As criminology broadens its traditional concerns to encompass genocide, mass violence, conflict transformation, and peacemaking, it can benefit from exposure to the experiences and epistemologies of actors beyond its conventional borders. Here, I explicate the testimonio of indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu, arguing that an encounter between Menchu and criminology helps us appreciate the significance of culture for our understanding of conflict and makes us aware of how criminological science is itself a cultural tradition. Interpreting the development of Menchu’s consciousness, identity, and activism as a dialectical relationship between her cultural traditions and contemporary experience, I examine the ‘Conquest traditions’ that Menchu inherits, identify stages in her development of a systematic understanding of oppression and commitment to resistance, and explore how her traditional beliefs are transformed by her new understanding and commitment to activism and conflict transformation. I then...