I, Rigoberta Menchú

I, Rigoberta Menchú is diverse from any text we have examined so far. It is a biography, which could be debated, that sheds light on Rigoberta Menchú’s life as well as the lives around her. The book depicts what it was like to be a person of Indian descent in Latin America, specifically Guatemala. For tomorrows lecture we are concentrating on the second half of the book. Menchú’s experiences continue to startle me, it was truly astonishing all the hardships the Indigenous people of Latin America had to face. An example of one of these hardships is in chapter 30 when she states, “

But when the murderer Carlos Garcia did was to send his fathers bodyguard to kill the woman in her house. But he told the bodyguard not to shoot her but to hack her to death with a machete. Naturally the bodyguard did as he was told and went to the woman’s house and, catching her by surprise, hacked her up with his machete” (Menchú177). This consequently occurred because a son of a finca owner pre sued the poor woman and she refused to be his mistress. These conditions where truly horrific and disgusting.

Menchú continues on discussing the rest of their struggles. She explains how in order to adapt to society she had to learn spanish. Menchúmakes the reader feel like they are being told a very sacred part of history. It is almost like we are flies on a wall in this distinct time as well as area of history.