The Templo Mayor Museum presented the short Ten minutes with Rigoberta

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The Templo Mayor Museum (MTM) houses a couple of exceptional pieces: the medal and the scroll that Rigoberta Menchú Tum received as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. 30 years after the Guatemalan activist obtained the prestigious award, this venue presented the short Ten minutes with Rigobertato bring the life of this social fighter closer to the public.

The Ministry of Culture of the Government of Mexico, through the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) and the MTM, screened this documentary capsule, which obtained an honorable mention in the Second “Miradas sin tiempo” Contest, of the Anthropological Film Festival from INAH, with the comments of its director, Roberto Salvador Rodríguez; the researcher at the INAH Tlaxcala Center, Milton Hernández García, and the director of the museum, Patricia Ledesma Bouchan.

The head of the MTM said that, at the time, the Nobel laureate expressed that the medal and the scroll would remain in this museum –an ancient expression of one of the highest civilizations of our ancestors– “in a vigil for peace”, that is to say , as long as the human rights of indigenous peoples in their native country are not guaranteed.

In back of Ten minutes with Rigoberta there is a conversation of more than two hours, provided by the activist, in October 2021, although the efforts for it began years before, prior to the health contingency due to COVID-19, narrated its director, the Spanish filmmaker Roberto Salvador Rodríguez .

The testimony of the defender of peace, who appears in her traditional Mayan Quiché dress, on a white background, intersperses animations that recreate her story, which begins with her childhood in Chimel, immersed in a misty forest and the howling of howlers announcing the rain, and his transfer to the city, which he perceived as a prison, compared to the environment in which he grew up.

The intimacy to which Rigoberta Menchú opens up, with a calm tone, is a spiral that goes from the outside, remembering the discrimination suffered in her own flesh; she advances with the family tragedy, known to many, and focuses on the injustice suffered for centuries by a group: that of the indigenous peoples of Guatemala. In her confession are the keys to her determined character, including the example set by her parents, both leaders of her community.

In the documentary, she recalls the series of interrogations to which she was exposed after obtaining the award. Three decades later, he reflects that one of the achievements was showing the world the indigenous face: “I think that part of the Nobel Prize was the approval of Convention 169, it was the fight we faced, as well as the subsequent Declaration of the United Nations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which recognizes their spirituality, territory, language, clothing, and their self-determination.”

Roberto Salvador Rodríguez emphasized the humility born of Rigoberta Menchú, which she wisely projects: “for her, human beings are children of the tunnel of time and we were born to leave something behind, to raise awareness in future generations, beginning with the simpler and more immediate actions with those around us”.

Finally, the ethnologist Milton Hernández García highlighted the impact generated by the publication of his autobiography, My name is Rigoberta Menchú and that is how my conscience was bornin 1983, “the expression of a victim -having suffered a capitalist, patriarchal, violent and colonial system-, who was able to assert herself from that condition and emerge as a critical conscience, organizing the fight for the defense of indigenous life” .