Rigoberta Menchu Chapter Summary

Throughout the beginning of her testimonial, Rigoberta Menchu defines her life and circumstances through suffering eyes. Tradition teaches her that life is about pain and hardships that must be endured. Generation after generation has accepted this lot in life, which is inevitable. She feels suffering is her peoples fate. Yet in Chapter XVI a profound movement occurs within her consciousness. She starts questioning the inevitability of suffering, wondering if it is somehow preventable. She also implements her communal outlook on life to encompass other Indian communities besides her own. Her knowledge of the injustice being rained on her people is realized to effect neighboring communities as well. Being suffocated by oppression, Rigoberta starts to move from suffering to struggle in an attempt to find a new way of life. Her realization that she is not alone in her oppression brings her a sense of freedom. It validates her emerging thoughts of wanting to rise up and shine a light on injustice. Her worries about not wanting to grow up because of the harsh life that awaits her is a common thought among
She analyzes the gap between the rich and the poor and discovers that exploitation is at the core. By keeping the poor paralyzed with fear, the rich are able to take advantage of the poor and bear the fruits of their labor. Rigoberta sees the manipulative ways that the rich capitalize on the poor. If not through sheer force and violence it's through the overcharging of legal fees, underpay at the finca, and using the language barrier to their advantage. All these exploitive measures light the fire of hate in Rigobertas' heart. She's too disgusted to fear anymore and is no longer in acceptance of her passive role. All these new realizations and thoughts start cultivating a mind set of activism which is new to Rigoberta and is most definitely outside the box from which she was brought up to think