Taylor Brown November 17, 2015
I, Rigoberta Menchu Book Review
Rigoberta Menchu is a Quiche Indian, who experienced how unfair and prejudice life can be for an impoverished, indigenous, Indian community. Rigoberta was from a very traditional Indian society, which held its values and customs very close to its heart. By revealing the harsh racism, the exploitation, the poverty, as well as the need to fight for equality, and to preserve the Mayan culture, Rigoberta exemplifies why the fight she and many others endured, was necessary. Throughout the book, she shows how exploitation, genocide, racism and poverty, all acts done by the higher class the Ladinos, and the Guatemalan military, can severely cripple a group of people. Menchu expresses
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She is writing to those who will listen and recognize the dire situations that need to change. She is also inadvertently bringing attention to Americans who may not have known of the United States Central Intelligence Agency involvement in funding the Guatemalan military, who committed the treacherous crimes against the Mayans, “The commission listen the American training of the officer corps in counterinsurgency techniques as a key factor that ‘had a significant bearing on human rights violations during the armed confrontation’” (Navarro, 1). It’s important for those who are unaware of what happened in Guatemala, to have the awareness of the crimes, which happened at the hands of a government …show more content…
Rigoberta serves as a leader, and a political figure who is the definition of hope for many. Through sharing her story, she successfully brings awareness to the crimes her people endured, and awareness to the fact that the Mayan culture, was indeed worth the fight, it was a culture that was worth preserving. She wanted people to see that the Indian communities were not just people that could be exploited and treated poorly, just because of who they were, she wanted people to see that they were people too, and deserved to be treated as
Rigoberta Menchu, a Quiche Indian woman native to Guatemala, is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for politically reaching out to her country and her people. In her personal testimony tittled “I, Rigoberta Menchu” we can see how she blossomed into the Nobel Prize winner she is today. Following a great deal in her father’s footsteps, Rigoberta’s mobilization work, both within and outside of Guatemala, led to negotiations between the guerillas and the government and reduced the army power within Guatemala. Her work has helped bring light to the strength of individuals and citizen organization in advocacy and policy dialogue on the world scale. In a brief summary of the book I will explore why Rigoberta Menchu is important to Guatemalan development, what she did, and how she helped her people overcome the obstacles thrown their way.
The novel, The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela is a great perception of the Mexican Revolution. The stories of exploits and wartime experiences during the Mexican Revolution was fundamentally driven by the men. The war was between the people and the government. Throughout the novel, these men had to isolate themselves from their families and battle for a cause they greatly believed in. Even with not enough resources, the people were able to fight aggressively in order to overthrow the government. Regardless of the men who were at war, there were two females who played a significant role in the Mexican Revolution, Camila and War Paint. While the representation Mariano Azuela captures these ladies and their role in society are accurate, he neglects
Reyna Grande 's novel, Across a Hundred Mountains, focuses on the dynamic of the development and rethinking of the concept of a traditional Latino patriarchal family built up around male dominance. In low income and uneducated cultures, there are set of roles that throughout time have been passed by from generation to generation. These gender roles most often consist of the men being the breadwinner for the family. While the women stay home to cook, clean, and raise the children. Women are treated as possessions with limited rights and resources. Throughout the novel, Grandes challenges gender roles in the story of a young woman named Juana who, despite all adversity, fights stereotypes and is able to rewrite her own ending.
Azuela shows these impacts by the progression of Camila, from a sweet innocent woman, to joining the rebel forces, and lastly to being killed. Symbolically, Azuela kills off Camila almost immediately upon her rise to power and drops her from the novel’s plot. This shows the how insignificant of an impact that women had on the battles, and how easily they were forgotten after death. Women still struggle today with gaining equal rights and treatment within the Mexican culture. It has taken nearly 70 years for women to gain equality with men in the workforce, gaining rights such as voting, and having a shared family responsibility with the male figure (Global). Unfortunately, many women within the working-class household still suffer from the traditional norms and values regarding the roles of men and women. In addition, these women were often subjected to control, domination, and violence by men” (Global). This validates Azuela’s stance on how women should stay within their traditional roles because fighting for equality has been ineffective even still
Rather, it criticizes this culture through its portrayal of women. The narrative is focused on a male and is told by a male, which reflects the male-centered society it is set in. However, when we compare how the narrator views these women to who they really are, the discrepancies act as a critique on the Dominican culture. Yunior, who represents the typical Dominican male, sees women as objects, conquests, when in fact their actions show their resistance to be categorized as such. Beli, whose childhood was filled with male domination by Trujillo and the family she worked for, attempts to gain power through sexuality, the avenue the culture pushes women toward. This backfires, creating a critique of the limited opportunities available for women. La Inca portrays a different side to this, working quietly but in ways that are not socially acceptable through self-employment. Society attempts to cage these women, but they continue to fight against it. Diaz, in an interview, quoted James Baldwin, stating, “Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced" (Fassler). He exhibits the misogyny in the system but does not support it, rather critiques it through strong female characters. By drawing attention to the problem, the novel advocates for change. Diaz writes, at the end of part 1, “Nothing more exhilarating… than saving yourself by the simple act of waking”
This essay will study the Central Intelligence Agency’s intervention in Guatemala, and how they assisted Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas in the coup d’état against Jacobo Arbenz. It will describe the reasons of the intervention, the United States’ interest in Guatemala, and how it affected Guatemalans. Such events help explain much about the role that the United States has in their own migration. The paper argues that the United States’ political interest in Guatemala played a fundamental role in the migration of Guatemalans to its borders. As a result of this intervention, Guatemala suffered one of its worse political periods in their history. Guatemala experienced a period of political instability that led the country into social chaos, where many Guatemalans opted to migrate to the United States.
