In I, Rigoberta Menchu, the testimonio written by an Indigenous Guatemalan survivor of an oppressive military government has stirred a reaction the scholars community as well as given me a stronger insight into narrative writing. The chapters detail of a personal childhood and the traumatic events that plagued the local community at the time (Menchu). Visiting the “Arts of Resistance” exhibit was very engaging as I was exposed to the interconnections between a cultural resistance symbolic to Latin America and how it related to the art forms displayed in the museum (Sunnucks). The testimonio was written in a hugely personal account as the author wrote in chronological order starting with captivating descriptions of her background growing up in an impoverished community in Guatemala (Menchu). Her coming of age comes from her experiences in the CUC which was the organization that resisted against the brutality of the government and attempted to establish and protect Indigenous rights (Menchu).
The exhibit had many depictions of objects and cultural historical artifacts displaying acts of resistance against the Guatemalan government at the time, most prominently the Ayotzinapa Codex which portrayed a tragic event that happened “on September 26th of 2014” in a rural Mexican town where 43 male students disappeared. (Sunnucks, Museum of Anthropology Wall Text). The codex provided a background on the issue of colonization and how it has affected Mexico and the local forces at play. The mural projects shows resistance in a spectacular art form that everyone is able to understand and grasp. The “contemporary pictorial manuscript” is shown to “[critique] the neo-liberal policies of what is described as New Spain” (Sunnucks, Museum of Anthropology Wall Text). This text is trying to convey to the audience of the resistance movement against the “New Spain” or in other terms the autocratic colonial government in place at the time whose violent actions against the Indigenous communities have become exposed (Sunnucks). Each part of the document represents the chronological events of the resistance movement and the origins and the migrations of its people (Dr. Sunnucks, #3 El Codice de Ayotzinapa video). This manuscript correlates directly with the I, Rigoberta Menchu texts as the significant theme of the narrative is also resistance as well as feminism. The text is written by Rigoberta herself and it features her life narrative in a compelling way as she shares her struggles of a marginalized Indigenous women and has seen first hand struggles her people have to endure due to discriminatory laws and social norms (Menchu). One of the consistent patterns I have noticed in reading through her story and exploring the exhibition was the concept of collective consciousness, which is an essential theory we learned in our sociology CAP course. Rigoberta’s accounts seamlessly connected with the Ayotzinapa Codex’s theme in portraying the resistance movements against injustice and authoritarianism of the Indigenous peoples of Guatemala as well as the wider Latin America in illustrating resistance. It lets the audience digest the drawings and the art of the manuscript and visualize the massacres and oppression that have plagued these communities and the modern day consequences and trauma (Laurence).
The drawings use the objective of trying to engage the audience in order to shed light on a wider global issue which is shown through Rigoberta’s testimonio; the gender of a person places powerful limitations and boundaries for her right to thrive as Rigoberta persuasively depicts. The language barrier has caused her to be unable to achieve a successful education, but nonetheless she fought all her life to establish a foundation where women and girls of all Indigenous backgrounds can create a platform of equality and freedom despite the grim political backdrop (Menchu).
Works Cited
Sunnucks, Laura, for The Ayotzinapa Codex by Museum of Anthropology, September 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia
Sunnucks, Laura, YouTube, “#3 El Codice de Ayotzinapa“, Youtube, video posted by Kennedy Wong, 17. Sept 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daaOwjWkP-w&list=PL5a14FT4xSaqZAQXgImGwHBBA-aI6QMHI&t=0s&index=4
Laurence, Susan. “Latin American unrest reflected in Museum of Anthropology’s Arts of Resistance.” straight, May 30 2018, https://www.straight.com/arts/1082361/latin-american-unrest-reflected-museum-anthropologys-arts-resistance
Menchu, Rigoberta. “Chapter 1. The Family” I, Rigoberta Menchu, Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth, Verso, 1984. Pages 1-6, file:///C:/Users/Jialing%20Leng/Downloads/88548–chapter1thefamily–astu100g011styearcapseminar–c%20(2).pdf