Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans

This book is about a living legend, an orphaned Guatemalan schoolgirl thrust into the role of spokeswoman for a defeated guerrilla movement. Her story about her life, family and village, published under the title I, Rigoberta Menchú, aroused so much sympathy that she won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. Like the Ché Guevara legend, the imagery surrounding Rigoberta Menchú served the ideological needs of the urban left. Her story also helped shape the assumptions of an era of human rights activism in Guatemala. But what old neighbors say about the violence that destroyed Rigoberta’s family and village is different from what appeared in her 1982 autobiography. By comparing her account with those of other violence survivors, this is a book that goes to the heart of contemporary debates over political violence/revolutionary movements, postmodernism and the ethics of scholarship.