Rigoberta_Menchu

A. Interpretation of I, Rigoberta Menchu An essay in response to: There has been a limited nuclear war. The only surviving document that deals with Guatemala between 1960 and 1983 is I, Rigoberta Menchú. Based on this testimony, answer the following question: By the late 1970s and early 1980s, why did many Guatemalan Indians, including Rigoberta Menchú, come to oppose their own government to the extent that they passively or actively supported guerrilla groups that took up arms against the government' Some say the autobiography of Rigoberta Menchú is a story of coming to consciousness: consciousness of what, and how and why did this happen in Menchú’s life' Late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed assertive oppositions to Guatemalan government by once passive Guatemalan Indians through their support of guerrilla groups. Such support sprouted as a result of successful revolt against injustice they faced through use of weapons and traps. The injustice, implicated by the government, was a long practiced system, which drew two lines of discrimination - first, between the Indians and the ladinos; and second, between the poor and the rich. These forms of discrimination were easily maintained because of language barrier between the ladinos and the Indians, as well as, among the Indian groups themselves. As state was governed by rich, Spanish-speaking ladinos, the Indians, who spoke another language, had no access to state affairs and hence were easily exploited and trapped in the same system of government without means to change. It is through realization of practice of this injustice - the coming of consciousness - that Indians become outraged and organize themselves, initiating a revolutionary movement. The coming of consciousness brought many changes in the ideologies of Guatemalan Indians. Prior to coming of consciousness, Indians accepted hunger, poverty and death as their fate. They saw hardship as an aspect of life, in which life itself was suffering. This ideology is deeply rooted in Indian culture and shown in its integration into tradition. The birthing ceremony is the first ritual performed during an Indian life, welcoming the baby into the world. However, it is also a time of grief for the baby, who is born to lead a life of suffering. The parents tell the baby of the hardships he or she will soon face.1 This ideology of enduring suffering prevented the Indians from questioning the reason and source behind their hardships. Furthermore, through the birthing ceremony, one of the most valued Indian principles was introduced to the baby by tying his or her hands and feet.2 This signifies that the child must never steal or abuse and show disrespect to living things; hence, never harm any form of life, especially human life. Such respect for life discouraged them from revolting without a rightful cause. It wasnʼt that the Indians were afraid to fight but rather, their humbleness and righteousness prevented them from fighting without first finding a reason. When landowners tried to take the Guatemalan Indiansʼ lands away from them, they gained reason to initiate resistance. For these Indian peasants, land is the sacred earth, which produced the maize and other crops that were vital to their life and culture. They worked very hard to possess and cultivate their land. In Guatemala at that time, vast stretches of land and most of fertile lands near the coast were owned by a small set of families, who established fincas and employed the Indians to cultivate coffee, cotton and sugar for export.3 Therefore, only infertile mountainous lands were left for the Indians. As in the case of Rigobertaʼs father, his family was forced to leave their home in the coastal regions due to debt and settle in infertile mountainous regions, as availability of fertile lands became limited, due occupation of wealthy ladinos. Government owned the land up in the mountains and to settle there, Riogobertaʼs father had to gain their permission and pay a fine.4 Rigobertaʼs parents managed to earn enough money by working at fincas to pay the fine. After gaining permission from the government, land was cleared and house was built. However, the land was infertile and had to be cultivated. It took 7 to 8 years for the infertile mountainous land to produce crops.5 During these initial years of settling, the family had to look for jobs in the fincas in order to support themselves and continue cultivating their land. Evidently, possessing and cultivating the land was a hard task that took time and effort. Therefore, it would be unimaginable for anyone to take the land away. The land was the reward that motivated the Indians to fight through the hardship, and it was also their hope for the future. Hence, resistance was an anticipated course of event to take place, but it took more than taking of lands to form revolutionary movements. The coming of the consciousness was sparked from the oppression of Indians. Such oppressions were easily witnessed through observing the poor living conditions at the