Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans: New Foreword by Elizabeth Burgos

Description

Rigoberta Menchú is a living legend, a young woman who said that her odyssey from a Mayan Indian village to revolutionary exile was "the story of all poor Guatemalans." By turning herself into an everywoman, she became a powerful symbol for 500 years of indigenous resistance to colonialism. Her testimony, I, Rigoberta Menchú, denounced atrocities by the Guatemalan army and propelled her to the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. But her story was not the eyewitness account that she claimed. In this hotly debated book, key points of which have been corroborated by the New York Times, David Stoll compares a cult text with local testimony from Rigoberta Menchú's hometown. His reconstruction of her story goes to the heart of debates over political correctness and identity politics and provides a dramatic illustration of the rebirth of the sacred in the postmodern academy. This expanded edition includes a new foreword from Elizabeth Burgos, the editor of I, Rigoberta Menchú, as well as a new afterword from Stoll, who discusses Rigoberta Menchú's recent bid for the Guatemalan presidency and addresses the many controversies and debates that have arisen since the book was first published. Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Contents Foreword to the 2008 Edition: How I Became Persona Non Grata Preface Acknowledgments Chronology 1 The Story of All Poor Guatemalans PART 1 Vicente Menchú and His Village 2 Uspantán as an Agricultural Frontier 3 The Struggle for Chimel PART 2 Popular Revolutionary War 4 Revolutionary Justice Comes to Uspantán 5 The Death of Petrocinio 6 The Massacre at the Spanish Embassy 7 Vicente Menchú and the Committee for Campesino Unity 8 Vicente Menchú and the Guerrilla Army of the Poor 9 The Death of Juana Tum and the Destruction of Chimel 10 The Death Squads in Uspantán PART 3 Vicente’s Daughter and the Reinvention of Chimel 11 Where Was Rigoberta? 12 Rigoberta Joins the Revolutionary Movement 13 The Construction of I, Rigoberta Menchú 14 Rigoberta’s Secret PART 4 The Laureate Goes Home 15 The Campaign for the Nobel 16 The Lonely Life of a Nobel Laureate 17 Rigoberta and Redemption 18 The New Chimel 19 Rigoberta Leaves the Guerrilla Movement 20 Epitaph for an Eyewitness Account Afterword to the 2008 Edition: A Parallel Universe Notes Bibliography Index