I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

If you live in the Americas. Anywhere on them. Or have visited. Or consume its products, physical or cultural. Ever. This should be required in every single history class. The testimony of the Mayas as brought to us by Menchú, (and yes that’s what this was, a testimony. she says it near the beginning of the book and so does the translator. It was clear to me without hearing about ‘the controversy’ or whatever. One white guy doesn’t understand the whole genre, and suddenly it’s a controversy. Anyways.), is a gift few of us is worthy of having access to. And yet Menchú is inviting us to grasp it. She offers ancestral knowledge to us freely; asking nothing of us but to listen and hoping we will rejoice at the gift. Rigoberta’s voice and love of the people and the land she has inherited stewardship over is cristal clear and deeply heartbreaking and incredibly powerful. Menchú is able to teach us so much in just one book. I honestly do feel like reading this book was an enormous inflection point in understanding my own relationship to this land. Which is amazing to say of a single book. This is a vitally important story. Don’t pass it by.

I read this book years ago and re-read it again recently. It is still one of my favorite books. Rigoberta Menchu suffered unbelievable atrocities and incredible losses and still lived to tell her courageous story through an interpreter. I think the book is phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone with a heart. It helps explain a lot about the Guatamalen people and their strife. It also is a timely book since the illegal immigration debate rages on in this country on a daily basis. It paints a vivid picture of the suffering of indigenous peoples and helps us to relate to their need to escape their countries in search of a better life. I dont know what David Stoll had to gain by writing a book that contradicted Menchu's powerful account. She states at the beginning of her book that her perspective is hers alone and that her memories may have been clouded by the trauma. It makes me crazy when people pick apart one tiny aspect of a book and then, throw the entire thing out as a sham. The same thing happened with the James Frey book, A million little pieces. People tended to ignore the overall strengths of the book and his basic message of surviving drug addiction over a few little insignificant details. This book is the same situation. The overall message and story of rigoberta menchu is so powerful and moving, it must be read, even if there is a fact or two that someone wants to contradict.

I read this book shortly before visiting Guatemala, and I have to say it made my travel experience alot richer. I felt more sensitized to the currents of racism and political struggle still present in the country, as well as to the pain of a people recovering from a horror in the not so distant past. Nearly every Guatemalan that I met had some powerful story of the genocide, and this book gave me a good background on the facts and politics behind the peasant struggle. Though it has been criticized as being imbellished and realistically inaccurate, I think that it can still be used as a tool to learn about the native Quiche culture in past and present times. Their spiritual and political beliefs and their connections to the natural world are interwoven throughout the memoir. And most importantly, the horror of a major Latin American genocide that still scars the memories of peasants in the region today. Rigoberta was very matter of fact in sharing information about the torture and killing of her people in gruesome detail... so detailed that it was difficult to read at times, but nevertheless, essential in understanding the extent of the what happened to her people. Whether you read this book as fact or historical fiction, I think it is a good read for anyone interested in Latin American history, politcal science, peasant cultures, or human rights. It is a story that will stick in your mind... and your heart.

It is incredible that such human suffering went on, and in many ways is still going on, just a couple of hours (by pane) away from where I live. Rigoberta Menchu's book, written as dictated by her, is sad and tells of horrible situations. Guatemala is a beautiful country, the indigenous sill dress in their local garb, each unique to a particular village. Guatemala has been referred to as the most exotic country in the Western hemisphere. A good friend of mine, a Guatemala Indian, told me about the efforts of the Indians to get help from the United States. They sought out various Native American tribes in the U.S., that to them was seeking help from America. From what he told, it never occured to the elders of the Guatemalan groups to approach anyone other than Native Americans. And they did not receive help, because help was not available. But had they approached the U.S. government, they most likely wouldn't have been helped either. I have been in Guatemala so many times, I started to call it my second home. There is still a lot of oppression, and the indigenous still feel fearful of the police and the military. I have not been there in a couple of years and am yearning to return. The last time, the police/military made great efforts to change their image. Instead of stopping trucks and harrassing the passengers, they handed out white carnations! Menchu does not deal with the greatest problem that is keeping the indigenous in danger, that of language barrier. The Guatemala Indians speak over 20 local languages. The languages are so totally different, that communication is impossible. Though some books are written in the local languages, they cannot be read by the indigenous because they are illiterate. Division is a "great" tool to keep populations from binding together to fight a common evil. Spanish is the country's political language, but over 80% of the indigenous do not speak Spanish. I have traveled into the villages, into the hills and mountains where customs as ancient as the peoples themselves still reign. All of them have experienced evil. Their story did not end with Menchu's book. It continues, and who knows how much longer it will continue.

