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Chapter 1
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
Rigoberta describes the social organization of her Maya-Quiché community. Members of the community elect a representative, who functions as a father figure for everyone. Both of her parents were the village’s elected representatives. When a child is about to be born, the representatives serve as abuelos (grandparents) or “second parents” to this child, promising to support it throughout its life. Since any child that is born belongs to the entire community, the “second parents” choose godparents to support the child, so that they will stay on the right path and not adopt harmful habits if ever their own parents pass away.
Rigoberta’s Maya-Quiché community functions independently from the official Guatemalan political system. The community’s support system creates a sense of protection, but also responsibility: everyone is responsible for one another and must strive to respect all of the community’s rules and traditions. Rigoberta’s description also highlights the extent to which the community depends on democratic consent, as all of the villagers have a say in who will lead them.
Themes
During the pregnancy, neighbors visit the mother every day and bring her simple gifts. The mother talks to the child constantly, even though it is still in her womb, and performs all her usual chores in order to introduce the child to the kind of life they will lead. She also makes sure to hide the birth from her other children—unless exceptional circumstances make this impossible, the newborn child must only be seen by the village leaders and two other couples, whose presence confirms that the child belongs to the entire community. Rigoberta notes that giving birth in a hospital is unthinkable for Indians. She also considers family planning to be an insult to their culture, as it has been a way of profiting off of naïve people.
Introducing an unborn child to its future responsibilities highlights the importance of work in the Maya-Quiché community: everyone is expected to perform a predetermined set of tasks, which are deemed useful to the family and the community. Rigoberta’s criticism of modern methods of contraception and childbirth suggests that even seemingly helpful practices can be exploitative to Indigenous communities if they don’t involve respectful understanding on both sides.
Themes
Rigoberta notes that keeping their traditions secret is a central aspect of Indian life, and that she will follow this rule throughout her narrative. Members of other religious communities have historically used the little information they had about Indian customs to misrepresent their life. For example, priests from Catholic Action (an association meant to bring Catholicism to Indian communities) have caused mistrust among Indians by criticizing the community’s trust in their elected leaders, whom the priests call “sorcerers.”
Rigoberta’s Indigenous community has a complicated relationship with the Catholic Church, one that’s characterized by misunderstanding and tension. Some priests’ misrepresentation of the role of elected leaders in the Maya-Quiché community reveals underlying intolerance. They fail to understand that this mode of organization, which might not exist in ladino society, isn’t inherently harmful or inferior.
Themes
Rigoberta continues describing the Maya-Quiché traditions concerning pregnancy and childbirth. After the baby’s birth, the placenta is burned at a defined time. The community chooses not to bury the placenta in order not to harm the earth, which is seen as a another parent to the child. Rigoberta believes that many of the community’s traditions, such as using special plants to alleviate pregnant women’s symptoms, for example through calming baths made with herbs, are effective because of the vitamins the herbs contain. According to her, such plant usage, which brings strength, is one reason the Indian community has survived despite a long history of hunger and suffering.
Rigoberta’s descriptions highlight the deep respect her community has for the earth, as they’ll only modify nature if it’s absolutely necessary to do so. At the same time as she describes the spiritual role that nature plays in her community, she also adopts a pragmatic approach to some traditions. For example, her belief that medicinal herbs contain useful vitamins suggests that, in addition to her adherence to her community’s spiritual beliefs, she is willing to examine these practices from a critical, scientific perspective.
Themes
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At the baby’s birth, a fiesta (party) is organized, during which a sheep is killed. For eight days, the baby is left alone with his mother in a special location, so that he or she gradually becomes a member of the family. During this period, neighbors are expected to visit and bring gifts to the family. It’s thought that a child who receives many gifts will have many responsibilities as an adult in the community.
The fact that the celebration of childbirth is not limited to the nuclear family shows that, for Rigoberta’s community, one’s greatest attachments in life should not be to individual people (for example, the members of one’s own family). Instead, what should matter more are the rules and traditions that the community has inherited from its ancestors, and that remain relevant to this day.
Themes
After eight days, another animal is killed, and all the clothing used during this period is washed. The baby can move into the house, which has previously been washed with water and lime, a sacred ingredient in Rigoberta’s culture. She believes that this makes the child physically and emotionally strong to enter the world. Four candles are arranged around the child’s bed, representing the respect for the community and the household that the child is expected to feel. At the child’s birth, their hands and feet are bound: this symbolizes the respect the child should have for all external living things, as well as the imperative to never steal from others. These binds are released after eight days.
