Rigoberta’s friend Petrona Chona, who was married and had two children, was brutally murdered while working on a finca, after refusing to become the landowner’s son Carlos García’s lover. As punishment for this rejection, Carlos García ordered his bodyguard to cut the young woman to pieces with a machete. Petrona’s was the first dead body Rigoberta ever saw. The horror of this scene emphasizes not only the physical vulnerability of poor Indians on fincas, but also their legal vulnerability. Indeed, when the bodyguard responsible for killing this innocent woman was not punished in any substantial way, Rigoberta realized that the entire legal and political system was set up to disadvantage the poor. The Guatemalan elites didn’t about justice, preferring to bow to the interests of rich landowners like the García family.
Get the entire I, Rigoberta Menchú LitChart as a printable PDF.
Petrona Chona Character Timeline in I, Rigoberta Menchú
The timeline below shows where the character Petrona Chona appears in I, Rigoberta Menchú. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 20: The Death of Doña Petrona Chona
Rigoberta remembers an event that she forgot to recount. In 1975, one of her friends, Petrona Chona, worked with her husband and two children on a finca owned by the García...
(full context)
Petrona’s was the first dead body Rigoberta ever saw. The bodyguard cut the young woman’s body...
(full context)
...do with it. Upon seeing the body, Rigoberta’s father cried, recalling how good and innocent Petrona was. After a few days, he took charge of the situation, saying that the young...
(full context)
...feeling of picking up her friend’s body. For the next six years, she dreamt about Petrona every single night.
(full context)
