Breaking the Silence
"You lift your head and they break it. You open your mouth and they shut it. You take a step forward and you're dead."
-Rafael Yos Muxtay, kidnapped in 1985; Guatemala: Eternal Spring, Eternal Tyranny
At a time in history when speaking out against military repression was generally equated with death, Menchú spoke out and publicized the Guatemalan situation. Representing the January 31st Popular Front, she spoke throughout Europe in 1982. There Menchú met anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos, who transcribed her autobiography, I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala. This book became an international bestseller, shedding light upon the atrocities occurring in Guatemala, but later becoming a source of controversy [see “Controversy” tab].
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"The voice of Rigoberta Menchú allows the defeated to speak. She is a privileged witness: she has survived the genocide that destroyed her family and community and is stubbornly determined to break the silence and to confront the systematic extermination of her people. She refuses to let us forget. Words are her only weapons."
-Elisabeth Burgos; Introduction to I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
"My name is Rigoberta Menchú. I am twenty-three years old. This is my testimony. I didn't learn it from a book and I didn't learn it alone. I'd like to stress that it's not only my life, it's also the testimony of my people. It's hard for me to remember everything that's happened to me in my life since there have been many very bad times but, yes, moments of joy as well. The important thing is that what has happened to me has happened to many other people too: My story is the story of all Guatemalans. My personal experience is the reality of a whole people." |
Following the tour in Europe, Menchú continued to speak publicly; she toured the U.S. speaking to missionary and political groups, hosting solidarity workshops, and lobbying Congress and State Courts.
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