Rigoberta Menchú and the Conversion of Consciousness

Abstract

The awkward but fascinating plot of the Guatemalan autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchú has puzzled readers since its appearance in English in 1983. Critics have discussed its use of secrecy to preserve the mystery of the native way of life (Sommer), its use of the testimonial genre and oral-to-written format to show its unique relationship to social movements in Central America (Beverley), and its cross-cultural situation in relation to its third-world origins and its first-world readers (Gunn). No one, however, has made sense out of the awkwardly didactic restructuring of descriptions and events by Menchú’s Venezuelan translator, Elisabeth Burgos-Debray. A close analysis of the “plotting” of Menchú’s story into thirty-four chapters suggests that three principles are at work beneath the structuring of this autobiography. First, the autobiography can be read as Menchú’s encounter with three types of otherness—internal others within herself, external others in the dominant culture, and the “other” of death on the faces of suffering villagers, especially her dying brother, father, and mother. Second, these encounters with otherness lead to a conversion of consciousness, both within the autobiographer Menchû herself and within the minds of her readers. These conversions of consciousness are mediated by the subtext of a theology of liberation, which helps Menchú become aware of the divine suffering Other in the faces of her people, and of her own responsibility to work as a catechist and organizer in the altipiano of Guatemala.KeywordsPersonal StoryReligious ConversionGuatemala CityLiberation TheologyFull CommitmentThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.