fincas. The Indians worked from 3 in the morning until dark and were often fed hard tortillas and rotten beans.6 They earned low wages - an average of 30 to 40 centavos a day and lived in establishment that had no walls, only roof made of banana leaves, along with around 400 other people who worked in the finca.7 Therefore, they were exposed to clouds of mosquitoes at night, as well as element and spread of diseases.8 In such conditions, many children died and it wasnʼt unusual for women to give birth to around 9 or 10 children with only 3 of 4 of them surviving. The others died of malnutrition, poisoning or by other means.9 Rigoberta herself had 5 brothers and sisters, but two eldest brothers died due to malnutrition. Most Indian children did not even reach 15 years of age.10 What was even problematic was the exploitation of these already poor peasants by the rich landowner. The system by which the fincas operated, encouraged the workers to fall into debt through deductions of every small errors performed by them, such as damage to a branch of the coffee plant, and deductions whenever things were bought in the cantinas, where alcohol and groceries were sold.11 As a result, the Indians worked very hard for several months but often went back home without even a single centavo.12 Furthermore, the humbleness of the workers and their lack of power made them easy targets for bullying. In the case of Rigobertaʼs family, the landowner gathered up all Indians who worked in his finca and forced them to vote for a certain presidential candidate in this distorted system of democracy.13 Indians were illiterate and obeyed the landowner out of fear of getting kicked out without pay. The also obeyed because they saw the president as the leader of Ladinos, not the Indiansʼ leader, and hence the election did not matter to them.14 In addition, because there were no laws or unions to protect the workers, the overseers were able to kick workers out of the fincas, without appropriate reasons and pay. They also cheated the poor, honest Indians by meddling with machines to make the cotton weigh less; therefore, paying the workers less.15 Rigoberta witnessed many deaths while living in the finca, including her younger brother, friend and a woman named Dona Petrona Chona. Her younger brother died 15 days after they arrived at the finca, due malnutrition. A fine had to be payed to bury the dead baby; however, after it was paid, they were kicked out of the finca without their wage of 15 days worth of work for three people.16 They left for home helpless, unable to communicate the unfairness of the situation. Another death that Rigoberta witnessed, was the accidental death of her friend who died of poisoning when cottons were sprayed.17 After the death of her friend, Rigoberta began to see the realities of Indian life. There was no measure of consequence after an Indian life was lost, which indicated that their lives were worthless to the Ladinos in charge. In fact, death of Dona Petrona Chona showed ladinoʼs attitude towards murder of Indians quite clearly. This woman was murdered by the landownerʼs son, who ordered his fatherʼs bodyguard to disembody her with a machete because she refused to be his mistress.18 No one helped the screaming woman because they would be killed themselves or be dismissed from their job. This was the extent of abuse that the Indians lived through. The lives of the Indians were very fragile in that it could be exterminated without barely any consequence. This is shown when the major comes days after the murder and talks casually with the landowner as if nothing horrifying had took place.19 The punishment for the murder was for the bodyguard to spend 15 days in prison. This was done not to show reparation but out of sheer necessity to keep the Indians quiet. The indians were helpless in such conditions they faced. The government who judged the right and wrong were made of rich ladinos who based their decisions not on morality and principle, but on connections and discrimination against them. To bring the injustice into attention, the Indians needed to communicate with the government. It became clear that Spanish, the language of the enemy, was actually a necessary tool needed to fix their situations and to stand up for themselves so that no one else died in vain without their stories told, just as Dona Petrona Chona had done. Rigoberta, wanting to learn Spanish, left her family and went to a city to work as a maid. 20 A fair comparison between the rich and the poor can be made through Rigobertaʼs insight into the lives of the rich ladinos. When she was at the village of Huehuetenango, she reflected back to the lives of the rich, criticizing that they had two or three mattresses on their bed, while the Indians didnʼt even have a mat to sleep on.21 Such class gaps are seen not only materialistically, but through the treatment of Indians by the rich. Rigoberta remembered that she had felt rejected from the very first day because she was given hard tortillas and few beans, while the dog was given meat and