I studied Rigoberta Menchu and Guatemala in high school, so I wasn’t going into this novel completely blind. I knew there were controversies around this novel and Menchu’s retelling of her life events. However, I think that it doesn’t actually matter that much. The truth of the matter is that the indigenous people of Guatemala were discriminated against and faced horrible treatment by the government. Even if Menchu was exaggerating or making up parts of her life, it doesn’t discredit the atrocities the people faced. This book and all of her work brought all the issues to the forefront and I think that’s a good thing. Sometimes dramatizations of life events are necessary to evoke an emotional response from others, which helps spur them into action. It’s one of those instances where you have to ask “do the methods justify the means?” and in this case I think they do.
Looking at the contents of the novel without trying to figure out if they’re true or not, the events that happen are pretty horrendous. The death of her brother and mother were scarring and horrible. The graphic detail really sold how horrible the Guatemalan army really was. I did find it interesting how Menchu used Christianity and the Bible. She and her community didn’t necessarily use it as a religion, but more as stories to look up to and use as guidance. Honestly, a much healthier way of using the Bible than some devout Christians nowadays. I also found it interesting the way the chapters were laid out. The chapter about marriage was surprisingly long and in the end, it’s revealed that Menchu doesn’t actually want to get married due to fear of losing her spouse and children. I thought it was interesting how much effort she put into explaining a practice that she herself would never get to experience. She explains a lot of her culture and practices in great detail and I found them all quite interesting, especially the connection her people have with animals. I really enjoyed the care she put into explaining everything.
And in the lecture, it’s brought up that she does keep “secrets” and doesn’t reveal everything about her culture. Seriously though, I don’t really see a problem with that. If she doesn’t want to reveal every bit of detail about her identity and culture, I don’t understand what the problem with that is. Her culture has obviously faced a lot of discrimination and they’ve fought so hard to keep it alive, and so exposing everything to the general public would probably lead to unintended consequences. I don’t think we have any right to demand that she not keep secrets. Overall, I found the novel to be horrible and sad, but at the same time informing and inspiring.
Question:
Even though the truth of the novel has been brought into question, do you think that the novel should be mandatory reading, like what Stanford did?
Menchú’s Christianity has been relevant to many of you. It is worth remembering the specific situation in Central America with the division between the elites of the Catholic Church and the so-called “base communities” or the “red priests”, who allied themselves with peasant and proletarian struggles as a practical way of carrying out the evangelical message to real life. It is true that the subject is controversial, but as you point out, the moment was complicated and this may be one of the methods of change.
“If she doesn’t want to reveal every bit of detail about her identity and culture, I don’t understand what the problem with that is.”
I don’t think the issue that that there’s a “problem” with keeping secrets, but it’s more a matter of what are the effects of these repeated declarations.
As for your question… I guess we might ask what kinds of books (if any) should be mandatory for a university such as UBC. I’m not sure what the equivalent of Menchú’s testimony would be among Canadian First Nations… but should such an equivalent be compulsory reading for all students here?
I found your blog post really interesting as it’s rare to have someone in this class with so much background knowledge in a text. I also agree with your point that regardless of whether everything Menchú says is fully the truth, it does not take away from the horrible realities of what happened to the Indigenous population of Guatemala.