I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala

by MENCHU,RIGOBERTA

• ISBN13: 9780860917885
• ISBN10: 0860917886
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 1985-07-17
• Publisher: Random House

Summary

Her story reflects the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America today. Rigoberta 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 catechist work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. The anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, herself a Latin American woman, conducted a series of interviews with Rigoberta Menchu. The result is a book unique in contemporary literature which records the detail of everyday Indian life. Rigoberta's gift for striking expression vividly conveys both the religious and superstitious 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.

Table of Contents

Translator's note	viii	(3)
Introduction	xi
Chapter I The Family	1	(6)
Chapter II Birth Ceremonies	7	(11)
Chapter III The Nahual	18	(3)
Chapter IV First visit to the finca. Life in the finca	21	(7)
Chapter V First visit to Guatemala City	28	(5)
Chapter VI An eight-year-old agricultural worker	33	(5)
Chapter VII Death of her little brother in the finca. Difficulty of communicating with other Indians	38	(5)
Chapter VIII Life in the Altiplano. Rigoberta's tenth birthday	43	(7)
Chapter IX Ceremonies for sowing time and harvest. Relationship with the earth	50	(6)
Chapter X The natural world. The earth, mother of man	56	(3)
Chapter XI Marriage ceremonies	59	(20)
Chapter XII Life in the community	79	(8)
Chapter XIII Death of her friend by poisoning	87	(4)
Chapter XIV A maid in the capital	91	(11)
Chapter XV Conflict with the landowners and the creation of the CUC	102	(15)
Chapter XVI Period of reflection on the road to follow	117	(5)
Chapter XVII Self-defence in the village	122	(9)
Chapter XVIII The Bible and self-defence: the examples of Judith, Moses and David	131	(10)
Chapter XIX Attack on the village by the army	141	(9)
Chapter XX The death of Dona Petrona Chona	150	(3)
Chapter XXI Farewell to the community: Rigoberta decides to learn Spanish	153	(4)
Chapter XXII The CUC comes out into the open	157	(6)
Chapter XXIII Political activity in other communities. Contacts with ladinos	163	(9)
Chapter XXIV The torture and death of her little brother, burnt alive in front of members of his family and the community	172	(11)
Chapter XXV Rigoberta's father dies in the occupation of the Spanish embassy. Peasants march to the capital	183	(5)
Chapter XXVI Rigoberta talks about her father	188	(7)
Chapter XXVII Kidnapping and death of Rigoberta's mother	195	(6)
Chapter XXVIII Death	201	(3)
Chapter XXIX Fiestas and Indian queens	204	(6)
Chapter XXX Lessons taught her by her mother: Indian women and ladino women	210	(10)
Chapter XXXI Women and political commitment. Rigoberta renounces marriage and motherhood	220	(7)
Chapter XXXII Strike of agricultural workers and the First of May in the capital	227	(10)
Chapter XXXIII In hiding in the capital. Hunted by the army	237	(5)
Chapter XXXIV Exile	242	(6)
Glossary	248	(4)
Bibliography	252