Plot Overview
During a visit to Paris as part of the Guatemalan political organization known
as “the 31 January Popular Front,” Rigoberta Menchu meets Venezuelan anthropologist
Elisabeth Burgos-Debray and agrees to tell her life story so that it can be
transformed into a book. The two work feverishly for several days, Burgos-Debray
questioning Rigoberta, who tells her story in Spanish, her second language. The
result is several hours' worth of recorded interviews that Burgos-Debray transcribes
and arranges as I, Rigoberta Menchu.
As far back as Rigoberta, a Quiche Indian, can recall, her life has been split
between the highlands of Guatemala, known as the Altiplano, and low country
plantations, or fincas. Each year, she and her family spend about eight months at
the fincas working for ladinos, Guatemalans of Spanish descent.
Starvation and malnutrition are constants at the finca, and the Indians are
routinely sprayed with pesticides. Rigoberta and her people find respite in the
months they spend in their small village in the Altiplano that they call home. In
the deeply wooded Altiplano, Rigoberta's life centers around the ceremonies and
traditions of her community, many of which celebrate the natural world. At the
fincas, she and her people struggle to survive in cramped, miserable conditions at
the mercy of wealthy landowners and their overseers. They move between the two
worlds each year in a truck covered with a tarp, and by the time she is eight years
old, Rigoberta is already a hard worker, capable of picking several pounds of coffee
each day.
Though she lives in a traditional Indian society, Rigoberta's awareness of a
world beyond the finca and the Altiplano begins to dawn when she is still quite
young. When her younger brother, Nicolas, dies of malnutrition while at the finca,
Rigoberta begins to feel both angry and afraid of what the future will hold for her.
Visiting Guatemala City, the capital of Guatemala, with her father, whom she
idolizes, Rigoberta is at once terrified and compelled. As she grows older and
begins to develop a conscience, Rigoberta starts to yearn for change, both for
herself and for her community. She craves education and wishes above all to learn to
speak Spanish so that she can explore the world outside of the Altiplano and the
finca. Though she begins to follow in her father's footsteps and take on leadership
duties in her community, she also yearns to learn about the world and its people.
When she's offered a job as a maid at the home of a wealthy landowner in
Guatemala City, Rigoberta leaps at the opportunity, hoping she'll get a chance to
master Spanish. Immediately upon arriving in Guatemala City, however, she
understands the discrimination that exists for people of her heritage. At
the landowner's home, even the dog is treated better than she. The most
influential force in Rigoberta's life as she figures out the various
household tasks is Candelaria. Like Rigoberta, Candelaria is an Indian, yet
she has learned to speak Spanish and dresses as a ladino. She has also
figured out how to get under the mistress's skin and routinely sabotages her by
neglecting certain chores and talking back. When Rigoberta's father comes to the
mistress's house and asks for money, Candelaria convinces the mistress to
contribute. Rigoberta doesn't follow in Candelaria's footsteps right away, but
Candelaria's rebellious spirit has an impact on her that continues even after
Candelaria is booted out of the house.
Upon returning from her work in the capital, Rigoberta finds out that her
father has been jailed because he refused to cooperate with ladino landowners who
attempt to claim the land in the Altiplano where Rigoberta's community lives. This
is the first of several times that Rigoberta's father is jailed, and Rigoberta and
her siblings work constantly to free him for good. After the landowners and the
government repeatedly hoodwink the Indians, the Indians decide to defend their lands
and rebel against the Guatemalan powers. Led in part by Rigoberta's father, they
form the Peasant Unity Committee, or CUC, to pool their resources against the
powerful ladino government and business owners. By this time, Rigoberta has taken a
leadership role in her community, and she and the rest of her family play a major
part in helping the Indians develop strategies to defend their lands against the
Guatemalan army. The Indians rely on simple weapons such as traps and knives to
fight back, and they are inspired in their cause by the Bible's stories of
disenfranchised populations and people.
After securing her own people's holdings, Rigoberta goes on the road as a
representative of the CUC, helping Indian communities secure their lands and
outsmart the Guatemalan army. As the CUC becomes increasingly influential, Rigoberta
and her family find themselves more at risk. First, Rigoberta's brother, Petrocinio,
is kidnapped and burned alive while Rigoberta's entire family and village are forced
to watch. Then Rigoberta's father leads an offensive on Guatemala City and is killed
along with a group of protesters while storming the Spanish Embassy. Finally,
Rigoberta's mother is kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered. Rigoberta responds
by renouncing marriage and motherhood and becoming more involved in the peasant
cause, leading strikes and other rebellious actions until she finds herself in
danger and is forced into exile. Though Rigoberta's sisters join the guerilla army
to fight for the rights of Guatemala's Indian peasants, Rigoberta decides to take a
diplomatic route, telling stories of her people and putting legislation into place
as a way of furthering the rights of Indians.