rice.22 This implied that the dog was much more valued than the Indian, a human, to the rich ladino. The ladino also forced Rigoberta to use two months of wage to buy a new set of clothes because she was dirty and unpresentable.23 Clearly, although the money belonged to Rigoberta, she had no say in the use of the money and her right to her wage was ignored. The rich gave laziness as a reason why the Indians were so poor and dirty. However, this was untrue and it can be seen through the lifestyle of the rich. They woke up at 7 or 8 in the morning, while the Indians rose at 3.24 Rigoberta also remembers that all the rich woman did was complain and she would inspect everything and sleep.25 It was evident that laziness wasnʼt the reason for the poverty faced by the Indians, but rather the exploitation of the poor by the rich, which increased the class gap further and further. The lives of Indians were the living proof that the system of injustice, which was governed by the rich, was working effectively. Rigobertaʼs father was arrested two times for “compromising sovereignty” and being a political prisoner. However, the time he spent in prison was quite productive because he met an actual political prisoner who was fighting for peasantsʼ rights and the prisoner drew clearer picture of the unjust system and advised Rigobertaʼs father to form a union.26 The hunger, poverty and death, which the Indians assumed to be their fate, was not a natural part of life; but rather, something that was imposed upon them by the rich to keep themselves rich. It was exploitation of the poor through taking away the Indiansʼ rights, keeping them economically deprived by debt and taking over their land that the rich Ladinos became increasingly richer. Odds were against the Indians in fighting against the system of injustice in many aspects because fellow Indians did not speak the same language, making it harder for unification, they also did not speak the language of the state, which was Spanish, and government was the government of rich ladinos, partial to the situation and clearly would side against the Indians. Furthermore, fighting for the land required large amounts of money as lawyers and intermediaries had to be employed. The landowners, on the other hand, were wealthy enough to bribe the judge, as well as, pay the Indianʼs intermediaries to deliver false translations.27 This prevented the Indians, who spoke their own language, to communicate their situations clearly to the lawyers, who spoke Spanish. Meanwhile, INTA - Guatemalan National institute for Agrarian Transformations - were playing “double-sided game” in granting the landlords to take the Indianʼs land, while also ensuring the Indians that the land was theirs.28 INTA asked for money from both the landlords and the Indians so that the landlords could carry-on measuring the Indianʼs land, while the Indians had to pay 45 quetzals a month for paper and expenses. 29 This fight for land did not regard who had cultivated the land and lived there for many years, but rather, it was a fight of wealth and strength. The landlords offered “collective negotiations” to the Indians, which stated that they could live on the land as peones, but the Indians refused because the land belonged to them and they werenʼt willing to settle for anything.30 INTA came up with a solution. They tricked the Indians into signing a contract that allowed them to stay on the land for only two more years.31 The blinded Indians, who could not read Spanish and trusted INTA officers, signed. They were cheated and manipulated. They soon learned that the landowners and government were one and the same.32 The root of the problem rested in ownership of the land because it was cultivated land that brought wealth for the rich. When the infertile, mountainous land was cleared and cultivated by the Indians, the landowners came to claim it. This was the common pattern and something had to be done. The Committee for Campesino Unity, also known as CUC, was founded by the peasants and it organized them to fight for a common cause - the right of the peasants. 33 Since there is strength in numbers, CUC grew more powerful as more peasant Indian villages were organized. Such organization in the villages was necessary to defend against the Guatemalan soldiers who came to create havoc in the villages. On a larger scale, these villages gathered to protest for reforms. CUC eventually came out in the open on May 1978.34 The government separated the land among the Indians to spread them out and therefore, weaken their power. However, the village was organized so that everyone lived close to their neighbors. To prepare for the invasion of soldiers, the village people gathered to discuss about each of their roles prior to and during the invasion.35 They set up traps around the village and created emergency exits such as, back-doors and underground paths.36 They also had a camp where they could all go to during the invasion to stay safe. The weapons they had were not guns, but they were the Indiansʼ tools: machetes, stones, hot