I, Rigoberta Menchu
An Indian Women in Guatemala
Edited by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray
Translated by Ann Wright
"This is my testimony. I didn't learn it from a book and I didn't learn it
alone... My personal experience is the reality of a whole people." Born in
the mountains of Guatemala into the Quiche, one of twenty-three mestizo
groups, Rigoberta Menchu tells her story. The Quiche people's spirituality,
much of which must not be told to outsiders, affirms community
responsibility for village children and intensely personal relationships
with the land and the natural world. The celebration of her ancient culture
is all that strengthens in the face of a brutally repressed and
poverty-stricken existence. Two of her brothers die as infants from
malnutrition. When the Quiche begin their fight to keep the government and
big-business people from stealing any more of their land, her family is
forced to watch her youngest brother be tortured and burned alive; later her
mother is tortured to death, and her father murdered. Obligated by
circumstance and unquestionable responsibility to her people, Rigoberta
Menchu assumes the role of organizer/leader. These interviews - conducted in
Spanish, a language she has spoken for only three years - center on her role
as a Quiche woman. Her politics are deeply personal: "They've killed the
people dearest to me... Therefore, my commitment to our struggle knows no
boundaries nor limits." Despite the layered nature of her written story -
from oral history to transcriber to translator - Rigoberta Menchu's
unadorned and selfless words ring like a clear and beautiful bell sounding
both wonder and warning. - review by Jesse Larsen
Verso, New York, copyright 1974, 10th printing 1991, 252 pages, 6" x 9",
trade paperback.
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