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Introduction
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in I, Rigoberta Menchú, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Tolerance vs. Resistance
Class, Race, and Inequality
Ancestors, Tradition, and Community
Gender and Sexuality
Language, Education, and Power
Spirituality, Nature, and the Sacredness of Life
Summary
Analysis
At 23 years old, Rigoberta Menchú delivers her life narrative, emphasizing that her tale is also her people’s story, since it represents the reality of all poor Guatemalans. Speaking Spanish is difficult for her, because she has had no formal education and only learned the language three years ago. She decides to begin her story in her mother’s womb because, according to her community’s beliefs, a child’s life begins from the very first day of the mother’s pregnancy.
Rigoberta’s emphasis on speaking in the name of her community underlines the political purpose of her narrative: she aims to denounce oppression and to give voice to those who have never been given the chance to recount their life stories. She also wants to defend the rights of poor Guatemalans and, in particular, members of marginalized Indigenous groups.
Themes
There are 22 different Indigenous ethnic groups (23 counting the mixed-race mestizos or ladinos), each with their own language. Rigoberta comes from San Miguel Uspantán, in the northwest province of El Quiché. Although the landscape is beautiful, high up in the mountains and free from big roads and cars, this territory is also marked by longstanding political and economic strife.
Rigoberta does not separate the beauty of nature from the history of the people who have inhabited it. According to her Maya-Quiché community’s beliefs, nature is not separate from human beings, nor human beings from nature. All living things influence one another and should cooperate to protect the natural world from potentially destructive modern practices (for example, invasive roads and cars).
Themes
Rigoberta’s mother and father moved up to those mountains in 1960; their cultivation of the land led to the foundation of their village. Her parents were forced out of their previous house when rich ladinos took over their previous lands, leading them to incur debts. They moved elsewhere so that they might work to pay back what they owed.
Rigoberta’s parents’ experience with debt serves as an early illustration of the inequality between ladinos—who hold most of the political and economic power in Guatemala—and Indians. Indians find themselves in a constant state of economic and physical vulnerability with regard to ladinos, who can manipulate the system in order to extend their power over the poor.
Themes
Rigoberta’s father and his brothers had a difficult childhood after their father died. Although their mother took care of them, Rigoberta’s father had to work on his own at an early age to support his family. He helped his mother, who worked as a servant in a ladino family for nine years, even though the family considered him dirty and repulsive and never taught him Spanish. At the age of 14, he went to the coast to work on fincas (large plantations). His mother, meanwhile, was coerced into serving as the employer’s mistress. When Rigoberta’s father had earned enough money, his mother was able to join his brothers and him on the coast.
Rigoberta’s father’s work as a young child illustrates the economic hardship that many Indigenous Guatemalans face, as Indian children are often forced to contribute to their families’ earnings in order for them to survive. It also emphasizes Rigoberta’s father’s work ethic and resistance to suffering, his defining features throughout this book. In addition, Rigoberta’s grandmother’s experience of sexual exploitation shows that poor women face some gender-specific dangers and violence that men might be spared.
Themes
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Rigoberta grew up on fincas, such as those where her father worked, where coffee, cotton, cardamom and sugar are cultivated. After working relentlessly to support his mother, Rigoberta’s father was sent to the army, where he despised the use of force but also learned valuable fighting techniques. After a year, he returned home and his mother, who had a fever, soon died due to their lack of money to pay for medicine. After her death, the brothers split up and worked in different coastal areas.
Rigoberta’s grandmother’s early death signals a problem that recurs throughout the story: poor people aren’t able to afford medicine. This highlights the unequal access to healthcare that divides social classes in Guatemala. In parallel, Rigoberta’s father’s experience in the army also shows that, despite taking part in an institution that represses Indians, many soldiers do not actually choose to join the army but are coerced into doing so.
Themes
Rigoberta’s parents met in the Altiplano (highland). After getting married, they set up a village in the mountains. Thanks to the little savings they acquired through their work in the fincas, they were able to pay the government a fee to settle there and to clear the land, although it took eight years for the land to start to produce. Rigoberta and her five siblings grew up during this period. During her childhood, Rigoberta saw two of her brothers die from a lack of food. She notes that malnutrition is common among Indians, making it difficult for children to make it past the age of five.
Rigoberta’s parents’ willingness to spend eight years waiting for their land to be fertile underlines their endurance and strong will. It also reveals their belief in the importance of respecting and revering nature. Having to pay a fee to the government to cultivate the land, on the other hand, highlights the economic and political tensions surrounding land ownership, as poor Guatemalans like Rigoberta’s parents must compete with rich, aggressive landowners.
Themes
Over the years, more people came to populate this area and cultivate the land despite the difficulty of reaching the village on foot. The landscape is beautiful, and although Rigoberta did not spend much time playing as a child, she always enjoyed the work clearing the undergrowth while listening to the birds singing. Rigoberta’s mother worked in a finca for months and returned home less than a month before Rigoberta was born.
Throughout her narrative, Rigoberta insists that, due to economic hardship and her family’s struggles, she was not afforded a true childhood. Rather, she spent most of her time working. Her appreciation of nature, however, suggests that some forms of work can bring a special kind of satisfaction, especially when it is self-led and connected to nature. This pleasure contrasts starkly with the exploitative conditions on the coastal fincas.
Themes
Rigoberta’s memories begin when she is five. She remembers spending four months in their home in the Altiplano and the remaining eight months down at the coast, working in fincas. Her family would cultivate maize and beans on the Altiplano, but the land wasn’t very fertile, so they would always need to return to the fincas to earn money. Her parents, she notes, withstood these difficult conditions but never escaped poverty.
The cycle of Rigoberta and her family’s different work environments symbolizes the cycle of poverty that they’re caught in: no matter how hard Rigoberta’s parents work (whether on the finca or on their own land), they are unlikely to escape poverty. Many poor Guatemalans lack such basic job security, and thus find themselves trapped in a system that keeps them from achieving economic and social advancement.
Themes
