I, Rigoberta Menchú is an autobiography transcribed by anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray after interviewing Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum in 1982. At the time of this interview, Rigoberta Menchú is a 23-year-old member of the Indigenous Maya-Quiché community in Guatemala.
Rigoberta’s childhood took place between the Altiplano mountains of El Quiché and the fincas (“plantations”) on the coast. Rigoberta’s parents, the founders of their village in the Altiplano, played an important role in protecting the community. Within the Indigenous group’s system of collective representation, Rigoberta’s parents were chosen as elected representatives in charge of defending the community’s well-being and survival. For four months in the year, the villagers stayed in the Altiplano for the maize harvest, which gave them enough food to survive. During the remaining eight months, they worked in the fincas as agricultural workers, collecting plants such as cotton and coffee.
The fincas were part of a system of exploitation geared toward robbing poor Indians of their hard-earned salaries. Landowners and their overseers used every available occasion to mistreat workers, lying about their debts and deducting money from their salary as punishment. Two of Rigoberta’s brothers, Felipe and Nicolás, died on the fincas: Felipe of poisoning due to the chemical products sprayed onto the plantation, and Nicolás of malnutrition. Experiences such as these made Rigoberta angry, as she realized that her mother worked extremely hard but that her family still didn’t have enough money to buy basic needs like medicine. Rigoberta thus developed a deeply rooted hatred of the finca system and the ladinos who exploited poor Indians for personal gain. In Rigoberta’s view, her time in the fincas represents the birth of her political consciousness: her gradual understanding of the injustice that affects so many Indian people, in a system that values profit over human lives.
Rigoberta contrasts this capitalist mentality with the values that her community promotes, centered on respecting all living things: humans, animals, and plants. The ceremonies that mark Maya-Quiché life emphasize the importance of communing with nature and harming it as little as possible. Before every modification—harvesting maize, cutting flowers for a sacred event, or killing an animal for ceremonial purposes—a person must turn to the sun, the connection to their “one God,” and ask for permission from nature to engage in such actions.
In addition to Indigenous beliefs in the connection between people and the earth, the community also integrates certain aspects of the Catholic religion in their practices. Encouraged by her parents to play an active role in the village, Rigoberta became a catechist, in charge of teaching the Catholic religion. However, after her friend María died of pesticide poisoning in the finca, Rigoberta felt moved by grief, frustration, and anger at her people’s unjust suffering. So, she decided to explore an alternative kind of work, serving as a maid for the landowner’s family in the capital, Guatemala City.
There, Rigoberta discovered that the rich ladino family’s racism and contempt was actually worse than the backbreaking labor in the fincas. She befriended the other servant, Candelaria, who introduced her to the idea that instead of accepting their mistress’s derogatory comments and abusive attitude, they could resist her orders in subtle ways. Emboldened by this notion of resistance, Rigoberta eventually decided that she no longer wanted to accept this situation. She decided to leave the household as soon as she received her pay. However, upon leaving the house, she learned that her father, Vicente Menchú, had been sent to prison.
In conjunction with rich landowners, government institutions were trying to keep the Indian community from fighting for its rights. Vicente was imprisoned as retaliation for his efforts to keep rich ladino landowners from taking over the land that belonged to the village. For over a year, Rigoberta’s family and the entire village sent all of the money they earned on the fincas to pay for lawyers. The community’s success in getting Vicente released after a year showed them that Vicente was not an isolated chief, but the spokesperson for a community that was willing to fight as a unified group against injustice.
This experience of injustice turned Vicente into an even more determined activist. Emboldened by a fellow prisoner’s political ideas, he joined the newly created Committee for Peasant Unity (CUC). However, his activism brought violent consequences: he was kidnapped and tortured by the landowners’ henchmen and, after surviving this brutal episode, was sent to prison once again. Thanks to help from increasingly active peasant unions, he was freed almost immediately. Knowing that his life was at risk, Vicente told his family not to put their trust in him, but in the entire community. He was forced to go into hiding, and the entire family separated in order to take part in different political activities, meant to support the Indigenous struggle for greater rights.
The oppression of Indian villages in the region gradually worsened, as the landowners and the army destroyed villagers’ possessions and killed their dogs. In light of this rising violence, the village decided to use violence as a means of self-defense. When the army finally attacked the village, the community, which had been training in self-defense techniques, succeeded in hiding in the mountains. After this event, Rigoberta realized that her village was now well-organized, and that she should use the knowledge she acquired to help protect other Indian communities in the region. After joining the CUC, she traveled to different villages to educate them on political matters and help them organize.
This period was one of intense political activity for Rigoberta. Through her discussions with her compañeros of the CUC, she became more politically literate. She understood that not all ladinos were bad and that, in fact, poor ladinos suffered the same exploitative conditions as Indians. The goal, then, Rigoberta concluded, was for all poor members of Guatemalan society to unite, in order to fight for better working conditions.
During this period, the Guatemalan army took part in massacres against entire Indian villages, leaving mass graves behind. Rigoberta’s brother Petrocinio was kidnapped and tortured. He was later burned alive, along with other prisoners, in front of a crowd that included his own family members. This horrific episode was traumatic for Rigoberta’s entire family. At the same time, it motivated everyone to work even harder in raising consciousness about the army’s brutal treatment of Indians who were fighting against injustice.
In January 1980, Rigoberta’s father and many compañeros of the CUC planned a march on the Spanish Embassy to raise international awareness on the plight of Indians and peasants in Guatemala. However, the armed forces attacked the building, setting it on fire and killing everyone present, including Rigoberta’s father and the embassy officials. This event aroused political consciousness across Guatemala, as members of all social classes grasped the scope of the government’s violence. A few months later, the army kidnapped, raped, tortured, and killed Rigoberta’s mother.
These tragic events led Rigoberta to reflect on her own activism and her parents’ legacy. In line with her father’s Christian beliefs, she believed that her calling was to create a “Church of the poor” in Guatemala. Unlike the Catholic Church hierarchy, which sided with the oppressive authorities, Rigoberta’s church would seek to create justice and equality. Following her mother’s ideas, Rigoberta also believed that true social change could only take place if women’s issues were treated with as much importance as broad problems like economic exploitation.
After spending many months in hiding, Rigoberta finally left the country, thanks to the help of the CUC. She spent time in Mexico, where she shared her story and details of the violence that Indians suffer in Guatemala at an international religious conference. Although she received international help, including offers to live in Europe, she remained committed to fighting for the poor in Guatemala, even if this meant risking her life. She concludes that the suffering, grief, and anger she has endured throughout her life have given her the strength to fight for all of her poor compañeros, who have become a family to her. Rigoberta also declares that she’s dedicated to preserving her Indian customs and retaining its secrets, in order to safeguard her community’s identity.
