n Words Given section, Davi has his own message towards the Bruce Albert, reasoning why he allowed this book to be written. “This is why I would like them to be able to hear my words through the drawings you made. I would like these words to penetrate their minds”. Davi constantly criticizes “white people” for how they treated the Yanomami people, how they impacted their lives and think of them with prejudices. He also compares how the Yanomami did not need to write down their stories and history as everything was told by oral tradition. “As for the white people, they constantly need to draw their words. This is also something that Omama did not teach them!” He even argues that just because they don’t have this type of method of teaching and communication, it does not make them any less intelligent. It is very clear that they use their voice a main may of communicating and sharing information with another rather then writing or “drawing” it down. By writing this book, Davi hopes to reach an even greater audience. This sort of reminds me about how Guoma Poma decided to learn Spanish and write a letter so that he could be “heard” by the king.

In the second half of the book Marcos changes his narrative to storytelling, and we gain a better image of Marcos personality. We see that Marcos is very aware of who he is and what is duty is in his group. His stories makes him become more “human” and less of a mysterious person in a mask.

I found it funny to see that he recognizes that the children even see him as a man with a big nose “I pretend to be offended because Heriberto argues that my nose is just like the duck’s bill.” A little after this part of the text he tells us how the children whine for candy and he becomes overwhelmed. The children must see him as a friendly person they can approach and someone who is calm. He care for the children, just as how he was concerned about getting one of the little girls a birthday gift, and even writes out stories to the children. He is not just someone with a voice who takes action, but an individual who cares for those around him and takes his responsibility seriously.

I think it was rather interesting that he chose to create a beetle as one of his main characters when telling stories to the children. Durito serves the purpose to keep the children engaged because it is not human, but also a funny characters because he is so small. In most of the stories Durito speaks with Marcos and they exchange stories. These stories are meant to have a greater meaning and sometimes the moral of the story is directly stated at the end. The Story of the Tiny Mouse and the Tiny Cat was a little strange. I didn’t quite understand what the point of the story was, perhaps missed opportunity? Taking out the machine gun to kill the tiny cat was rather drastic, for it to only to see all his effort was wasted with the food all spoiled. Even the story of  The Tale of the Lime with an Identity Crisis took a minute for me to understand how exactly the moral fit the story that what told. In most of his stories they take on a different perspective of thinking and analysis. At the end of The Story ofthe Magic Chocolate Bunnies (Neoliberalism, a Rabbit’s Libido, and the Children) he even asks questions that he wants the reader the answer, with the last questions directed at women. These questions all relate back to what kind of world do they want to create, starting with what kind of children they hope to raise.

The second half of the book focused on more Rigoberta’s experiences in her more adult stages in her life, focusing on political issues and social values in her community. The scenes were described in great detail, describing the horrific death and torture that the people around her had experienced before their deaths.

In last week’s lecture we discussed a little about the truth in Rigoberta’s recalled events, in relation to if the author Burgos has altered it a little through translation or if Rigoberta herself was saying things that might now have been true. Memory distortion is common after an individual experiences a traumatic event. The memory associated with the traumatic event can be altered as the mind tries to make sense of the what had happened. In this sense not everything Rigoberta had recalled in the events of her brothers and mothers death may have been true. One can argue that she was older when these events happened  so she could retain description and understanding, and there is a sense of alarm in the tone that Burgos wrote to show us how she truly felt. This particular passage on page 207 caught my attention. It is the first time I’ve noticed a change in the writing style, with the use of a hyphen to separate the words as if Ribogerta was stuttering, and the additional periods as a little break in her storytelling. “No-one could leave the meeting. Everyone was weeping. I…I don’t know, every time I tell this story, I can’t hold back my tears, for me it’s a reality I can’t forget, even though it’s not easy to tell of it.”

It is not easy to lie about a loved ones death, facts might be changed but the emotions are felt. From the novel Rigoberta appears to be someone who would not disgrace her family, thus lying about their death would be a sin. Her telling of the traumatic event may not be a 100% reliable source of what happened, but her emotions and feelings towards the events are very “real”. I will not directly say they are real because the text was written by Burgos who may have shifted the tone purposely because these are very sad events that she experienced. Additionally, the detail that Menchú tells also indicates that what she was seeing was the most traumatic for her and what she could only focus on when thinking and telling Burgos about their deaths. Of course there is the argument that it was focused on to emphasize the brutality of the situation (purposely), but who knows, maybe this is really how Menchú recalls her past experiences.