e-mail
If you have yet to read, “I, Rigoberta Menchu,” this would be an excellent time, since the author is running for president of Guatemala in the upcoming September 2007 elections. This is a highly engaging book documenting the atrocities of the Civil War in Guatemala, as well as a compelling, and often tragic personal history.
Born January 9th, 1959 in Guatemala, Rigoberta is of the Quiche-Maya ethnic group. She grew up a peasant who later went on to become a Nobel Laureate, and a heroine and success story to the indigenous people of Guatemala.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigoberta_Mench%C3%BA Her book was translated into 20 languages and for many years was required reading in many high schools and universities around the US.
Rigoberta is a remarkable and charismatic woman, but the authenticity of many facts documented in her book has been challenged by David Stoll, an American Anthropologist.
More than a decade after the publication of I, Rigoberta Menchú, anthropologist David Stoll conducted a thorough investigation of Menchú’s story, researching government documents, reports, and land claims (many filed by Menchú’s very own family), and interviewing former neighbors, locals, friends, enemies, and others (although not Menchú) for his 1999 book Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Stoll confirmed that Menchú grew up in a Mayan peasant village, which was visited by Marxist guerrillas and then attacked by the Guatemalan army. However, Stoll discovered that Menchú changed many elements of her life, family and village to meet the publicity needs of the guerrilla movement, which she joined as a political cadre after her parents were assassinated.
Apparently, Rigoberta has accused Stoll and other naysayers of being racist or CIA agents. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20070331-0754-guatemala-indianpower.html.
“If she really thinks she can bat down honest questions by saying the questioner is racist or an American CIA agent, that’s not going to make her a very good presidential candidate,” said Stoll, who teaches at Middlebury College in Vermont.
Menchu dismissed the debate as trivial, compared to the atrocities of war her book described, and disrespectful to the 200,000 people who died in the violence. The book is filed as evidence in the case she brought before a Spanish court charging eight Guatemalan former military and government officials with setting the embassy fire.
“If you want to debate, I ask you to go to the mass graves, go to the area where there are the remains of our dead,” she said. “I ask for respect for my father who was burned alive and my brother who was tortured.”
Regardless of the controversy surrounding her book, the horrific events described in the book actually happened, although perhaps not to her family.
Rigoberta is a brave woman for running in elections usually rife with corruption, in a country where being indigenous and a woman are two huge strikes against you. Trailing behind the three leading mail candidates at this point, she is nonetheless a role model for the downtrodden Indian population of Guatemala, one of the poorest groups of people in the world.
I would be more than interested in hearing her position on international adoption. There is little doubt that a new president will shake up the adoption process in Guatemala, as each candidate brings his own agenda to the government. Let’s hope that a desire for an uncorrupt adoption process and true concern for the children of Guatemala will be the drive behind any decisions made regarding international adoption.
Go pick up this book if you haven’t read it; you’ll learn a lot about the heritage of the Guatemalan children many of us have brought home.
________________________________________
