ndians are divided into 22 different ethnic groups may have contributed to their largely powerless position in their society. It is this which Rigoberta wishes to change, and Burgos-Debray makes it clear that this woman is not fighting for a mythical Indian past but is instead seeking to play a part in the shaping of contemporary history. The world into which this child was born is a world where the people live in a subsistence economy, working the land for others and moving from place to place following the work through the seasons. Her world has also been a world at war, with Guatemala in the grips of a civil war that has lasted more than 30 years. This war affected Rigoberta directly as her father, mother, and younger brother were tortured and killed by the Guatemalan security forces that have been persecuting the peasantry. Rigoberta herself might be another victim had she not escaped to Mexico, but she has continued the struggle against the injustice imposed on her people not only in Guatemala but throughout Latin America. Menchu learned much from fellow exiles who had escaped from the security forces in Guatemala and who told her their stories, and from this she gained considerable insight and encouragement to persist in trying to restore to the Indian people their basic rights to land, health, political participation, and education.
The Quiché people work on the coffee plantations in Guatemala. Rigoberta's father was a community leader among these people in the community of Chimel where Rigoberta and her eight brothers and sisters were born. This is a mountainous region in northern Guatemala, and the farmers in that area subsist on beans and corn they grow on small plots of land. Part of the year the people work on the coffee plantations picking coffee beans or cotton. These plantations are located on the south coast of the country. Rigoberta started working when she was only a child:
I worked from when I was...