water, chile and salt.37 The result was a great success for the Indians, no one was hurt and the soldiers left frightened. They were also able to capture some soldiers, but they only interrogated them and did not kill. Instead of waiting for massacres to happen, it was necessary for the Indians to use force to defend themselves and it brought them great success. Furthermore, defense was created not only through force but also through the Bible. The Bible was the Indiansʼ great weapon. It gave them validation in fighting for the oppressed people. There are many examples in the Bible such as, Moses, Judith and David, whom the Indians could relate their lives to. For example, Moses led his people from oppression and Judith attacked the King to fight for her people.38 The institution of Catholic Church that took advantage of passiveness of the Indians in order to keep them quiet by stressing the importance in Kingdom of Heaven for the poor were questioned through analysis of the Bible, once the Indians were able to read. They understood that what God wanted for them was to create His Kingdom also on earth, but it could not be done if their people were dying of starvation.39 This gave them a new lesson of not letting anyone else think for them. Once again the coming to consciousness in analyzing the true meaning of Christianity gave Indians their great weapon - the Bible. CUC represented all the peasants in Guatemala, including the Ladino peasants. The situation between these poor Ladinos and the Indians were the same. Many of the poor Ladinos also worked in fincas and shared the same poor living conditions, due exploitation by the government. However, even with so much in common, discrimination still exited. Any Ladino, whether rich or poor, was better than an Indian. It was okay for a Ladino to cheat on an Indian. For example, when Indians went to market to sell their goods, they were often paid less and cheated on because they did not speak Spanish.40 This age-old discrimination originated from the desire to increase Ladinoʼs superiority. For poor Ladinos, it was discrimination that kept them from being inferiors. Such discrimination was maintained to keep the Indians at their place in society, the very bottom of the food chain. However, with this realization of discrimination, it angered the Indians and created a stronger desire to break away from the system of government that undervalued them. Indians did not have the notion of being superior or inferior because their culture saw that all life was equal before the earth, even those of animals. 41 Through poor Ladinos and Indians working together and sharing a common goal, they were able to slowly understand each other better. The discrimination based on misunderstanding of Indian culture and the stereotype that all Indians were dirty, would be re-evaluated through the communication between the two races and perhaps would eventually disappear. On many occasions the Indians were deceived and cheated by the government. Before the coming of consciousness, the definition of enemy had been those who stole and prostituted.42 There was no specific enemy for the Indians. However, all this changed. The enemy became the government.43 Such feelings of hatred for the government was the result of many years of being cheated and deceived on. For example, General Kjell promised the Indians land and when he came to power he divided up the land through agrarian reform, giving the Indians 0.7 hectares of land each.44 However, he cheated the Indians by setting up Guatemalan Forestry Commission, known as INAFOR.45 This made cutting of trees, without paying a fine, illegal and was justified by the fact that each Indian had a piece of land where they could grow whatever they needed. The nature, which used to belong to all the Indians were taken away by this action. Indians needed trees to cook and build things. Without trees being freely available, they could not create fire to cook. The indians sent letters and pleas to the government to allow them access to trees but the government rebuked the letters.46 However, wealthy businessmen had access to these trees and they cut down hundreds of trees for free.47 This increased the hatred for the government. It became clearly evident that documents and letters held no effect and the Indians had no influence over government policies. When Indians opposed the government, they were massacred. The Indians died defending their villages. For example, when General Kjell discovered oil in region of Panzos, they tried to take over Keckchi Indiansʼ lands.48 When opposition took form, the government killed them without any hesitation. On May 29th, 1978, a hundred and six lives were lost.49 From 1960s onwards, many massacres took place, along with rape and torture. The government tried to validate these wrongdoings by labeling the victims as communists. The Indians, who elected the leaders of the village, gathered to discuss everyoneʼs thoughts before making decisions, and valued all life equal, were far from being communists. On