Although the second half of this work was a lot harder for me to get through, the resilience of Rigoberta and her community is very powerful. Much like the first half, Rigoberta really drives home the importance of community in standing up to colonial power. Beyond this, though, I really enjoyed the way Rigoberta refused to accept the imposition of Indigeneity as a historical identity. The fight she and her fellow compañera/os undertake to ensure Indigenous futurity, often at the cost of their lives, reveals a community fully invested in undoing the harms of an extractivist capitalist world.

I was particularly struck by the part of the story where Rigoberta talks about her role in the CUC as an organizer. First, she identifies the role of the leader isn’t to sit back and tell others what to do, rather to include themselves in the struggle. Then, she talks about how she is essentially training people to replace her, a tacit acknowledgment that she has accepted the likelihood of her own death. Even as her family is progressively brutalized and murdered by the repressive Guatemalan regime, her dedication to the cause seems to only wane temporarily. Rigoberta’s dedication to continue the fight of her ancestors (which her father, mother, and brother all died for) signals another moment of Indigenous futurity.

Also. the talk of Gender roles at the end of the work was really interesting. The talk between Rigoberta and her mother, where she talks about how, although not formally educated, her mother identifies the harm machismo enacts on both men and women. This conversation was intriguing to read, because it approaches patriarchal power structures from a distinctly non-European lens. Addressing the importance of communication and inclusion in overcoming the barriers these power structures have created for men and women alike. I especially liked when Rigoberta’s mom talks about her relationship with her father, where each is able to endure and overcome things the other might not be able to. At the same time, Rigoberta makes note of the difficulty of deconstructing patriarchal power structures, and how it may never be possible to erase them. However, her refusal to inhabit the rigid gender role assigned to women in Guatemalan society reminds us, as the audience, of Rigoberta’s refusal to take shit from anybody.

Finally, the section where Rigoberta goes into self-imposed exile in Mexico is really weird. Not particularly for the exile itself but because of what she says about the Europeans who had offered to help her. Obviously, we can’t know, but I wonder how much of this is suggested or edited to make Elisabeth Burgos look good. While she is never explicitly mentioned, I sort of got a feeling she was being implied in the gracious benefactors. A way to reinsert herself into the narrative right at the end.