In the first half of the book Rigoberta described her life and the many hardships that she and her people suffered in Guatemala. The things she described are terrible but in the second half of the book things got even worse. The things that she describes her mother and brother enduring are so horrible they wouldn’t even show up in a horror movie. It’s hard to imagine anyone enduring this let alone actually doing it to other living creatures. The total disregard for life is heartbreaking. And it goes beyond disregard for life because you can not care if people die but that doesn’t mean you can torture and brutally kill them. That takes a special kind of evil and it is scary that so many were capable. Some of the perpetrators were also indigenous, these were their communities. What could have possibly been done to them to make them into what they became?

At one point Rigoberta says, “I remember my father telling us: ‘My children, don’t aspire to go to school, because schools take our customs away from us.’” In the west education is quite valued and in many places in the world people fight so hard to have the opportunity to go to school. Education  should be about learning new ideas and gaining knowledge that can be used to improve lives. But for people like Rigoberta and her siblings education has been turned into a colonial weapon to spread lies for the colonial agenda. For some education is a way to liberation, but for others it is used to keep them trapped.

I was very impressed with the defence strategies the peasants used in their villages. The traps and weapons were very resourceful with everything to limes being weaponized. Chiles I can see because I have seen first hand how they can burn but limes I never would have thought of. I think that counters the myth that indigenous people are lazy and stupid because this shows how creative, smart and resourceful they are. They are literally bringing a knife to a gun fight but still cannot be defeated.

Speaking a language like English that is spoken in many places can often make people take for granted how important language is for connecting people. This is why finding a common language was so important for the work Rigoberta was doing. For different communities to not be able to speak to each other they can’t properly pass on their experiences and organize to gather. The language barrier can become almost like a physical barrier separating people.