Life working the plantations was hard. People lived in cramped conditions in huts without clean water and with no toilets. Children were required to start work at a very young age or they were not fed. Rigoberta Menchú began work on the plantation at the age of eight. She did not go to school. Two of her brothers died while working the plantations. Her first brother was killed by pesticides which were sprayed as the workers were still in the fields and the second died from undernourishment.

Indigenous Indians in Guatemala had no civil rights. Civil rights were reserved for people of Spanish origin. This meant that the door was wide open for tyrannical rule. Guatemala is among one of the countries with the most depressing record of human rights violations. As the military-led government and rich landowners began to acquire Indian land using force, Rigoberta Menchú's father, Vincente, a leader of the farmers movement tried to defend his land. He wrote a number of petitions that proved completely ineffective. Protests followed to secure Indian land on which they lived and which they had helped to make fertile. Vincente Menchú was arrested on several occasions and imprisoned for his actions.

Rigoberta Menchú's 16-year-old brother, Petrocinio, was arrested by soldiers in 1979 before being tortured and burnt alive in front of his own family. Vincente Menchú died together with 38 other Indian leaders in a fire at the Spanish embassy, where he was protesting against human rights violations against Indians. Rigoberta Menchú's mother was also active in the opposition movement. In the following year she was kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed.

Rigoberta Menchú was also active in her father's movement, the United Farmers Committee, and was hunted by Guatemala's government. She fled to Mexico following the death of her mother. In 1983 she dictated her autobiography to an anthropologist "I... Rigoberta Menchú" which detailed the life and customs of Guatemala's native Indians as well as documenting her own history (see book tip below). This book combined with the campaign for social justice led by Rigoberta Menchú focused international attention on the conflict between Indians and the military government in Guatemala.

Rigoberta Menchú was the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. She was also the first Indian ever to be awarded the prize. This decision, however, was controversial, since her stance regarding the use of violence during the years of resistance remained ambivalent. She set up a trust bearing the name of her father with the prize money of 1.2 million dollars so the fight for human rights for Guatamala's Indians might be continued. Her commitment led to the United Nations declaring 1993 as the "International Year for the Rights of Indigenous Peoples".