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Translator's Note
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
Writer Elisabeth Burgos-Debray describes how she first met Rigoberta Menchú and set about transcribing Rigoberta’s life story through a series of interviews. The two women briefly lived together in Paris. For Burgos, the moment that cemented trust between the two of them took place when they shared tortillas and black beans together. They found joy in this simple food, which is central to Rigoberta’s culture. In structuring the lengthy transcriptions of their interviews, Burgos sought to respect Rigoberta’s voice. For example, she removed her own questions so that the text would be a monologue centered on Rigoberta’s narration, even if this includes certain digressions and jumps in chronology.
Elisabeth Burgos’s comment about the uniting power of tortillas beings to imply that in Rigoberta’s Maya-Quiché community, preparing and appreciating of food is central to their culture and traditions. Giving voice to Rigoberta’s narrative also emphasizes the importance of authentically conveying one’s lived experience, a value that Rigoberta also shares. For both Rigoberta Menchú and Elisabeth Burgos, stories that are honest and intimate are more important than official education, abstract theories, or perfectly linear storytelling.
Themes
