Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I, Rigoberta Menchú, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Tolerance vs. Resistance
Class, Race, and Inequality
Ancestors, Tradition, and Community
Gender and Sexuality
Language, Education, and Power
Spirituality, Nature, and the Sacredness of Life
Summary
Analysis
Because of her activism, Rigoberta had to live her life in hiding. When faced with the weight of her grief, she reminded herself that it was the suffering of an entire people. Although she tried to forget many traumatic events, she also told herself that she was now a grown woman and was strong enough to deal with them. One day, after spending time with one of her sisters, she realized that her sister was more optimistic and enduring than she was. Instead of dwelling on their parents’ unjust fate, her 12-year-old sister believed that these events fueled their struggle, and that revolutionaries were not born from peaceful circumstances, but out of anger and bitterness. Her sister’s strong commitment made Rigoberta more motivated to keep on fighting.
The fact that Rigoberta, now an adult, relies on her 12-year-old sister for guidance highlights the deep toll of this conflict on the entire Indian community. Instead of benefiting from a peaceful childhood, children are engaged in political struggles from an early age. This anecdote also emphasizes the importance of family bonds and solidarity. As has happened with her concerns about marriage, Rigoberta realizes that she is not alone in having certain doubts and moments of difficulty. Comradeship and dialogue play an important role in boosting her motivation and in nurturing her lifelong commitment to this difficult political fight.
Themes
Over time, Rigoberta became tired of hiding and moving from house to house. On one occasion, a jeep full of soldiers recognized her in the street. Rigoberta and the friend she was with hid in a church pew, letting their hair down, and the soldiers miraculously did not notice them: they believed the two women had escaped from the church. Rigoberta, who knew that being captured by the army would mean certain death, realized that she was willing to give her life to the cause, but that she would rather do it while carrying out a specific task for her people.
Rigoberta realizes that, despite dealing with death and grief in myriad ways, she still has a strong desire to protect her life in order to keep on defending her community. This highlights the extent to which Rigoberta has devoted her life to others: it is this pursuit of justice and equality that gives meaning to her life. Her desire to be useful to others highlights the extent to which belonging to a community has shaped the very core of her identity.
Themes
Since Rigoberta had now become well-known and was easily recognizable, she spent some time working as a maid in the Guatemala City instead of traveling in the countryside. She had to hide her real identity from the nuns. She found this particularly painful, after living through such horrors and needing someone to confide in.
Despite Rigoberta’s commitment to others, she also realizes that she has specific needs and desires as an individual person: she, too, needs the help and support that the community provides. This highlights the importance of the networks of reciprocity that drive her community’s life.
Themes
With frustration, Rigoberta noticed that the nuns lived in great comfort and seemed to despise the people who worked for them. She also had the feeling that the nuns might be suspicious about her. She became suspicious of a young man as well—the only man allowed within the community—whom the nuns treated with great respect, serving him coffee and cake. Later, Rigoberta learned that this man was a member of the secret police, in charge of torturing and killing people. She then realized that she couldn’t stay with the nuns any longer, especially after the nuns told her not to talk to the pupils, which Rigoberta took as proof of their suspicion toward her.
Rigoberta’s discovery of the nuns’ complicity with a criminal network of oppression emphasizes, once again, the diversity of behaviors that exist in the Catholic Church. Although some priests and nuns have dedicated their lives to the cause of poor Indians, others only seek personal comfort. These people do not hesitate to abandon all moral values and to side with a murderous government, thus betraying the traditional Christian value of nonviolence.
Themes
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