I, Rigoberta Menchu and The Arts of Resistance exhibit currently on display at the UBC Museum of Anthropology are two seemingly different bodies of work that are based on the narratives of the indigenous people of Latin America. I, Rigoberta Menchu is a testimony written by a twenty-three-year old Rigoberta Menchu from Guatemala. She takes on the responsibility of speaking on behalf of the marginalised people of Guatemala. The Arts of Resistance exhibit contains collections of clothing, masks, paintings, drawings and artefacts from all over Latin America with the primary function of presenting Latin American responses to social and political turmoil through art. Both pieces of work, despite being different in the form they take, serve a primary function of resisting the social and political institutions that have oppressed and silenced various groups within the Latin American community while celebrating and restoring a sense of pride in the indigenous Latin American identity.
A particularly striking piece in the Arts of Resistance exhibit was the Defence of Maize (Sunnucks, 2018) piece in which the silhouette of an older woman holding a shotgun, aims the gun at engineers of transgenic maize. The context for this piece provided in the information was helpful as it explained the socio-political situation in which the piece was produced. However, in order to understand the issue with more clarity I read through an article titled Past and Future Collide as Mexico Fights Over GMO Corn by David Alire Garcia. The Mexican government legalized the intervention of foreign transgenic maize producers who would produce maize at a significantly lower price and eventually drive local maize producers further into poverty. From the article I learnt that maize is one of Mexico’s main exports and so the country is very reliant on its production. Additionally, maize has cultural and religious significance to members of various indigenous groups (Garica,2013). The piece brought about a number of ideas, the quality of womanhood being the first of these. In most societies, women and the poor are the most marginalized members leaving wealthy men as the usual holders of power. Additionally, women, particularly in Latin America play an important role in carrying indigenous culture as a result of their marginalization (Byam, 2008). In depicting an elderly, poor woman holding a shotgun, the artist immediately hands power over to the woman, who represents the poor and indigenous societies of Mexico, and simultaneously resists the existing power structures.
I, Rigoberta Menchu does this from the beginning of the testimony. Menchu, as a poor, female Guatemalan takes power by simply sharing her story. It can be said that the old woman pictured in the Defense of Maize is the visual incarnation of an older “metaphorical” Menchu. While Menchu does not physically attack her oppressor, she does so through her testimony which points a “gun” at imperialists and the current political state. Based on the response received by various critics, it can be said that Menchu reached her target audience.
Both the Arts of Resistance, particularly the Defence of Maize, and I, Rigoberta Menchu are pieces of work that have very clear intentions. They are an example of the effectiveness of art in resisting and drawing attention to social and political issues. Women and power are the two main concepts in the pieces, both of them aim to place power in the hands of the powerless and in doing so they cause viewers and readers to question the authorities that are responsible for distributing oppression. Often the first step taken toward resistance is to question, by evoking this feeling of inquiry they are both extremely effective in illustrating and achieving resistance.
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Works Cited
Byam, Melanie. The Modernization of Resistance: Latin American Women since 1500. 2008.
https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgireferer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1096&context=undergrad_rev
Garcia, David Alire. “Past and Future Collide as Mexico Fights Over GMO Corn.” Reuters, 12 November 2013.
Sunnucks, Laura Osorio. Defense of Maize . Museum of Anthropology . The Arts of Resistance. Vancouver, 2018.