Biography

Victor Montejo is a Jakaltek Maya originally from Guatemala. He received hia Ph.D. in Anthropology in 1993 from the University of Connecticut, USA. Victor Montejo is currently a Professor of Native American Studies at the University of California, Davis. His academic interest focuses on indigenous people of Mesoamerica and have worked extensively on latin American diaspora, human rights, migration and transnationalism, comparative studies, ethnicity, indigenous worldviews and native knowledge, and indigenous literatures. Current projects: Indigenous community development, rural development, sustainable development, cultural/economic/political self-determination, cultural resource management, poverty alleviation strategies. Vicror Montejo has been a columnist for a national newspaper in Guatemala and obtained First Honorable Mention for Best Column in Native Americas, Cornell University. Native American Journalists Association. In 2000, his Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History obtained the National Award: Race, Ethnicity and Politics Award, American Political Science Association, for Washington D.C. In 2003, Victor Montejo obtained a Fulbright Scholars Award, Research and teaching in Guatemala, Universidad del Valle de Guatemala, Central America.
From 2004-2008, Montejo won a seat in the Guatemalan national Congress. From this post he was named Minister of Peace during of the Guatemalan Presidency and worked out the National Program for Reparation to the victims of the Armed conflict in Guatemala. He was president of the Congressional Commission of Indigenous People. As a Congressman he created passed the law of the National Day of Indigenous People of Guatemala, and proposed the Law Initiative: Ley de Consulta a Pueblos Indigenas.
Victor Montejo is a national and international recognized author and his major publications includes: Testimony: Death of a Guatemalan Village (1987). Voices from Exile: Violence and Survival in Modern Maya History (1999); Maya Intellectual Renaissance: Critical Essays on Identity, Representation, and Leadership. Austin: University of Texas Press (2003); Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Mayas (1999); Q’anil: man of Lightning, University of Arizona Press (2002). (In press).

Statement
My previous struggles and commitments for human rights and the rights of indigenous people will help in the continuous construction of NAISA as the most expressive association of indigenous intellectuals. I was a co-founder of the Commission for Human ?rights of the American Anthropological Association. As a Minster of Peace I was in charge of promoting and implementing the peace Accords signed between the Guatemalan Government and the URNG or guerrilla movement of Guatemala. My current efforts in building a pan-Maya Movement in Guatemala is a good example of the continuous struggles of indigenous people for self representation and self determination. As a scholar and activist, I have engaged in an applied science working directly with indigenous populations. My current projects focuses on indigenous migration and transnationalism, as well as in developing a curricula in Native Knowledge and epistemology.