Customer Reviews

Let Me Speak! Testimony of Domitila, a Woman of the Bolivian Mines

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As a woman of color, late to academia I found this book validating, illuminating and refreshing. Domatila's life and words clearly illustrated what Paulo Freire was trying to convey in his book "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." In simple language Domatila and Moema Viezzer explained the highly complex nature of the work of organizing and humanizing both the oppressed and oppressing populations of the world. It's high time those of us who live in comfort and peace recognize that we share responsibility, even if only through non-action, for the dehuminization of working-class people througout the world. Domitila calls for greater communication and understanding among all nations and social classes so that workers in mines, farms, rug factories etc., will no longer find themselves isolated and vulnerable to unscrupulous business interests and repressive governments.

I recently read this book for a gender and economics class and I thought it was one of the best accounts of the atrocities happening to others in the world. Domitilla presents a harrowing and poignant picture of life in Bolivia that makes me wonder what else the united states and other countries are doing to developing countries that would make my stomach turn. I would guess it is a lot. I would also recommend "I Rigoberta Menchu" to anyone who also enjoyed "Let Me Speak." It too was an amazingly brave and depressing story that made me aware of the struggles others in the world face.

This book is a great read for leisure as well as academic purpose. If reading for leisure, the writing is very smooth and chapters flow into one another, it also teaches you a little of Bolivian history and politics without feeling like you're studying. For academic purposes it is a very useful example of complicities between various groups and how they can undermine people's movements, but it is also a good example of how one can get beyond complicities to help erradicate injustice. It is not naive, and is a very multifaceted analysis of the human condition. If Domitila would write this again I would like to see a fuller discussion of the achievement of trust between different groups that may not have been friendly at times, but that might make it more academic and less interesting for an evening, weekend or vacation read.

Reading some of the negative reviews, I almost didn't buy this book, what a loss that would have been. It's not a good book, it's a great book. The other readers missed the point entirely. She doesn't blame the U.S., she mainly blames the bureaucrats in Bolivia who sell out and line their pockets at the expense of the people. It's a powerful indictment against the injustices of her life, her people, and her unrelenting struggle which has given meaning to her life. She's a humble, courageous, extraordinary woman who was raised from the craddle with a social conscience by her equally extraordinary father. She came to terms with her mission in life and paid a brutal price because once she found her voice she wouldn't be silenced. Her account is honest, terrifying and poignant. She wrote the book long before Evo Morales took center stage but she saw the future of Bolivia in the horizon. May she and her book live forever. Beyond the Snows of the Andes

It seems that Sra. Barrios de Chungara has been reading and rehashing Capital and The Communist Manifesto. Her major weakness is the contradiction that she wants equality for everybody but only if she can dictate it. She seems to place a lot of importance on herself. She blames all of her problems and the problems of Bolivia on the United States, like many other Latin American literature books seem to do. She is a lot like Rigoberta Menchu, who I also read, and discredit and do not recommend either. These books do not offer anything new.