I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

Rigoberta Menchu, in I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, tells the story of her life in poverty and powerlessness and her gradual awakening to the necessity of social and political activism to fight the oppressive forces in her native land. The story of the evolution of her leadership ability, motivation and beliefs is told through the medium of interviews conducted by anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. Burgos-Debray argues that the book tells the life of not only one twenty-three-year-old woman, but also the society and culture of which her life is an integral part:

Her life story is an account of contemporary history rather than of Guatemala itself. It is in that sense that it is exemplary: she speaks for all the Indians of the American continent (Burgos-Debray xi).

Burgos-Debray refers not only to the suffering Menchu endured as a part of an exploited and abused people in Guatemala and on the continent, but also to her role as an individual who overcame that suffering and took action to fight back against the forces of oppression.

Menchu as an Indian in Guatemala fashioned a life from the land, from close relationships with her people and their culture, from religion (both her native religion and the Bible), and, finally, from the social and political activism which she participated in to try to liberate herself and her people. That activism eventually led to her exile and an international reputation as a symbol of resistance against oppression

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is deepened by the relationship of the child to the land and to nature (Burgos-Debray 7). A deep respect and love for her culture, for her people, for the land and for nature was instilled into Menchu at an early age. The people's religion is tied to nature through such aspects as the nahual (Burgos-Debray 18). In other words, religion to Menchu was not a separate aspect of life, any more than culture or economy or nature was something separate. When she later studied the Bible, she drew from its stories the same sense of connection with culture and ancestors that marked her own Indian culture (Burgos-Debray 131). These factors played a central role in her development as a committed leader of her people in Guatemala and later as an exile. She developed a sense of duty not only to the living but to those who had suffered and died: This is the main purpose of our elected leader--to embody all the values handed down from our ancestors. . . . Above all, he has a commitment to the whole community. Everything that is done today, is done in memory of those who have passed on (Burgos-Debray 17). The culture of Menchu, then, was a deeply integrated one in which all parts were connected, and this fact played a role in the sense of

Category: Foreign - I