I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala [Paperback]

Rigoberta Menchú (Author), Elisabeth Burgos-Debray (Editor), Ann Wright (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1984 | ISBN-10: 0860917886 | ISBN-13: 978-0860917885 | Edition: First Edition

This book recounts the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchu, a young Guatemalan peasant woman.

Her story reflects the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America today. Rigoberta suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechist work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. The anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, herself a Latin American woman, conducted a series of interviews with Rigoberta Menchu. The result is a book unique in contemporary literature which records the detail of everyday Indian life. Rigoberta's gift for striking expression vividly conveys both the religious and superstitious beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"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. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. -- From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Jesse Larsen

Language Notes

Text: English, Spanish (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 252 pages
• Publisher: Verso; First Edition edition (June 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0860917886
• ISBN-13: 978-0860917885
• Product Dimensions: 6.1 x 0.6 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (60 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #180,660 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #17 in Books > History > Americas > Central America > Guatemala

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

188 of 219 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A "biomythography" that deserves attention January 4, 2001

By Michael J. Mazza HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

"I, Rigoberta Menchu" is one of those books which seems to be overshadowed by controversy. A Quiche Mayan woman of Guatemala, Rigoberta Menchu told her story orally to anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray in Paris in 1982. Burgos-Debray transcribed the story and published in Spanish in 1983; Ann Wright's English translation appeared in 1984. The book, which both gave a voice to the Native American culture of Guatemala and exposed the brutality of Guatemala's civil war, became an international sensation. Menchu received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992.

Anthropologist David Stoll later uncovered evidence of inconsistencies within Menchu's story. Conservative cultural activists interpreted Stoll's research as discrediting Menchu's story. For example, David Horowitz blasted Menchu as a "liar" and further condemned "I, Rigoberta Menchu" as "one of the greatest hoaxes of the 20th century." Many derided such attacks on Rigoberta as politically motivated and intellectually dishonest.

I think that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" has, perhaps, been misunderstood and misused by people on both sides of the left/right political divide. And so, for that matter, has the work of David Stoll. While he is sharply critical of the book in his own work, "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans," Stoll also corroborates parts of her story. In fact, at the end of his own book Stoll praises "I, Rigoberta Menchu" as a Guatemalan "national epic" (p. 283).

Because of all of the accusations and counter-accusations being thrown around by people with conflicting political and intellectual agendas, it is daunting to even approach "I, Rigoberta Menchu." Nevertheless, I agree with David Stoll that this book is an authentic national epic of Guatemala; I also believe that it is a book which deserves to be read.

I look at "I, Rigoberta Menchu" as a "biomythography." African-American author Audre Lorde used this term to describe her own autobiographical narrative, "Zami: A New Spelling of My Name." Think of a biomythography as a life story that combines fact with fictionalized, borrowed, or adapted materials in an attempt to arrive at greater truths. I don't mean to suggest that Menchu, or anyone, for that matter, should be excused for misrepresenting facts. But it seems to me that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" gives the reader clues that it is a "biomythography" from the first page of the first chapter: Rigoberta says of her story "I didn't learn it alone," and further stresses that "it's not only my life, it's also the testimony of my people."

And if you approach the book carefully, you will discover a powerful and fascinating text. It is impossible in the space of a short review to cover all of the highlights of "I, Rigoberta Menchu." But a few include her description of the interactions among the diverse ethnic groups of Guatemala, her account of Quiche Mayan religious beliefs and practices, and her descriptions of such everyday activities as making tortillas. Particularly fascinating is her account of how Guatemalan revolutionaries interpreted parts of the Bible in order to aid their struggle; at the end of Chapter XVII she describes the Bible as the "main weapon" of her comrades.

Yes, Rigoberta has a political agenda. But so did Frederick Douglass and Malcolm X; this does not diminish the value of their autobiographies as both literary texts and historical documents. My advice is to read both "I, Rigoberta Menchu" and David Stoll's biography of Menchu. Read commentaries on the controversy from all parts of the political spectrum. And read other texts about the violence in Guatemala and in other countries rocked by political strife and ethnic tension. And finally, draw your own conclusions about the book.

62 of 70 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This book is NOT an autobiography February 2, 2000

By Kurt

Format:Paperback

Many of those who criticize Ms. Menchu's work subscribe to the fallacy that "I, Rigoberta Menchu" is an autobiography. After David Stoll published "Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans," Ms. Menchu responded, "'Yo, Rigoberta Menchu' no fue una autobiografia, sino un testimonio." ("'I, Rigoberta Menchu was not an autobiography, but rather a testimony.") Marc Zimmerman, an expert on Guatemalan resistance literature, has stated that testimonial literature implicitly contains the possibility of "other voices." In essence, Ms. Menchu aimed to speak for her community rather than herself. The idea of the collective voice is a well-known characteristic of Mayan culture. There is also a level of common sense that eludes many of Ms. Menchu's critics. Assuming that the book is an autobiography, does it really matter that one of Ms. Menchu's brothers was actually shot by the army instead of burnt alive. This hairsplitting does not conceal the fact that the Guatemalan military committed such atrocities in the death of over 200,000 Guatemalans and the destruction of over 400 villages. "I, Rigoberta Menchu" played a pivotal role in bringing international attention to the plight of Guatemala, which, as Stoll himself acknowledges, few other people could have done. The real question raised by Stoll's book is not who died where and how, but does Rigoberta Menchu truly represent "all poor Guatemalans." To understand Guatemalan history in the early 1980s, I recommend Jennifer Schirmer's "The Guatemalan Military Project: A Violence Called Democracy" and Stoll's more persuasive work, "Between Two Armies in the Ixil Towns of Guatemala." "I, Rigoberta Menchu" has its faults but it is a superb introduction to the debate over recent Guatemalan history.

22 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book of survival December 29, 2006

By Candye L. Kane

Format:Paperback

I read this book years ago and re-read it again recently. It is still one of my favorite books. Rigoberta Menchu suffered unbelievable atrocities and incredible losses and still lived to tell her courageous story through an interpreter. I think the book is phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone with a heart. It helps explain a lot about the Guatamalen people and their strife. It also is a timely book since the illegal immigration debate rages on in this country on a daily basis. It paints a vivid picture of the suffering of indigenous peoples and helps us to relate to their need to escape their countries in search of a better life. I dont know what David Stoll had to gain by writing a book that contradicted Menchu's powerful account. She states at the beginning of her book that her perspective is hers alone and that her memories may have been clouded by the trauma. It makes me crazy when people pick apart one tiny aspect of a book and then, throw the entire thing out as a sham. The same thing happened with the James Frey book, A million little pieces. People tended to ignore the overall strengths of the book and his basic message of surviving drug addiction over a few little insignificant details. This book is the same situation. The overall message and story of rigoberta menchu is so powerful and moving, it must be read, even if there is a fact or two that someone wants to contradict.