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.