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MEXICO
CITY, Aug 27 (IPS) - Inés Quezada, who scrapes out a living
for her three children panhandling on the streets of Mexico City,
and Guatemalan Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchú have
both lived a life marked by discrimination, as indigenous women
in Latin America .
Menchú,
an indigenous activist, uses her fame and her ability to rub shoulders
with world leaders to continue advocating for those she calls her
brothers and sisters. Quezada, on the other hand, barely knows who
President Vicente Fox is, and has no interest in politics or social
struggles.
``Yes,
we are both symbols of racism, but we are not the only ones suffering,''
Menchú told IPS, referring to Latin America's nearly 40 million
Indians, the great majority of whom suffer poverty and constant
discrimination.
For
her part, Quezada says she ``doesn't understand that racism stuff
very well,'' but adds that ``ladinos'' (the term given to non-Indians,
or whites and mixed-race people, in Mexico) ``are a little bit mean.''
Menchú,
the head of a foundation carrying her name in Mexico, will take
part in the World Conference Against Racism and Discrimination in
Durban, South Africa from Aug 31 to Sep 7.
While
Menchú is speaking to the international forum on the plight
of indigenous peoples in Latin America, Quezada will continue her
daily routine of begging from motorists at a stoplight in Mexico
City, from nine in the morning to seven in the evening.
Despite
the obvious distance separating the two women, the 42- year-old
Nobel Peace Prize-winner and the 40-year-old mendicant share a similar
story, along with millions of other indigenous women in their countries.
Indigenous
people make up more than 60 percent of Guatemala's nearly 12 million
people, while they account for 10 percent of Mexico's population
of 100 million. Illiteracy among Indian women, meanwhile, stands
at more than 50 percent in Guatemala, and 48 percent in Mexico.
``Indigenous
peoples are owed a historic debt that we will never forget. But
the worst thing today is that the so-called globalisation process
is the globalisation of racism, exclusion, and xenophobia,'' said
Menchú.
As
young girls, both Menchú and Quezada suffered the rigours
of life in impoverished rural areas, but both are also happy to
recall strong ties to their families and extended communities, as
well as to their natural surroundings.
Both
went to work at a young age as domestics in the homes of mixed-race
people, where they both suffered abuse.
Menchú
then began to organise her people to defend their lifestyle and
culture in the midst of a 36-year civil war that claimed around
200,000 - mainly civilian - lives before it officially came to an
end in December 1996.
Quezada,
on the other hand, migrated from the poor southern state of Chiapas
to Mexico City, where she tries to support her three children -
ages eight, 10 and 15 - while enduring the mistreatment she says
she receives at the hands of ``ladinos''.
Quezada,
who has never been to school, is one of thousands of women in this
country who feel they have no future. ``The only thing I need is
a little money to return to my countryside, but I will never again
work for ladinos,'' she says.
``I
prefer to beg than to work in someone else's house. I already did
that and `el señor' treated me very badly,'' says Quezada,
who has never been to school.
Menchú
said ``we experience racism every day.'' But she underlined that
the victims of racism were not only indigenous people, but also
Mexican emigrants living in the United States, Latinos and Asians
in Europe, ``and black people in every corner of the earth.''
``I
really hope the [Durban] conference can be salvaged, but the discussions
in the preparatory meetings have been deplorable. The most pressing
problems of today have been left aside, and there has been an attempt
to focus on questions of the past, in order to avoid tackling the
current issues,'' she said.
Quezada
has not heard of the international conference against racism, and
says she is not interested. ``I only want a little help to return
to my home,'' she stresses.
``While
the gentlemen in their ties sit around in luxury discussing [the
situation of indigenous peoples], the people are being annihilated
by intolerance, ignorance and hostility,'' said Menchú.
``I
don't believe the right space for discussing the rights of Indians
has been created yet, but it will be created if indigenous peoples
bravely continue the struggle, and if our future generations do
not forget the past and have the self-esteem necessary to defend
their dignity and their identity,'' she concluded. (END)
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