Guatemala Trips - I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala
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List Price: $20.00
Guatemala Trips Price: $18.00
Your Save: $ 2.00 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Verso
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 972.8100497
EAN: 9780860917885
ISBN: 0860917886
Label: Verso
Manufacturer: Verso
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 252
Publication Date: 1984-06
Publisher: Verso
Studio: Verso
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Editorial Reviews:
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This book recounts the remarkable life of Rigoberta Menchu, a young Guatemalan peasant woman. Her story reflects the experiences common to many Indian communities in Latin America today. Rigoberta suffered gross injustice and hardship in her early life: her brother, father and mother were murdered by the Guatemalan military. She learned Spanish and turned to catechist work as an expression of political revolt as well as religious commitment. The anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, herself a Latin American woman, conducted a series of interviews with Rigoberta Menchu. The result is a book unique in contemporary literature which records the detail of everyday Indian life. Rigoberta's gift for striking expression vividly conveys both the religious and superstitious beliefs of her community and her personal response to feminist and socialist ideas. Above all, these pages are illuminated by the enduring courage and passionate sense of justice of an extraordinary woman.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: Why hasn't this damned book just gone away?
Comment: I was wandering through the stacks of textbooks being read by students at an expensive, west-coast university recently and about passed out when I saw that this obscene waste of trees is STILL required reading.
It says volumes about the totally intellectually debased education young people are getting and that their parents are taking out second mortgages to pay for.
And then these same ignorant young adults go out and vote in droves for "change." Well, this is where that mentality comes from.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Redundant Rambling Fiction
Comment: It is common knowledge that this book is really a pile of lies. It isn't much of an autobiography and leaves the reader wondering which, if any, parts of it to really consider seriously.
It is truly painful to read due to the unending redundant rambling nature of Menchu's storytelling.
I cannot believe that this garbage is still being assigned as required reading. Worthless.
Customer Rating:
Summary: I,Roberta Menchú
Comment: We give I, Rigoberta Menchú four stars because it was a good book but at the same time it was complicated to understand. For instead, it was a good book because she explains her life very well with details. Rigoberta also never gave up she kept going no matter as hard situation she'll face in her life. This book is complicated because Rigoberta just keeps repeating her self, is like we want to know more, something different. What we learn from this book, if we really truly want something we should never give up and when you feel like falling down for a moment, pick your self up and accomplish your dream.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Amazing book of survival
Comment: I read this book years ago and re-read it again recently. It is still one of my favorite books. Rigoberta Menchu suffered unbelievable atrocities and incredible losses and still lived to tell her courageous story through an interpreter. I think the book is phenomenal and I recommend it to anyone with a heart. It helps explain a lot about the Guatamalen people and their strife. It also is a timely book since the illegal immigration debate rages on in this country on a daily basis. It paints a vivid picture of the suffering of indigenous peoples and helps us to relate to their need to escape their countries in search of a better life. I dont know what David Stoll had to gain by writing a book that contradicted Menchu's powerful account. She states at the beginning of her book that her perspective is hers alone and that her memories may have been clouded by the trauma. It makes me crazy when people pick apart one tiny aspect of a book and then, throw the entire thing out as a sham. The same thing happened with the James Frey book, A million little pieces. People tended to ignore the overall strengths of the book and his basic message of surviving drug addiction over a few little insignificant details. This book is the same situation. The overall message and story of rigoberta menchu is so powerful and moving, it must be read, even if there is a fact or two that someone wants to contradict.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Memorable
Comment: I read this book shortly before visiting Guatemala, and I have to say it made my travel experience alot richer. I felt more sensitized to the currents of racism and political struggle still present in the country, as well as to the pain of a people recovering from a horror in the not so distant past. Nearly every Guatemalan that I met had some powerful story of the genocide, and this book gave me a good background on the facts and politics behind the peasant struggle.
Though it has been criticized as being imbellished and realistically inaccurate, I think that it can still be used as a tool to learn about the native Quiche culture in past and present times. Their spiritual and political beliefs and their connections to the natural world are interwoven throughout the memoir. And most importantly, the horror of a major Latin American genocide that still scars the memories of peasants in the region today. Rigoberta was very matter of fact in sharing information about the torture and killing of her people in gruesome detail... so detailed that it was difficult to read at times, but nevertheless, essential in understanding the extent of the what happened to her people.
Whether you read this book as fact or historical fiction, I think it is a good read for anyone interested in Latin American history, politcal science, peasant cultures, or human rights. It is a story that will stick in your mind... and your heart.
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