The Book “An Indian Woman in Guatemala” by Rigoberta Menchu Essay (Book Review)

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Updated: Jan 10th, 2024

The book is the inspirational voice of a courageous Indian woman in Guatemala, who is hopeful for a better future that will enable her people and the local Guatemalan people to live a life free of oppression and violence. It is of the oral autobiographical genre, first narrated to Elisabeth Burgos-Debray in an interview and later published and translated into the book, “1, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian woman in Guatemala” in 1984. Menchu and her community lived in Guatemala as peasants, and worked for the Ladinos, Spanish Guatemalans against the Mayans that were Guatemalans of the Indian descent. Her community faced starvation and malnutrition. As she grew older, she understood the discrimination that prevailed between her community and the Ladinos, yet the wealthy elite running the country were the reason for the deplorable state in Guatemala.

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This book is Rigoberta’s memoir and talks about the experiences of a majority of the Indian communities living in Latin America at the time of the Civil War through the lenses of Rigoberta Menchu (Menchu, 2010). In this book, Rigoberta highlights her agony, which she went through, in her early life, when some of her family members were killed by the military force of Guatemala. As one of the survivors in her family, she worked her way out in life by learning Spanish and becoming a catechist. This was been the case for her fellow people, surviving amidst an armed antagonistic force bent on eradicating Menchu’s community (Menchu, 2010).

The book “An Indian Woman in Guatemala” shows the values and societal ideas of her community. She vividly explains the rituals, traditions and customs recorded in her memory to show the cultural system of her people. Despite the fact that Menchu’s culture is shown to be one that rich and admirable, the Ladinos are shown to have no regard for this Indian culture. The result is a struggle that sees many Indians killed, including her family. Menchu is sent to exile and during this time, she is able to make known the sufferings of the Guatemalan people to the rest of the world.

Pros and Cons of the Book

This is a very inspirational book, which other countries with similar shortcomings to those of Guatemalan people should use to gain insight and improve their situation. This book is a true representation of a patriotic leader, someone who is ready and willing to die to save his or her community. The plight of the Mayan people is being understood through Menchu’s voice as she gives vivid accounts of maltreatment of her people by the dictatorial Ladino army. It has used simple and reader friendly scenarios to help understand the experiences of the Guatemalan local people. The book is an archive for the Mayan culture since it is embedded within the Mayan culture and societal ideas.

This book is more of a personal account, and Menchu fails to give details of the accounts resulting to the segregation between her community and the Ladinos. The book has been written on the basis of memory, yet the accuracy of one’s mind is not guaranteed and there is a tendency to exaggerate and give subjective views that discredits that side which is not likeable. The book is filled with very sad encounters that as a reader, makes me wonder about the impartial search for justice by Menchu, or is it that she is vengeful at heart.

The book seems to be a combination of parts and does fails to follow a detailed and organized chronological order of events that were happening in Guatemala. This is the reason why Stoll (2007) criticizes Menchu’s book. It is challenging for the reader to relate the events by Menchu and her community to the rest of the country. It is a very breathtaking book to read as one contemplates the hardships that Menchu has been through and the sacrifices she has had to make but, she fails to put her experiences in the context of the entire Guatemalan society. As a reader, I think that the book uses Menchu’s experiences to understand the agony of Guatemalan people.

Validity in Measure

The book has faced criticism from scholars such as David Stoll, who think that Menchu’s book is not a valid representation of the Latin American Culture and Society. Despite some detectable biasness, I am of the opinion that the book is a valid representation of Latin American Culture. In comparison to Skidmore, Smith & Green’s book (2013), the events that took place in Guatemala during the period that Menchu describes in her book are similar to the events in this book. It is important to read both books because, it is after reading Skidmore, Smith & Green’s book that the reader is able to put the pieces together in Menchu’s testimony.

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Menchu’s book is a symbol of conflict between the haves and the have-nots, in this case the peasants and the elites. Other than Menchu’s community, the other Mayan cultures faced similar repression and violence from the wealthy elite Ladinos that seized power with help from the U.S. This is a true and valid representation of Guatemalan society before the peace initiative, aimed at bringing about some hope for change characterized by unity and agreement between the government and guerrilla forces. Unfortunately, this was not realized and military impunity continued as more civilians were progressively murdered. Just like in Menchu’s narrative, Skidmore, Smith and Green have emphasized similar atrocities in Guatemala against the local civilians by the wealthy elite army.

References

Menchu, R. (2010). I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. 2nd ed. London: Verso.

Skidmore, T., Smith, P., & Green, J. (2013). Modern Latin America. 8th ed. New York: Oxford University Press.

Stoll, D. (2007). Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Expanded ed. Boulder: Westview Press.

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IvyPanda. 2024. "The Book “An Indian Woman in Guatemala” by Rigoberta Menchu." January 10, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-book-an-indian-woman-in-guatemala-by-rigoberta-menchu/.

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IvyPanda. "The Book “An Indian Woman in Guatemala” by Rigoberta Menchu." January 10, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-book-an-indian-woman-in-guatemala-by-rigoberta-menchu/.

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