Rigoberta Menchu, winner of the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize
Credit: © Micheline Pelletier Decaux, Getty Images

People in the United States observe National Hispanic Heritage Month each year from September 15 to October 15. During this period, Latin American countries celebrate their independence. These countries include Cuba, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Nicaragua.

Rigoberta Menchu, a Guatemalan K’iche’ (previously spelled Quiche) Indigenous woman, won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to gain respect for the rights of Guatemala’s Native American peoples. The Ki’che’ are descendants of the Mayan Indigenous people.

Menchu was born on Jan. 9, 1959, into a poor family in Chimel, northeast of Santa Cruz del Quiche. She became an agricultural laborer as a small child. In 1977, her father, Vicente Menchu, helped organize the Peasant Unity Committee, a group seeking rights for agricultural workers and land for peasants.

Rigoberta Menchú is a Guatemalan human rights activist. Menchú won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work in support of American Indians’ rights in Guatemala.
Credit: © Robert Pitts, Landov

Since about 1960, Guatemala’s government had been fighting a civil war with leftist groups. It objected to the Menchu family‘s political activities. By 1981, Menchu’s parents and one of her brothers had been killed by the Guatemalan army. That year, Menchu fled Guatemala.

Her autobiography, I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, was published in 1983. The book called attention to injustices suffered by Indians in Guatemala and to the human rights abuses of the Guatemalan military. A study published in 1998 charged that certain parts of Menchu’s book were inaccurate. Menchu responded that she had mixed other Native Americans’ experiences into her book, and that it represented the story of the Guatemalan people rather than of one individual.

In 2004, Guatemalan President Oscar Berger offered Menchu a position in Guatemala’s national government. She agreed to help oversee the implementation of the 1996 peace accords that ended the civil war. In September 2007, she ran for the presidency of Guatemala but was not elected.

Transgender activist Jazz Jennings
Credit: © lev Radin, Shutterstock

June is LGBTQ+ Pride Month. All month long, Behind the Headlines will feature lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer pioneers in a variety of areas.

Pride Month in the United States is celebrated with parades, rainbows, and sharing stories. One important story is that of Jazz – not jazz music, Jazz Jennings. Jennings is an American transgender activist. The term transgender describes individuals whose identity or self-expression does not match their assigned gender. Jennings became one of the youngest people to be documented as transgender. She has received several awards for her activism in support of transgender people.

Jennings was born on Oct. 6, 2000, in southern Florida. She was designated male at birth and given the name Jaron. When she was 2 years old, Jennings showed signs of feeling that she was a girl. One year later, she was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, a condition in which a person’s biological or assigned gender does not match the gender with which the person identifies. Jennings has identified as female since she was 5 years old. She became famous in 2007 after being interviewed by the American journalist Barbara Walters on the television news program “20/20.”

Jennings became a popular presence on social media and on the video-sharing website YouTube. She has also starred in the reality television series “I Am Jazz,” which began in 2015. The series follows Jennings’s experiences as a transgender youth, including her gender confirmation surgery in 2018. This kind of surgery alters a person’s physical characteristics to match the person’s gender identity.

In 2007, Jennings and her parents established the TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation to support and provide assistance for transgender youths. Jennings also wrote the memoir Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen (2016).

American activist and playwright Larry Kramer
Credit: David Shankbone (licensed under CC BY 3.0)

The American playwright and AIDS activist Larry Kramer died on Wednesday, May 27, 2020, at the age of 84. (AIDS is the final, life-threatening stages of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus [HIV]). Kramer became known as a fiery advocate (supporter) of public health and gay rights. His advocacy helped not only to further the study and treatment of HIV/AIDS but also to inspire other aggressive public health efforts.

Laurence David Kramer was born on June 25, 1935, in Bridgeport, Connecticut. In 1957, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Yale University. He then entered the motion-picture industry, variously working as screenwriter, story editor, and producer.

In 1981, Kramer cofounded Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), the first HIV service organization. The organization was created in response to the lack of government action to fight the disease. In 1987, Kramer founded ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power). The organization performed disruptive acts to gain the attention of public officials, scientists, and religious leaders. For instance, the group surrounded St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City.

One of the officials with whom Kramer tussled was the American epidemiologist Anthony Fauci. Kramer accused Fauci of having no sense of urgency in studying or treating HIV/AIDS. (In January 2020, Fauci became a lead member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.) The two later became friends, and Fauci acknowledged the role Kramer had played in drawing attention to the disease.

Kramer is the author of several books, plays, screenplays and essays. His autobiographical play “The Normal Heart” opened in 1985. It explores the rise of the HIV/AIDS crisis in New York City during the early 1980’s. Another autobiographical play, “The Destiny of Me,” was first performed in 1992. The play follows Ned Weeks, the main character of “The Normal Heart.” Kramer wrote a screenplay for the English writer D.H. Lawrence’s novel Women in Love. The film was released in 1969. Kramer received an Academy Award nomination for his screenplay.