with Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum, June 2003
Jayson Ty Gonzales Sae-Saue
|In 1983, Rigoberta Menchú
told her life story to Elizabeth Burgos-Debray, a story that celebrated
Mayan-Quiché culture while documenting the human rights abuses and
political struggle of indigenous peoples in Guatemala. Burgos-Debray later
structured Menchú’s testimonio into the text Me llamo Rigoberta
Menchú y así me nació la conciencia, which was
translated into English as I, Rigoberta Menchú. The
text quickly garnered global attention and summoned the conscience of the
international community to the ongoing genocide of indigenous peoples in
Guatemala under racist and classist political practices. In 1992
(the quincentennial anniversary of continental European arrival in the
Américas), Menchú was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her
life long activism in the field of indigenous peoples’ rights. However,
the legitimacy of Menchú’s role as the global representative of
Guatemalan indigenous peoples was publicly challenged when Larry Rohter
published his investigative report, “Tarnished Laureate,” in the New
York Times on December 15, 1998. Rohter’s report drew largely
from the questions and criticisms in David Stoll’s forthcoming book Rigoberta
Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, which disputes
the veracity of events and narrative representation in I, Rigoberta
Menchú. As such, Stoll’s text has instigated major battles
between right and left-wing political institutions in Guatemala and throughout
North America as well as heated debates (often personal) between liberal
and conservative academics across disciplines and around the world.
Arturo Arias’ 2001 publication
The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy
is a collection of newspaper articles, interviews, and essays, which discuss
the contexts and consequences of Stoll’s scholarship in various academic
fields; Mary Louise Pratt, as one of the contributors in The Rigoberta
Menchú Controversy, examines the controversy within the context
of North American academia, including the relationships between western
scholarship and “truth” value;
Doris Sommer, in women’s studies journals
and in her own books, has examined the consequences of the “Rigoberta Menchú
controversy” within the context of gender studies; and Elizabeth Meese
has considered the Menchú controversy in refiguring feminist third
world criticism. As such, Rigoberta Menchú has become a figure
for meaningful debate across academic disciplines including Cultural Studies,
Feminist Studies, Gender Studies, Literary Studies, Latin American Studies,
and Cultural Anthropology.
In the spring of 2003, I had
the opportunity to work with Menchú as her personal translator during
a three-day workshop in the Denver metro area in which she spoke to Denver
youth on the importance of social awareness, community activism, and human
rights advocacy. On June 17, 2003 I conducted an electronic interview
with Menchú. My questions, for the most part, are structured
around contemporary theoretical debates concerning the performance and
functions of memory in formulating constructions of truth in Quiché
JGS: How do you see yourself
as both a political and adult literary figure?
[On the one hand, and without a doubt, I am a political woman. Much of what I do is intimately related with politics. When events occur in the field of human rights, in the struggle for the recognition of indigenous rights, and in the struggle for peace, they occur in political registers. Unfortunately, much of what could resolve the present polemics actually depends on political aspects. In the last few years, I have matured quite a bit, politically speaking. But on the other hand, I continue being a self-taught female, of which I am very proud. Writing books is not my principal activity, but I do it because I see the necessity to produce certain forms that have an impact on certain public sectors. For example, if I write stories for children, it’s because I feel that it is fundamental to rescue, maintain, and transmit certain Mayan-Quiché oral traditions through written means, especially spiritual aspects which allow our culture to remain strong.]
JGS: How is memory situated
in Quiché culture? What is its function and how is it enacted?
[Memory allows for the maintenance, reproduction, and transmission of a culture that has been fundamentally oral. Memory forms an integral part of the community identity. We indigenous peoples rely on memory and it has allowed us to divulge not only our history of oppression, colonialism, and exploitation, but also a history filled with a great struggles and hopes.]
JGS: How is history interpreted
in Quiché culture? What are the roles of writing and orality
in Quiché notions of history? How does history function in Quiché
[History grows out of memory and oral traditions. The latter has served as a way to continue constructing the history of indigenous peoples. Written tradition serves to strengthen oral tradition. However, it must be clarified that indigenous peoples have occupied a marginal position in the official history of Guatemala. They have been depicted in a prejudicial, incomplete, and tendentious way. That said, the development of oral and written traditions has been propelled by the creation of the Academy of Mayan Languages, which has taken on the work of systemizing the linguistic knowledge of the 22 languages, which are spoken in Guatemala.]
JGS: What is the relationship
between memory, history, and truth in Quiché culture? In what
ways do you feel standards and optics of truth in the USA differ from standards
and optics of truth in indigenous cultures?
[I have already outlined how history and memory are connected. Indigenous people deal with ancestral truths, which does not mean that they are the only truths. The truth that comes to us through different mediums (testimonies, documents, research) has joined both and has served to complete the indigenous vision of what has occurred. Here, it’s good to clarify that we are dealing with an occidental notion and a notion of another kind. If a parallel exists, you would have to find it in the cultural and historical traditions of indigenous peoples in the United States who have been marginalized and made invisible in US society. To this, you have to add that the truth has been concealed from the eyes and ears of the US citizenry. What have different media said about what really occurred in Vietnam, Korea, Latin America, and Iraq? It is a matter of a particular construction of the truth that bears no relation to the facts, how and as they occurred. Ultimately the facts speak for themselves.]
