachers-here-in-san-francisco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/30\/rigoberta-menchu-tum-i-met-my-main-teachers-here-in-san-francisco\/","title":{"rendered":"Rigoberta Mench\u00fa Tum: I met my main teachers here in San Francisco"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"\" by\u00a0OSCAR PALMA<\/a><\/strong>MAY 29, 2024 (MissoinLocal.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Rigoberta
Rigoberta Mench\u00fa Tum and Roberto Hernandez during at event at he Indigenous People Cultural Arts and Healing Center that feature the 1992’s Nobel Peace Prize winner following her participation as Carnaval’s Grand Marshal this year on Monday May 27, 2024. Photo by Oscar Palma.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bill Wahpepah<\/a> was one of the organizers of the Longest Walk<\/a> in 1978, a march to bring awareness to a handful of bills in Congress that would have affected treaties with American Indians. Floyd Westerman<\/a> was a part of the Wounded Knee <\/a>protest in 1973 to bring attention to injustices being committed against the Lakota people. Ingrid Washinawatok <\/a>advocated for Indigenous sovereignty and environmental protection. Dennis Banks<\/a> helped found the American Indian Movement<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rigoberta Mench\u00fa Tum met all these \u2018mentors\u2019 in San Francisco in the early \u201880s. Now a renowned human rights activist, she was 23 years old at the time and it was about a decade before she won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy main teachers were from here, from San Francisco. These were brothers and sisters that were my guides\u2026representative of the Navajo, the Hopis and the Dakotas,\u201d said Mench\u00fa Tum, who served as Carnaval\u2019s grand marshal this past weekend in the Mission. \u201cI understood about their struggles to defend the earth, to defend their land.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"MERCADO\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At a reception that followed her Carnaval appearance, Mench\u00fa Tum spoke to some 300 people who joined her at the Indigenous People Cultural Arts and Healing Center at 681 Florida St. At the event hosted by Cultura y Arte Nativa de las Am\u00e9ricas<\/a> (CANA), Mench\u00fa Tum talked about her connection to San Francisco, her experience at Carnaval and the importance of humility and kindness.      <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mench\u00fa Tum is a K\u2019iche\u2019 Mayan born in the highlands of Guatemala in 1959. Tum\u2019s family members were among the victims of a genocide <\/a>conducted by the Guatemalan government in the \u201870s and early \u201880s that killed almost 150,000 Mayans. The massacre began when the national army came after rebels who were fighting for better living conditions for Indigenous people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mench\u00fa Tum\u2019s brother was arrested, tortured and killed following accusations of being part of the guerilla movement. Her mother was arrested, tortured and raped on the same accusations and her father was also arrested and tortured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The events forced Mench\u00fa Tum, then 22, into exile to Mexico in 1981 where she began a campaign advocating for Indigenous people\u2019s rights. A year later, she started meeting her mentors in San Francisco during one of her many visits to the city. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mench\u00fa spoke about remembering one\u2019s elders and all the teachings that were passed on through the generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe Indigenous are teachers of teachers. You are teaching a new teacher. That\u2019s the ancestral learning that we are contemplating,\u201d said Mench\u00fa, who was greeted by a standing ovation as she took the stage in a traditional Mayan skirt and multicolored blouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are not here alone,\u201d she said. \u201cWe continue to be professors and masters of the new professors and the new masters. So I am right now a teacher of teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mench\u00fa then referred to the importance of expressing gratitude, adding that if it were possible for her to say \u201cthank you\u201d 400 times at any given day, she would \u2014 she has that many people to thank. She said that every 260 days she gives 260 thank yous to the seven generations she knows of, a ceremony that lasts about three hours. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

She also spoke about the community she has built and the kind of support she tries to provide to her friends. If someone is asking for advice it is because they need it, she said.\u201d Sometimes, forming a connection can be simple, she said: \u201cI ask people \u2018How are you today?,\u201d said Mench\u00fa Tum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These small acts of kindness, she said, can go unnoticed in our society, but not in Indigenous communities. She called on Indigenous people to feel lucky and proud of their roots \u2014 and  to never feel like a minority, because these communities are in 94 different countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Towards the end of the conversation with CANA\u2019s CEO and District 9 Supervisor candidate, Roberto Hernandez, Mench\u00fa Tum thanked San Francisco and Carnaval organizers for the invitation to the festival and celebrated being able to attend \u2014 especially given that, a year prior, she was dealing with serious health issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe message this year in honor of Indigenous people is a concept that it\u2019s very powerful, very important, very deep and very solemn,\u201d said Mench\u00fa Tum. \u201cThis is very special for me.\u201d and I will not forget about this moment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

District 7 Supervisor Mirna Melgar closed the reception by awarding Mench\u00fa Tum an official city proclamation declaring May 27 as Rigoberta Mench\u00fa Day in San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat I leave here is my eternal presence,\u201d said Mench\u00fa Tum, \u201cbecause one day I will also die. But I leave my own print here for the future generations.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a member of the audience asked Mench\u00fa Tum if she had tried a Mission-style burrito, she replied with a \u201cmuy rico,\u201d \u2013 very delicious \u2013 nodding and smiling as she added \u201cthey\u2019d fed me really well here.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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oscar.palma@missionlocal.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oscar is a reporter with interest in environmental and community journalism, and how these may intersect. Some of his personal interests are bicycles, film, and both Latin American literature and punk. Oscar’s work has previously appeared in KQED, The Frisc, El Tecolote, and Golden Gate Xpress.More by Oscar Palma<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Source: https:\/\/missionlocal.org\/2024\/05\/rigoberta-menchu-tum-i-met-my-main-teachers-here-in-san-francisco\/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Mission+Local&utm_campaign=f07a0fdb83-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_05_29_03_55&utm_term=0_-f07a0fdb83-[LIST_EMAIL_ID]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0OSCAR PALMAMAY 29, 2024 (MissoinLocal.org) Bill Wahpepah was one of the organizers of the Longest Walk in 1978, a march to bring awareness to a handful of bills in Congress that would have affected treaties with American Indians. Floyd Westerman was a part of the Wounded Knee protest in 1973 to bring attention to injustices being committed… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34050"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34050"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34050\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34051,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34050\/revisions\/34051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}