Rigoberta Menchu: A cry for justice
            
             In recent years, a new voice has been added to the world stage. It is the voice of Latin American women. Long oppressed both by their culture and their governments, these voices have risen in protest against the inequalities and injustices that have plagued their lives. The most notable example of this new genre to emerge thus far was published in 1992 and subsequently won the Nobel Peace prize for its author, Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan Indian activist.
             Menchu's account of life in Guatemala is a tale of horror and savagery perpetrated on all those who would dare to try to improve the lives of Guatemala's downtrodden. For the "crimes" of teaching people how to read, organizing labor, or even protesting despicable conditions, people are routinely
             tortured in ways that rival the Spanish Inquisition. After continuous, unbelievable torture in which he was maimed beyond belief, Menchu recounts that she watched while soldiers burned her younger brother alive (177). He was sixteen and the excuse offered for this treatment was that he was a communist.
             Americans like to think of themselves as the "good guys" to the country that beat Hitler, rebuilt post-World War II Europe with the Marshall Plan, and won the Cold War so that the world would be safe from tyranny of communism. What most Americans don't know even today is that there is an excellent statistical chance that the men who tortured and brutally murdered Menchu's brother learned these hideous skills in the United States. The U.S. government actually runs a school just for this purpose at Fort Benning, Georgia, the infamous School of the Americas. Publicly, the School is supposed to promote the education of Latin American leaders in the principles of democracy. It's hard for many Americans to believe that their country, which was built on the principles of liberty and justice, would engage in the activities that have been alleged by the ...