Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans
Expanded Edition New Foreword by Elizabeth Burgos by David Stoll Dec 24, 2007
Paperback
US $30.00
CAN $36.00
UK £17.99
ISBN: 9780813343969
ISBN-10: 0813343968
Published by Westview Press
Description
Rigoberta Menchú is a living legend, a young woman who said that her odyssey from a Mayan Indian village to revolutionary exile was ?the story of all poor Guatemalans.? By turning herself into an everywoman, she became a powerful symbol for 500 years of indigenous resistance to colonialism. Her testimony, I, Rigoberta Menchú, denounced atrocities by the Guatemalan army and propelled her to the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize. But her story was not the eyewitness account that she claimed. In this hotly debated book, key points of which have been corroborated by the New York Times, David Stoll compares a cult text with local testimony from Rigoberta Menchú?s hometown. His reconstruction of her story goes to the heart of debates over political correctness and identity politics and provides a dramatic illustration of the rebirth of the sacred in the postmodern academy. This expanded edition includes a new foreword from Elizabeth Burgos, the editor of I, Rigoberta Menchú, as well as a new afterword from Stoll, who discusses Rigoberta Menchú?s recent bid for the Guatemalan presidency and addresses the many controversies and debates that have arisen since the book was first published.
Reviews
"Stoll's important and painstaking work goes well beyond the particulars of Guatemala's monstrous history and Menchu's honest suffering to address broader issues-the role of created moral authority, the value of armed revolt, the validity of cross-cultural inquiry, the mysterious power of what he calls poetic truth."
— Joanne Omang , Washington Post
"Stoll not only succeeds in making his case for a new and convincing view of the Guatemalan conflict, he also succeeds in challenging us to think afresh about why so many North Americans have for so long accepted a view of war that is profoundly misleading."
— Charles Lane , New Republic
"U.S. leftists who give his arguments a full hearing-and who have not been deafened by their own dogma-will find Stoll's analysis difficult to dismiss. They may even come to regard it as one of those rare works that actually forces readers to revise their beliefs.
— Kevin J. Kelley , Seven Days
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