JGS: How do you feel about
your work being central to the “culture wars” in American universities?
How do you feel about I, Rigoberta Menchú’s exclusion or
inclusion in academic curriculums?
[I think that it is good to include my book in university programs in the United States since in that country, what was happening in Guatemala, with the support and complicity of various American administrations, was never known. The genocide in my country went unnoticed by all the world partly because of the slight attention given to it by the influential media of the United States. Except for a few rare exceptions, the public of the United States wasn’t aware of the “dirty-war” carried out in Guatemala by the Guatemalan military forces, trained and financed by the United States. Therefore, the inclusion of my book in academic curriculums is appropriate because it helps compensate for the ignorance that has prevailed in that country.]
JGS: Has the genre “testimonio”
lost its power to mobilize peace movements?
[I don’t think so. Testimony continues to maintain its power to summon the consciences of the world to what is happening in certain areas of the planet. What has happened is that certain sectors interested in maintaining a certain official history have given themselves over to the task of minimizing testimonies, of stripping them of their credibility. What those sectors have not taken into account is that sooner or later the facts begin to speak for themselves, and these facts will disprove that official history that they have been fabricating for decades.]
JGS: Can you explain how
your Nobel Peace Prize helped trigger peace in Guatemala? Do peace
efforts in the third-world always require support from the first world?
[The Nobel Peace Prize constituted
recognition of the victims of 500 years of oppression, exploitation, and
colonialism. Therefore, the Nobel Prize also served to give us, indigenous
Guatemalans, a greater moral voice -- now not only as victims of genocide
-- for promoting and demanding peace in Guatemala. It’s true that
the peace negotiations didn’t bring immediate progress, but the negotiations
served as a platform to come together and search for points of understanding,
which subsequently resulted in the Peace Accords. Unfortunately, the Nobel
Prize wasn't enough to consolidate peace in my country because those same
perpetrators of genocide now govern the country and they have buried the
peace accords. I don’t say that because the Nobel Prize awarded to
me has lost its prestige or because I wasn’t worthy of the commitment.
The historical enemies of the Peace Accords, those who won the armed conflict,
are the same ones who now have prevented the proper fulfillment of the
provisions of the Peace Accords. It’s a dead and buried issue.]
JGS: In your opinion, what
is the difference between testimonio and autobiography? What is testimonio?
[“Testimony” is the proof, the confirmation, and the relating of facts that a person has lived through. Autobiography is a conjunction of memories, of confessions, of the life of someone. As you see, the difference is very subtle. However, the discussion of whether my book is a testimony or an autobiography is irrelevant; it doesn't sully or devalue what I narrated there and what happened in Guatemala, not only to my family, but also to more than 200,000 dead and missing persons, most of whom are indigenous.]
JGS: How do you feel about
the internet, and how has technology helped with your message and struggle?
[I think it helps organize certain things. Many current social movements, like the anti-war protests, are organized through electronic media and through chain messages. The internet has permitted the coordination of an entire movement of civil society, which has served to prepare protests or to distribute information. It has been converted into another form of organizing and coordinating activism. Nevertheless, there is a tendency to exaggerate the value of technology, with which comes a dehumanization of all activities. It is a valuable resource; it allows things to be done more quickly. Thanks to the internet all barriers of time and space have been broken, someone can communicate with another person thousands of kilometers away, instantaneously. On many occasions we have been able to transmit messages related to our struggle for human and indigenous rights; and that is how we have been able to circulate speeches and letters to different presidents. Despite all this, the web is not as extensive as one would wish. In countries in the process of development there persist problems in education and in technological preparation. To operate a computer, it’s necessary to have a certain type of knowledge; and to be connected to the internet you need a telephone line, and in those countries the coverage of these services is still low. There persists a technological gap between developed countries and developing countries.]
Arias, Arturo. The Rigoberta Menchú Controversy. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001.
Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth. Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia. México: Siglo XXI Editores, 1985. (Originally published by Editorial Argos Vergara, S.A., Barcelona, in 1983.)
Burgos-Debray, Elisabeth, ed. I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. New York: Verso, 1984.
Meese, Elizabeth. “(Dis)locations: Reading the Theory of a Third World Woman in I, Rigoberta Menchú.” Ex/tensions: Refiguring Feminist Criticism. Chicago, University of Illinois Press, 1990.
Rohter, Larry. “Tarnished Laureate.” The New York Times, 12/15/1998, a1.2-4/a8.1-5.
Rogachevsky, Jorge R. “David Stoll vs. Rigoberta Menchú: Indigenous Victims or Protagonists?” Delaware Review of Latin American Studies Vol.2 No.2 (July 2001).
Stoll, David. Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1999.
Stoll, David. “Conundrum or Non Sequiturs? The Case of Vicente Menchú.” Delaware Review of Latin American Studies Vol.2 No.2 (July 2001).
Sommer, Doris. “No Secrets: Rigoberta’s Guarded Truth.” Women’s Studies 20 (1991): 51–72.
Sommers, Doris. "Not Just
a Personal Story": Women's Testimonios and the Plural Self," Life-Lines:
Theorizing Women's Autobiography. Ithaca and London: Cornell University
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