1959
Rigoberta Menchu is born in Chimel, a hamlet outside Uspantan in the highlands of central Guatemala.
1979
Army kidnaps and kills Menchu’s younger brother, Petrocinio.
1980
January Her father, Vicente, and 35 others are killed in a protest at the Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City. Later that year, Rigoberta flees to Mexico with the help of the Roman Catholic Church.
1982
Rigoberta tells her story to an anthropologist in Paris; it is published the next year as a book, “I, Rigoberta Menchu.”
1983
Her brother Victor surrenders to the Army and is later killed trying to escape.
1992
Menchu wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994
She moves back to Guatemala but continues to spend most of her time outside the country.
1996
The Guatemalan government and a rebel coalition sign a peace accord ending 35 years of civil war.
1998
Menchu’s foundation runs into legal problems with a Guatemalan bank after refusing to return money accidentally deposited in its account.
December U.S. anthropologist David Stoll publishes “Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans,” offering evidence that she fabricated parts of her autobiography. Menchu later says the book was not strictly her personal story.
1999 May A constitutional referendum that would have limited the role of the Army and protected the rights of indigenous people is defeated; Menchu skips the vote to attend international conferences.
