Glenda is a young woman of the K’iche’ Maya nation, born in Quetzaltenango and a resident of the municipality of La Esperanza in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.

Glenda is a preschool teacher and a teacher of popular education, and holds a technical degree in Rural Social Work and a bachelor´s degree in Social Work. She has a deep commitment to public service and the technical, methodological and political skills to accompany and advise social organizations in projects focused on territory defense, social justice, gender equity, indigenous peoples, youth, and human rights. Glenda gained her professional experience at Trócaire, an Irish Catholic development agency in Guatemala, as well as in various social movements and the Mayan League of Guatemala.

Glenda has participated in training and completed courses on the history of indigenous peoples, racism, discrimination, social research, political training, analysis of racist states and colonization in Guatemala, and political training for youth and feminists. She has taken courses on environmental conservation for territorial development, human trafficking and human rights violations, and gender-based violence. She has participated in political dialogues led by young people and facilitated by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), participated in the research internship program Territory Defense for the development of the initial political training course for USAID, and took part in the political training program Agents of Change led by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung Foundation.

As part of her social activism, Glenda has collaborated through editing, research and communication with the Mayan League of Guatemala and has been part of the political leadership of social movements supporting a society for justice, equity, and recognition of indigenous nationalities. Glenda has spoken at FLACSO Mexico and the Chilean Network of Social Work and Systematization.

Glenda won first place in public speaking at the Centro Universitario de Occidente of the San Carlos University of Guatemala, and by election she has held positions of cultural representation in the municipality of La Esperanza, Quetzaltenango at the national level and at the San Carlos University of Guatemala.