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Summary: Most intense account I've ever read on global inequalities
Review: Ever page of this book is a lesson in history, politics and economics. We don't know what our lives are really worth until we read the accounts of this woman's experiences as a human being treated as a pile of dirt. Do yourself a favor, read this book, learn from it and apply the lesson you learn from it in your own lives. I know I plan on doing it.
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Summary: Slow-moving, tedious (& fallacious) tale of Guat. struggle
Review: I am sure that anyone familiar with Rigoberta Menchu is also familiar with David Stoll and his book "I, Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans" The well-known facts of Menchu's exaggerations aside, the book is certainly no literary masterpiece as it was edited by feminist ethnographer Burgos-Debray from tape-recorded conversations with the title character into Spanish, for neither of whom was it their first language. The flow is stilted and tedious, with long idealized accounts of the "noble savage" Indian community life and the ferocious fair-skinned oppressors; and while the nasty war in Guatemala has claimed many thousands of lives Menchu melodramatically idealizes the conflict as a purely right-wing government vs. oppressed Maya struggle. As the idea of a somewhat accurate account, or "testimonial," as many academics prefer, the book is at times strong with its image of a young girl of a miserably oppressed class speaking in recently learned, fairly simple Spanish quite frankly of horrendous atrocities and massacres, as well as the extreme discrimination faced by Indians even by mixed blood "ladinos" in similar conditions. Even these wretchedly poor ladinos found solace in the fact that at least they were not Indians. But what is the difference, really, Menchu demands. Also interesting is the author's intertwinement of Biblical ideas from the local helpful Catholic Action (Menchu in reality went to a Catholic boarding school) with her people's native beliefs, drawing particularly heavily upon Exodus. Although the reading was slow, at least some of these themes were interesting; I, however, was greatly insulted upon learning of Menchu's exaggerations and falsities. The book, to me, at least, already had very little going for it, and then I find that much of it was distorted (the central theme of an Maya-rich landowner land struggle was actually a dispute between Menchu's father and his in-laws!) to gain greater appeal from academia in the US and Europe to Guatemala. Menchu's story still deserves that second star, nonetheless, as it is a colossal example of the unfortunate state of modern academia and its "facts don't matter" approach to such romantic issues as the oppressed native Indian in contrast to the cruel white man. Guatemala's social history has certainly been nasty, but this is certainly not a good account (literarily nor factually) of that country in its idealized portrait of the Indian masses and their noble resistance to savage oppressors.
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Summary: Nice work of fiction...
Review: I believe this book has some value. There are some nice insights into the mind and culture of the quiche maya people. This book also presents a nice study of marxist class struggle. Unfortunately only a small percentage of this book is to be believed... If you find that this book reads like a classic marxist example of class and ethnic struggle don't be surprised. Menchu herself was much more aligned to the marxist guerillas in the mayan highlands than she wanted you to believe in this book and her book was written with the help of a french leftist. It's unfortuante that menchu's story of pain suffering and struggle have been used for the benefit of the left in this country and europe as well as guatemala. Certainly many have been duped into thinking this story is true and it convinced the gullible nobel commitee to give her the 1992 peace prize...
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Summary: Want to know what suffering is really like?
Review: I first heard of Rigoberta Menchu's story from my political science professor who admitted to me that he physically got sick while reading it. Needless to say the book made me sick as well, but mentally and emotionally not physically. The atrocities inflicted on Rigoberta's people are to the degree of which to say that it is inhuman or evil does not even come close. Having myself read the accounts of Nazi deathcamps and the Holocaust I found this even more disturbing. The struggle of Menchu's people to overcome the oppression from the Guatemalan government seems an arduous, almost impossible one. If one has the stomach for it this book is as real as it gets, giving a first hand account of a simple people being slaughtered by a government that treats it's own people worse than dogs. Hardly a "Marxist" rambling like some have labled it- a must read.
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Summary: The truth of the birth of all our nations is in this book.
Review: I read his book when I returned home from spending five weeks in Guatemala. This book is a strong testimony of the struggle that the TRUE Guatemalans had to, and are still, enduring. Rigoberta created this book to make known the struggle of her people, and to stir a change. Not to profit with money, but to enlighten the outside world of the disrespect and judgement that her people face day in and day out. Reading her book also made think of the treatment African-Americans had to, and still are, experiencing. In fact, I doubt if anyone on this planet hasn't experienced bigotry in one form or another. Those judgements were how all our nations were created. The weak were enslaved, the strong profited and became rich. Once they became rich they controlled everything and created the system so they can remain above the others. We're all the same, what separates us is money. Times need to change. "Heaven is here among you"
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Summary: An honest human biography of a Guatamalan Mayan Woman
Review: I started reading this book for a Spanish class, I felt ashamed of the human race for treating our fellow human beings worse than animals. The struggle of Rigoberta Menchu along with her people shows us their honest desire of trying to live in peace with nature and their Gods, we so-called Civilized people could learn so much from Rigoberta and her people.Sometimes I think we should all go back to nature and start all over again. Maybe then we could learn to live in peace with one another relying once again on our fellow man and restoring our once beautiful earth. The injustices inflicted upon the original Guatemalan Mayan people our inhuman, even though they haven't gone to school as we have, their wisdom far succombs ours. I only hope that someone hears her cry and really helps her people. /Quetzi
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Summary: Would be of far more value if true.
