IRMA ALICIA VELÁSQUEZ NIMATUJ is a Maya-K’iche’ social anthropologist and journalist. She has been at the forefront of struggles for respect for indigenous cultures. She was Executive Director of the Mecanismo de Apoyo a Pueblos Indígenas Oxlajuj Tzikin (Support Mechanism for Indigenous Peoples) (2005-2013). In 2002 she played a key role in the historical process of setting legal precedent through a court case that made racial discrimination illegal in Guatemala. She is the author of “La Justicia Nunca Estuvo de Nuestro lado”: Peritaje Cultural Sobre Conflicto y Violencia Sexual en el Caso Sepur Zarco, Guatemala (2019), “Lunas y Calendarios”: Poesía Guatemalteca (2018), Pueblos Indígenas, Estado y Lucha por Tierra en Guatemala (2008) and La pequeña burguesía indígena comercial de Guatemala Desigualdades de clase, raza y género (2003).