the other hand, the government, who ran unjust elections, only represented rich Ladinos, and undervalued the life of Indians, were considered a democratic government. This government accused the victims of being communists and tortured them. One of Rigobertaʼs brothers was among these victims and were told to appreciate the democratic Guatemalan government before getting killed.50 This was the reality of Guatemala. To obtain international attention, CUC occupied Swiss and Spanish embassies to protest against occupation of army in El Quiche.51 The government reacted by bombing the Spanish embassy. On 31st of January 1980, Rigobertaʼs father and many CUC activists, along with government officials who were present, died as a result.52 However, the activists deaths were not in vain because Spain broke off with Guatemala immediately and this isolated the Guatemalaʼs economy further.53 In such ways, blood was shed to make a point. The hatred for the government and the love for the people gave the Guatemalan Indians courage to face their death. From then on the Indians tried to weaken the government economically, politically and militarily.54 These Indians did not ask for much, the least they wanted was power. What is so devastating is that all they wanted was just enough to live on and obtain their rights as peasants. However, reality was that peace could not be kept. The government refused to listen and force was needed to express the Indiansʼ outrage over the injustice they faced. The government composed of rich Ladinos gained wealth by exploiting the Indians and cheating them out of their hard-earned wage and land. The system was such that the Indians could not obtain wealth. Wealth was impossible to accumulate in a country where most money was made through export crops, when all the fertile costal land belonged to few rich Ladinos. The Indians provided the labor, but wage was not even enough to provide necessary food for the family and many died of starvation. Even the little money that they earned was cheated out of them, as well as, the little land that they had, if they had any. Such system placed Indians in hunger, poverty and death. The institution of Catholic Church and discrimination against the Indians tried to maintain this unjust system and keep the Indians at the very bottom. The Church stressed passiveness and being dormant in facing an enemy in order to keep the Indians from revolting against the oppressors. The discrimination against the Indians also did its part in creating further gaps between the rich Ladinos and the Indians so that the system of government was inaccessible to be changed. The language barrier between the Ladinos and the Indians only made the matters worse. Once Indians realized such injustice, they had to act. The revolutionary movement of these Indians was born from the coming of consciousness - the realization that the injustice was imposed, not fated. The only prospect of reform was through force. The Indians, who valued their tradition and culture more than anything else and lived to pass on their beliefs and values, one of such being disapproval in killing and valuing all life, had to use force. This was because when the government did not listen to peaceful pleas, force was the last resort. Eventually, the Indians had come to support guerrilla groups that took up arms against the government. It was their expression of justice in face of hunger, poverty and death and it was their cry to survive. Endnote 1. Menchu, Rigoberta, I, Riogoberta Menchu (New York, 1984), 12. 2. Menchu, Rigoberta, 12. 3. Menchu, Rigoberta, 5. 4. Menchu, Rigoberta, 4. 5. Menchu, Rigoberta, 4. 6. Menchu, Rigoberta, 3. 7. Menchu, Rigoberta, 3. 8. Menchu, Rigoberta, 22. 9. Menchu, Rigoberta, 37. 10. Menchu, Rigoberta, 4. 11. Menchu, Rigoberta, 23. 12. Menchu, Rigoberta, 24. 13. Menchu, Rigoberta, 26. 14. Menchu, Rigoberta, 27. 15. Menchu, Rigoberta, 42. 16. Menchu, Rigoberta, 40. 17. Menchu, Rigoberta, 87. 18. Menchu, Rigoberta, 151. 19. Menchu, Rigoberta, 152. 20. Menchu, Rigoberta, 91. 21. Menchu, Rigoberta, 164. 22. Menchu, Rigoberta, 92. 23. Menchu, Rigoberta, 93. 24. Menchu, Rigoberta, 92. 25. Menchu, Rigoberta, 95. 26. Menchu, Rigoberta, 115. 27. Menchu, Rigoberta, 103. 28. Menchu, Rigoberta, 103. 29. Menchu, Rigoberta, 114. 30. Menchu, Rigoberta, 106. 31. Menchu, Rigoberta, 109. 32. Menchu, Rigoberta, 105. 33. Menchu, Rigoberta, 153. 34. Menchu, Rigoberta,153. 35. Menchu, Rigoberta, 127. 36. Menchu, Rigoberta, 128. 37. Menchu, Rigoberta, 129. 38. Menchu, Rigoberta, 131. 39. Menchu, Rigoberta, 134. 40. Menchu, Rigoberta, 160. 41. Menchu, Rigoberta, 18. 42. Menchu, Rigoberta, 57. 43. Menchu, Rigoberta, 123. 44. Menchu, Rigoberta, 157. 45. Menchu, Rigoberta, 158. 46. Menchu, Rigoberta, 158. 47. Menchu, Rigoberta, 159. 48. Menchu, Rigoberta, 160. 49. Menchu, Rigoberta, 160. 50. Menchu, Rigoberta, 178. 51. Menchu, Rigoberta, 185. 52. Menchu, Rigoberta, 185. 53. Menchu, Rigoberta, 186. 54. Menchu, Rigoberta, 231. Bibliography 1. Menchu, Rigoberta. I, Rigoberta Menchu. New York: Verso, 1984.