These ceremonies underline the importance of symbols in Rigoberta’s culture, as certain natural elements or practices are associated with the commitment to an ethical way of life. At the same time, these symbolic gestures are not entirely abstract. For example, the fact that Rigoberta’s community sacrifices animals and eats meat on such rare occasions puts into practice their principle of respecting every living thing, animal or human, and promoting peace and harmony among all living beings.
Themes
The parents then tell the child about all the suffering they will have to face. Suffering, for Indians, is an integral part of life, but people must endure it with respect and dignity. A bag full of sacred plants (garlic, lime, salt, and tobacco) is placed around the child’s neck to ward off harmful events. The bag represents the continuation of their ancestors’ way of life.
This approach to suffering has both existential and historical components. Suffering is, of course, an inevitable aspect of human life. But it’s particularly acute in Indigenous communities, such as Indian groups in Guatemala, that have suffered violent repression for centuries—first during Spanish colonization and later under ladino rule.
Themes
At 40 days of age, the child is baptized in the community. The goal is for the child to learn to respect and preserve ancestral traditions, such as keeping the community’s secrets safe from rich people who might try to destroy their culture. The child is told to honor maize, as he or she is made of the maize their own mother ate. The child’s life is also meant to replace the lives of the dead. At this point, the child becomes a child of God—the community’s “father,” associated with the sun—and can honor God by respecting beans, maize, and the earth.
In this belief system, human ancestors are not separate from the natural world. In this sense, a person’s respect for a natural product such as maize also shows respect to one’s ancestors, who have cultivated this way of life. One’s actions in the present, then, keep the community’s history alive and ensure its survival.
Themes
At the age of 10, children are prepared for adult life. They learn that they must remember the stories of oppression by white men during colonization and not trust the official narratives circulated about these events. They are told to respect vulnerable members of the community—such as their elders and pregnant women—through practical actions, such as crossing the street to let old people pass.
Indigenous Guatemalans do not learn history as abstract knowledge, but rather as a series of lessons meant to stimulate their political consciousness in the present. Formal education is less important than putting into practice the ethical and spiritual principles that one has been taught. This is why concrete, everyday practices—and not hours of formal schooling—constitute the foundation of this community.
Themes
Although there are special celebrations for the birth of a boy, Rigoberta notes that this is not machismo (a system that values men more than women), because such celebrations honor the hard work the boy will be expected to perform as a man. Boys are given more food and more responsibility, and they’re considered heads of the household. However, Rigoberta insists that girls’ work is also valued and is, in fact, equally hard. In addition, women receive special respect as mothers: they are valued because of their special connection to the earth, capable of giving life. Although Rigoberta insists that both gender roles are complementary and equally important, she does concede that the community—and, in particular, fathers—are happier when a boy is born.
On one hand, Rigoberta’s reflections on gender dynamics in her community reflect her trust in the positive value of many of her community’s traditions. On the other hand, they reflect a willingness to be honest and identify certain practices that might perpetuate gender inequality. For example, her mention of the special ceremonies and joy around the birth of a son suggests that is an underlying preference for boys, which contrasts with the principle of gender equality that Rigoberta defends throughout her life.
Themes
A child’s education centers on playing an active part in the community and having a generous, open heart. The community’s long stretches of poverty have made solidarity a core value among the villagers. Children learn their responsibilities through play, and learning prayers is a central feature of everyone’s upbringing.
These descriptions attribute a positive side effect to poverty: the development of solidarity and generosity. This suggests that, even if Rigoberta fights against the violent inequalities that cause so much suffering in her community, she also wants to protect her community from other dangers, such as selfishness and greed.
Themes
In addition, children learn by imitating their parents: girls learn to cook from their mothers, and boys learn to work outside in the field from their fathers. They are given tools—a hoe, machete, and ax for boys, a washing board and other domestic items for girls—in order to learn what their tasks will be when they grow up. The eldest son is responsible for the house, serving as a second father to all. The mother, on the other hand, is responsible for managing the household’s money. A father has the right to scold or even beat his children if they do not respect their duties, which are thoroughly explained to them.
The early emphasis on the tasks that children will have to perform suggests that these gender norms are largely imposed from the outside. Girls learn that it is their duty to take care of the household, whereas men must work outside, with little leeway to invert such roles. The fact that a father has a right to hit a child suggests that the community treats children like adults—that is, they assume that children should be capable of understanding their role in the community. But it also reveals a certain brutality that contrasts starkly with the community’s insistence on dialogue and nonviolence.
Themes
