Rigoberta Menchú Tum

•Born in 1959 in Guatemala’sdepartment of El Quiche

•Native language is Quiche (K’iche)

•Mountainous topography of Quiche: site of much guerilla activity and subsequent army repression

I, Rigoberta Menchú

• Menchú and her family participated in CUC (Peasant Union Committee)– Brother tortured and killed by army in 1979– Father (Vicente Menchú) killed in Spanish

embassy fire in 1980– Mother was raped, tortured, and killed by

the army later that year– Menchú (in her early 20s) went into hiding

and then went to Mexico in exile

I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (1983)

• While living in exile in Mexico, Menchú gave a testimonial account of Guatemala’s civil war to Elisabeth Burgos Debray

• David Stoll critique: Menchú could not have been eye-witness, account is unreliable

• 1992: Menchú awarded Nobel Peace Prize (500th anniversary of Columbus arrival to the Americas)

• Activism towards recognition of indigenous rights throughout the Americas

• Presidential candidate in 2007

Ethnic Identity Markers in Guatemala• Language

– not easily learned or assumed– generally requires intense interaction with

native speakers• Dress

– Marker of ethnicity: marks one as indigenous (traje) or ladino (Western clothing)

– more fluid than language• Religion, surnames, phenotype

huipil (p’ot): blouse

corte (uq):skirt

faja (ximbal): belt

Dress• Dress and fluidity of identity: can

emphasize and present different aspects of identity

• Place specific: traje associated with ethnic group and with specific towns

• Traje also indicates wealth, age, religion, worldliness of wearer

Elaborate Traje

Cultural Significance of Weaving•Connects modern women to pre-Conquest ancestors•Symbolic of Maya women’s work in the household

Weaving on a Backstrap Loom

Men’s Traje

• Tecpan region: white pants, blue or white shirt, dark wool jacket, hat, sandals

• Use of traje disappearing among men–Greater participation in non-Maya

world

Declining Use of Traje

• Kaqchikel girls not learning how to weave because spend more time on schoolwork

• Globalization:– Influence of television that gives status

to Western clothing (shorts, miniskirts, jeans)

– Ropa americana (second-hand clothing from US sold cheaply in Latin America)

Maya RevitalizationMixing of traje:

– Solidarity– Status– Admire beauty of clothing – Men’s bomber jackets symbolic of

participation in Maya movement in 1990s

Maya Movement

• Cultural revitalization: encourage women to use traje and learn to weave

• Why don’t men return to using traje?– Male participation in non-Maya world– Impossibility to hide one’s identity in

traje– Did not grow up wearing traje