Let Me Speak

This book is a great read for leisure as well as academic purpose. If reading for leisure, the writing is very smooth and chapters flow into one another, it also teaches you a little of Bolivian history and politics without feeling like you're studying. For academic purposes it is a very useful example of complicities between various groups and how they can undermine people's movements, but it is also a good example of how one can get beyond complicities to help erradicate injustice. It is not naive, and is a very multifaceted analysis of the human condition. If Domitila would write this again I would like to see a fuller discussion of the achievement of trust between different groups that may not have been friendly at times, but that might make it more academic and less interesting for an evening, weekend or vacation read.

As a woman of color, late to academia I found this book validating, illuminating and refreshing. Domatila's life and words clearly illustrated what Paulo Freire was trying to convey in his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." In simple language Domatila and Moema Viezzer explained the highly complex nature of the work of organizing and humanizing both the oppressed and oppressing populations of the world. It's high time those of us who live in comfort and peace recognize that we share responsibility, even if only through non-action, for the dehuminization of working-class people througout the world. Domitila calls for greater communication and understanding among all nations and social classes so that workers in mines, farms, rug factories etc., will no longer find themselves isolated and vulnerable to unscrupulous business interests and repressive governments.

I recently read this book for a gender and economics class and I thought it was one of the best accounts of the atrocities happening to others in the world. Domitilla presents a harrowing and poignant picture of life in Bolivia that makes me wonder what else the united states and other countries are doing to developing countries that would make my stomach turn. I would guess it is a lot. I would also recommend "I Rigoberta Menchu" to anyone who also enjoyed "Let Me Speak." It too was an amazingly brave and depressing story that made me aware of the struggles others in the world face.