Review: I truly regret not giving the book more stars. The civil war in Guatemala was among the bloodiest in history, and was instigated by the United States. I don't deny that but acknowledge it freely. The Maya indigenous have suffered misearably since we Europeans hit the shores of this hemisphere, also acknowledged. Indeed, over half of the indigenous perished from small pox, which is why we began to import Africans as slaves. (I do not, however, hold collective "Europeans" or their symbolic henchman, Columbus, responsible for all the world's evils. There's enough of us in all cultures to blame for those! What's more, as much as we affluent types whine about it, "Western" or "Eurocentric" (whatever that means) consumerism provides resources far more useful than laptops, cell phones and "natural" foods from which even the poor benefit!) Further, the U.S. visibly collaborated in the process of the war, military "advisors," weapons, etc. And I know this because I was in Guatemala shortly after reading the book, during the civil war, and stopped by the Guatemalan army holding weapons I paid for. However, despite all this, and despite my disagreement with many of David Stoll's conclusions in the book he wrote about Rigoberta's claims, much of what she said was simply untrue. I hear excuses for her constantly. "She said, 'It's about the people...'," and countless other excuses for her disrespect for her real story. Is that what relativism and post-modernism has done? The truth is less important that an ideological point to make? And what does Rigoberta's lack of credibility do to that of others who've suffered more than she? That saddens me. And what if, say, George W. Bush were to tell stories about how he grew up poor in Texas, is, therefore, just another sample of a poor guy making it? Isn't that also writing "for the people?" And as credible... I'm disturbed too that so many hyper-conservative ideologues have used Rigoberta's tales against her and against the people she ostensibly represents. Horowitz is a prime example, but others abound in these pages. Oh, one must remember that the book itself was a recitation to the spouse of a French Marxist. So it starts from an ideological perspective right off, thereby, to me, losing credibility. And Rigoberta's having stated later that it's not her real story even ads to its incredibility. I've met Rigoberta, indeed, am quite charmed by her. And my sympathy for "her people" is vast. I'm also well-read on, and deeply concerned about what went on--and is going on--in Guatemala. But that doesn't justify romanticising her story as that "of the people." Of the people the story probably is. So, then, let "the people" tell it, or at least don't attribute it to yourself.
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Summary: Good (if unwitting) expose of Indian culture
Review: I was made to read this book as part of a course on Latin American history. While mostly drivel, it is valuable in its insights into the Indian mindset and the root causes of Indian poverty. It's hard to miss in Rigoberta's narrative the many reasons why Native American cultures have all but died out -- after all, she describes the ignorant workings of her own backward culture in detail.
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Summary: Powerful*
Review: I, Rigoberta Menchu is a powerful depiction of the life Rigoberta has faced in Guatemala. Part of its strength comes from the way it is written. The basis for the book comes from a series of interviews conducted by anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. These interviews were taped, transcribed, and organized. Consequently, the book reads as if Rigoberta Menchu is talking directly to the audience. The book also contains several explanations and examples of her culture. For that reason alone it is a good book, but there is so much more to it. In addition, we see how the Indians in Guatemala were oppressed, but more importantly, Rigoberta Menchu offers the "Why?" For example, Indians are discriminated against because they sleep in the same clothes they work in. However, she points out how there is no choice in the matter. Everyone has to wake up before sunrise and work into the night just to earn the little they are paid. Just as she had to break through the barriers to unite the different tribes of Guatemala, so does the book fight to break down stereotypes and misconceptions.
This book will definitely trigger some kind of response. Perhaps the hardships and oppression her family faced will evoke sympathy or pain or disbelief. For example, when the workers were able to get their wages increased, the landowners turn around and increase penalties, some monetary, for unsatisfactory work, which more than exceed the raise allotted to them. The book gives a voice and a rare look at the world through the eyes of the oppressed.
However, the book does have its controversies. That is why I included the asterisk in the review title. The accusation is that portions of the book, or maybe even the whole, have been fabricated. However, there must be some truth to the story. All biographies or autobiographies contain some embellishments. Therefore, the disconnect between the events in the story and evidence in real life should not destroy quality of the book. Rigoberta Menchu did not win the Nobel Prize for Literature, but her ideals and actions more than warrant recognition as a fighter for peace and justice.
As stated before, there must be some truth to the book. There was a repression in Guatemala and several of her family members, including her parents, are dead directly or indirectly because of it.
Rating: 
Summary: A Must Read for Anyone Interested In Guatamala
Review: I, Rigoberta Menchu, is an excellent book that anyone interested in Guatamalan affairs must read. Despite critics nitpicking the author's claims and questioning her honesty, I believe that she wrote this book to tell the world about her culture and the horrible repression experienced by her people. Some chapters are easier to read than others, but you simply must read this book. It WILL influence you.
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