Luciani Nelson

A Response to:

I, Regoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

            The biography is organized by the writer thematically with some of the randomness of memory.  In this story the central themes are family, community, and ecology in the life of the natives.  These themes are linked together as a model of the life course for natives in Guatemala.  The Guatemalans suffer great injustices because of colonialism and the current social structure.  The ethnographer wants the reader to be able to do a self-investigation through common human experience, which links all mankind and womankind. Life on the Fincas was harsh, and people lived in crowded homes made from the poles of sugar cane with leaves on the roof.  Children had to start working at an early age or else they were not fed.  Rigoberta started working on the plantation, one as a result of poisoning from pesticides sprayed on coffee plants and another from malnutrition.  Natives in Guatemala had no rights of citizenship, which were restricted to people of Spanish descent and were, therefore, vulnerable to abuses by those in power.  The ecology of life for the natives highly depended of the ladinos and was essentially ones socioeconomic status will depict the life one leads.  The relationship between the los indios and ladinos is parasitic because only the ladinos benefit from the work the los indios put into the crops.  Indians in Guatimala need to preserve their culture unaltered because they must not depart form the ways of their ancestors.  This is a form of passive resistance but they learn that they must learn Spanish to be able to survive and not be exploited by the ladinos.  Culture does not exist independently of the people that live and make it, but survives through its preservation.  Rigoberta had to go through racial oppression and violence, all because she was a native, a minority, someone who wasn't as"good" as the ladinos.  In the beginning the feeling of inferiority had negative effects on her self-image but as she got older those feelings turned to hatred.  Rigoberta used the experiences in her life to transform from a victim to a dynamic human rights leader.  One way she accomplished that task was by using the Catholic church as a means of organization and the fact that the church backed the natives it became easier for her family to get involved with the Peasants Union.  The Indian cultural norms (practices) that got integrated with the practices of the Catholic Church also provided a source of hope for the people.  This hope enabled them to form the neighborhood watch when the soldiers tried to have the village divided on smaller plots of land to grow their crops.  It was so sad how she explains the torture procedures of her brother, and that her mother heart after that day began to fill with hatred.  There is also a shift in the feelings toward the soldiers because after going to court to fight for their land they learned that they were being tricked by the interpreter.  When the military-led government and the wealthy plantation owners started taking Indian-occupied lands by force, Rigoberta's father became a leader in the peasant movement opposing this action.  He began a series of petitions and then, protests, to secure these lands for the indigenous people who had been living on them until the present.  He was arrested and imprisoned many times for his activities.  The death of her brother seemed to have marked the beginning of a local extinction of one family.  Before leaving her village sexual assault of women and the elderly becomes a method for controlling the people of her community.  In reading Rigoberta's story the reader becomes more socially aware of politics and human rights and I feel that anyone wanting to work in the Peace Crops or any mission field job should read this eye opening book.

             This paper was written as a daily response to the readings in class, Intersections: Biography and History offered summer 2002.  Luciani is an upper-class biology major with a sociology minor.