This literary critique was found on the Bryant Library database. It talks about how well Maya conveys her message to her readers as well as portraying vivid scenes in her reader’s minds’. Maya’s sense of story and her passionate desire to overcome obstacles and strive for greatness and self-appreciation is what makes Maya an outlier. Living in America, Angelou believed that African American as a whole must find emotional, intellectual, and spiritual sustenance through reverting back to their “home” of Africa. According to Maya, “Home” was the best place to capture a sense of family, past, and tradition. When it comes to Maya’s works of literature, her novels seems to be more critically acclaimed then her poetry. With that being said, Angelou pursues harsh social and political issues involving African American in her poems. Some of these themes are the struggle for civil rights in America and Africa, the feminist movement, Maya’s relationship with her son, and her awareness of the difficulties of living in America's struggling classes. Nevertheless, in all of Maya’s works of literature she is able to “harness the power of the word” through an extraordinary understanding of the language and events she uses and went through. Reading this critique made me have a better understanding of the process Maya went through in order to illustrate her life to her readers. It was not just sitting down with a pen and paper and just writing thoughts down. It was really, Maya being able to perfect something that she c...
Moraga, Cherrie. “Queer Aztlan: the Reformation of Chicano Tribe,” in The Color of Privilege 1996, ed Aida Hurtado. Ann Arbor: University Michigan Press, 1996.
Medina, Laurie Kroshus. 2003 ‘Commoditizing Culture – Tourism and Maya Identity’. Michigan State University, USA. pp 353-368
“I, Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala” (1983), is the personal narrative of the life of a young Guatemalan Quiche Indian woman. Written in the genre of personal testimony, Menchu's powerful voice records the hardships of the Guatemalan people during the political terror of a 36-year Civil War that ended in 1996. Menchu's reality is harsh; life is a struggle to survive. Menchu as if creating an indigenous cloth with numerous threads, creates a tale of connection within her Quiche community. One of Menchu's main objectives is to maintain a cohesive Mayan culture and to bring cultural identity to her community. Menchu records her culture's past through memory, detailing rituals, customs, and traditions. She presents the Mayan culture with a sense of wonder and mystery. She speaks of candles lit to welcome the newborn children, of celebratory fiestas at weddings, of the importance of maize, and of respect for the elders of the community. Menchú promotes cultural identity of her people and encourages it for those other indian an indigenous nations around the world. The rituals she describes are alien and very different to the Western mind.
Ania Loomba displays how “women’s struggles for equality continue after formal independence and define the nature of postcoloniality” (Loomba 188). Loomba indicates that the nature of postcoloniality is that women are “cast as mothers or wives and are called upon to literally and figuratively reproduce the nation” (Loomba 180). This is shown in the novels, Xala by Ousmane Sembene and the autobiographical I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala by Elizabeth Burgos-Debray. Both characters are expected to be mothers and wives, it is expected that the character in Xala; Rama will marry and have children, however, she resists the representation of her mother, who is in a polygamous marriage. In I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala;
... stand. You give a sideways glance to the balding man in front of you. Jose Efrain Rios Montt. Oh, how you hate that man! After all, the things he has done to you, your brothers, and your sisters are unspeakable! You take a deep breath and begin to speak. You answer all the questions with a complete feeling of appreciation. Appreciation fueled by the fact that people want to hear your story. You tell them about the day the soldiers marched in to your village, murdered your people, and walked away as if nothing had happened. You tell them about the days of fear. People stare at you in amazement. You see their eyes gleaming with tears and—suddenly—you break down too. It’s all too much. The man that caused you pain is going to get punished! In the back of your mind, you are thinking that the Guatemalan genocide was a terrible tragedy that cost many people their lives.
Cofer, Judith Ortiz. "The Myth of the Latina Woman." Bullock, Richard, Maureen Daly Goggin and Francine Weinburg. The Norton Field Guide to Writing. Ed. Marilyn Moller. 3rd. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. 806-812. Print.
Throughout the beginning of her testimonial, Rigoberta Menchu defines her life and circumstances through suffering eyes. Tradition teaches her that life is about pain and hardships that must be endured. Generation after generation has accepted this lot in life, which is inevitable. She feels suffering is her peoples fate. Yet in Chapter XVI a profound movement occurs within her consciousness. She starts questioning the inevitability of suffering, wondering if it is somehow preventable. She also implements her communal outlook on life to encompass other Indian communities besides her own. Her knowledge of the injustice being rained on her people is realized to effect neighboring communities as well. Being suffocated by oppression, Rigoberta starts to move from suffering to struggle in an attempt to find a new way of life.
I think this was the film overall message because it gives us a good depiction on how mesoamerica was before the Europeans came to destroy them with war and plagues. I believe this happened for a reason, as history has shown us throughout time we have seen organization such as the Germany, The Nazi, Iraq, and before them the Mayan Empire. According to history “the horrors of unrestrained government and how tyrants always seize the reigns of control, press on the nerve of power and abuse, dominate and terrorize populations” (Jones and Watson). From the quote they are referring to the Mayan Empire who were destructive and power hungry creating lies to control the people and enslave people by telling the people that the gods will punish them if they don’t obey. This is the exact same concept used by any power seeking tyrants as we seen in the past the United States seperated from Great Britain, United States stopped Germany and Hitler, and now they are facing Syria which will probably be resolved in the coming months. In specific to the film there 's a particular scene when they are walking in pass a diseased girl and her dead mother and this scene foreshadows the events that are going to happen. From history we learned that the Spanish Conquistadors and other European settlers came and swept away the