(This is both a review and a response to Michael J. Mazza's book review located above).I think the above Mazza review is pretty smart and well articulated and would like to make one further point. Rigoberta is Quiche Mayan which means part of what others see as inconsistency is just her faith in an old but thriving religion that others know little about. The Maya are a highly spiritual people. They behave in a way that even after living in Chiapas and Guatemala (both Mayan areas) for two years I cannot truly understand or anticipate. So when you say that she mixes fiction and reality to arrive at an even greater truth I think you're failing to realize the depths of her commitment to the spirit. She wouldn't say that any of the things you term "fictions?are fictions at all. Here's an example: almost all Quiche women wear huipils ?a traditional dress. To the non-Indian eye this looks like it is decorated with geometric patterns. To the Mayan eye they see the history of the world. This mindset is real. The history of the world is a cosmic history. I see the problem with readings of "I, Rigoberta Menchu" an unfortunate and underestimated cultural misunderstanding. The term itself makes me quiver because of its recent overuse and thus lack of meaning. But I think the mindset of the average Mayan and the average American are virtually irreconcilable. This difference, I suggest, is part of the cause for gross misunderstanding the CIA had of the Mayan Indians. With all this talk we fail to keep in mind that the violence was real, there was a CIA-coup that installed a dictator. Regardless of what you think about her integrity, this book is an essential read. It's a shame that such an vital tale has been hindered by the political talk around it. Politics, namely the CIA in the 50s, caused this problem in the first place. See How Holocausts Happen or Bitter Fruit for more information on this. The Maya do not get the exposure or credit they deserve. The Maya give civilization many things that we take for granted including chocolate and the tomato. So let's open our ears a bit and pay attention to the way other people think before we judge them. With a little more sensitivity the world might be a bit more peaceful.

Many of those who criticize Ms. Menchu's work subscribe to the fallacy that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" is an autobiography. After David Stoll published "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans," Ms. Menchu responded, "'Yo, Rigoberta Menchu' no fue una autobiografia, sino un testimonio." ("'I, Rigoberta Menchu was not an autobiography, but rather a testimony.") Marc Zimmerman, an expert on Guatemalan resistance literature, has stated that testimonial literature implicitly contains the possibility of "other voices." In essence, Ms. Menchu aimed to speak for her community rather than herself. The idea of the collective voice is a well-known characteristic of Mayan culture. There is also a level of common sense that eludes many of Ms. Menchu's critics. Assuming that the book is an autobiography, does it really matter that one of Ms. Menchu's brothers was actually shot by the army instead of burnt alive. This hairsplitting does not conceal the fact that the Guatemalan military committed such atrocities in the death of over 200,000 Guatemalans and the destruction of over 400 villages. "I, Rigoberta Menchu" played a pivotal role in bringing international attention to the plight of Guatemala, which, as Stoll himself acknowledges, few other people could have done. The real question raised by Stoll's book is not who died where and how, but does Rigoberta Menchu truly represent "all poor Guatemalans." To understand Guatemalan history in the early 1980s, I recommend Jennifer Schirmer's "The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy" and Stoll's more persuasive work, "Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala." "I, Rigoberta Menchu" has its faults but it is a superb introduction to the debate over recent Guatemalan history.