Rigoberta Menchu Essay, Research Paper

An Indian Woman In Guatemala: Without A Trace Of Bitterness In Her Voice

Stacye Rothbard

Transcultural perspectives

November 11, 1996

Guatemala is the land of Eternal Springs and the home of the richly cultured

and

historic Mayan people. It it also the country of Rigoberta Menchu, an

illeterite farm worker, turned voice of oppressed people everywhere.

Guatemala

also has the sad distinction of being home to Latin America’s oldest civil

war.

"For more than three decades, left-wing guerrillas have fought a series

of

rightist governments in Guatemala. The war has killed an estimated 140,000 in

the country, which has 11 million people." (N.Y. Times June 14, 1996 pA4

col 2)

This is a story of a people in crisis, and one woman’s struggle to use truth,

as

a means of setting her people free.

The majority of the population are Indians, and much of the struggles arise

out

of the ashes of the past. Spain conquered Guatemala in 1524, which was the

start of the oppression of the native people of Guatemala. Since this time

the

native people have been ruled by the Spanish speaking minority, the Ladinos,

many of which are descended from the Spanish colonists.

Beginning in 1954, when Guatemala’s elected government was overthrown by the

army, the military began a brutal war against the Indian people. This type of

torture and oppression continued, and during the 1970’s the repression was

especially harsh; during this time more and more Indians began to resist. It

was during this time that Rigoberta Menchu’s family became involved in the

resistance.

The situation in Guatemala is similar to South Africa, where the black

majority

are ruled with absolute power by the white minority. Like South Africa, the

Indians in Guatemala are lacking in even the most basic of human rights.

"Indeed the so-called forest Indians are being systematically

exterminated in

the name of progress. But unlike the Indian rebels of the past, who wanted to

go back to pre-Columbian times, Rigoberta Menchu is not fighting in the name

of

an idealized or mythical past." (Menchu xiii) Rigoberta is working

toward

drawing attention to the plight of native people around the globe.

Once an illiterate farm worker, she has taught herself to read and write

Spanish,

the language of her oppressor, as a means of relating her story to the world.

She tells the story of her life with honesty and integrity in hopes of

impressing upon the world the indignation of the oppressed. In addition to

the

Spanish language, Rigoberta borrows such things as the bible and trade union

organization in order to use them against their original owners. There is

nothing like the bible in her culture. She says, "The Bible is written,

and

that gives us one more weapon." ( Menchu xviii ) Her people need to base

their

actions on the laws that come down from the past, on prophecy.

Her own history and the history of her family is told with great detail in

the

book I, Rigoberta Menchu. Not only does one learn about the culture of her

people and about the community in which she lives, but an understanding is

gained as to impetus to react against ones oppressor. Born the sixth child to

an already impoverished but well respected family, Rigoberta remembers

growing

up in the mountains on land that no one else wanted, spending months at a

time

going with her family to work on the fincas (plantations).

A lorry owned by the finca would come to their village, and the workers,

along

with their children and animals, would ride together, in filthy and

overcrowded

conditions. Each lorry would hold approximately forty people, and the trip to

the finca took two nights and one day, with no stops allowed for the

bathroom,

it is easy to imagine the unsanitary condition that resulted. Each worker

would

take with them a cup and a plate and a bottle for water when they worked in

the

fields. The youngest of the children that were not yet able to work had no

need

for their own cup and plate since, if they did not work, they would not be

fed

by the finca. These children’s mothers would share with them their own ration

of tortilla and beans, though many of the children were severely

malnourished,

and two of Rigoberta’s own brothers died while on the finca.

At the tender age of eight Rigoberta was earning money to help her family,

and

as proof of her own personal fortitude, by age ten she was picking the quotas

of

an adult and was paid as such. Her first experience in the city was at twelve

years old in the capital of Guatemala where she worked as a maid. She retells

the story of how when she met the lady of the house, she was told that she

needed new clothes, since hers were so worn and dirty from working on the

finca,

and how she was given a salary advance of two months pay which was to be used

for the new clothes.

Remembering back, Rigoberta describes how she was treated, "The mistress

used to

watch me all the time and was very nasty to me. She treated me like… I

don’t

know what… not like a dog because she treated the dog well. She used to hug

the dog." (Menchu 94) The first night she recalls being given her dinner

the

same time that the dog had been fed, she was given a hard tortilla and some

beans, while the dog was given "bits of meat, rice, things that the

family ate."

(Menchu 92) It hurt her to see that in the eyes of this family she was lower

than a dog. She left her job when one of her brothers came to tell her that

her

father was in prison.

This was the beginning of her father’s involvement with the unions, and the

beginning of the awakening for her family, but also, the beginning of their

troubles with the government. Three months after getting out of prison, her

father was "tortured and abandoned-They had torn off the hair on his

head on one

side. His skin was cut all over and they’d broken so many of his bones that

he

couldn’t walk, lift himself or move a single finger." (Menchu 112)

When her father was arrested the second time, he was considered a political

prisoner. This prompted

Rigoberta to begin to learn to speak Spanish as a means of helping her

father.

After spending fifteen days in prison and meeting a man who was being held

for

helping the peasants, her father found his calling and continued to fight

against the government. He had to leave his family in order to protect them

and as of 1977 went into hiding.

The village began to study the bible as text to educate the people.

"Many

relationships in the bible are like those we have with our ancestors, our

ancestors whose lives were very much like our own." (Menchu 131) They

learned

about revenge and fashioned weapons based on the descriptions in the bible.

There were many attacks on the village and many of her friends and family

members were killed

In September 1979, when she was 19, her younger brother was kidnapped by the

Guatemalan army and accused of trying to help the peasants win the right to

own

land. They cut off his finger-nails, then his fingers, then the skin on his

face, then the soles of his feet. He was then marched to the village square

where, in front of his family, he was doused with gasoline and set aflame.

A few months later her father was also burned to death. Several weeks after

that the army arrested, tortured, and killed her mother, then left her body

hanging from a tree to be eaten by dogs.

Menchu fled to Mexico, but continued her struggle to help her people. as a

result of her work on the rights of indigenous people around the world, she

was

awarded the honor of receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992. She still

remains

a controversial figure in Guatemala, where government officials criticized

her

selection for the prize. She has been accused of supporting the country’s

leftist actions and harming Guatemala’s image abroad.

In awarding the prize, the Nobel committee wanted to draw attention to the

plight of Guatemala’s Indians in the hope that it would lead to improved

conditions. Recently, Guatemalans have found cause for that hope, as a peace

accord is due to be signed in January 1997, ending the fighting between the

rebels and the government. In addition, a truth commission has been formed to

help families of disappeared members find answers relating to their deaths,

by

uncovering the country’s many unmarked mass graves. Rigoberta Menchu

continues

to live in exile under death threghts upon her return to Guatemala. She is

well

adapted to the life which has been handed down to her, by generations of poor

and oppressed Indians. Yet when she speaks, she speaks of her beautiful

culture,

and of the many joys that her family had over the years, all without a trace

of

bitterness in her voice.

Menchu, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman In Guatemala. London:

Verso, 1984.

"Guatemalans Take New Step Toward Peace." The New York Times 14

June 1996,

pA4 col 2