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. She later returned to Guatemala to continue the struggle against oppression.
Menchu herself writes on the first page of the book proper that "My personal experience is the reality of a whole people" (Burgos-Debray 1). Of course, what separates Menchu from most of the rest of her people is that she did evolve into a national and international leader of the struggle against oppressive government. Her motivation is the same that would lead any member of an...