I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in GuatemalaA Nobel Peace Prize winner reflects on poverty, injustice, and the struggles of Mayan communities in Guatemala, offering “a fascinating and moving description of the culture of an entire people” (The Times) Now a global bestseller, the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan peasant woman, reflects on the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America. Menchú 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 catechistic work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. Menchú vividly conveys the traditional 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. |
Contents
| 1 | |
| 7 | |
The nahual | 20 |
First visit to the finca Life in the finca | 23 |
First visit to Guatemala City | 31 |
An eightyearold agricultural worker | 37 |
Death of her little brother in the finca Difficulty of communicating with other Indians | 43 |
Life in the Altzplano Rigobertas tenth birthday | 49 |
Attack on the village by the army | 166 |
The death of Dona Petrona Chona | 176 |
The CUC comes out into the open | 184 |
Political activity in other communities | 191 |
The torture and death of her little brother burnt | 201 |
Rigobertas father dies in the occupation of | 214 |
Rigoberta talks about her father | 220 |
Kidnapping and death of Rigobertas mother | 229 |
Ceremonies for sowing time and harvest Relationships with the earth | 58 |
The natural World The earth mother of man | 65 |
Marriage ceremonies | 69 |
Life in the community | 93 |
Death of her friend by poisoning | 103 |
A maid in the capital | 108 |
Conflict with the landowners and the creation | 121 |
Period of reflection on the road to follow | 138 |
Moses and David | 154 |
Death | 236 |
Women and ladino Women | 247 |
Women and political commitment Rigoberta | 259 |
Strike of agricultural Workers and the First | 267 |
In hiding in the capital Hunted by the army | 278 |
Exile | 284 |
Acknowledgements | 290 |
Further Reading | 296 |
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Common terms and phrases
Altiplano ancestors animals army asked beans began brothers and sisters can’t catechist Catholic Action ceremony Chajul child Christian clothes coffee companeros couldn’t culture didn’t know difficult dogs earth enemy everything father fields fiesta fifteen days fight fighting final finca find finished fire first five flowers friends gave girl give Guatemala guerrillas happened Indians kidnapped kill knew ladinos land landowners leaders leave live look maize man’s Men of Maize Miguel Angel Asturias mistress mother mountains nahual neighbours never night nixtamal no—one organization ourselves parents peasants people’s pick Popol Vuh priests quetzals Quiche remember Rigoberta Menchu she’d soldiers Spanish started stayed struggle suffering talk tamales tell there’s they’d things thought told took tortillas tortured town village wasn’t we’d weapons who’d woman women workers young