Quote by Rigoberta Menchú: “Our culture is our resistance.”

When a people's land, language, and bodies are under attack, preserving and practicing their culture — their ceremonies, stories, languages, and ways of life — becomes an act of defiance. Culture is not just heritage; it is a weapon against erasure.

Menchú spoke these words in contexts related to her 1983 memoir, during a period when the Guatemalan military was systematically destroying Maya villages, burning fields, and killing community leaders in an effort to sever indigenous communities from their cultural and political roots.

Guatemalan indigenous rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who survived the brutal repression of Guatemala's civil war, which killed members of her family. Her 1983 testimony I, Rigoberta Menchú brought international attention to the genocide against Mayan communities.