BETWEEN RIGOBERTA MENCHU AND LA VIOLENCIA: DECONSTRUCTING DAVID STOLL'S HISTORY OF GUATEMALA

In: Latin American perspectives: a journal on capitalism and socialism, Band 26, Heft 6, S. 38-46

Abstract

THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT IT IRONIC THAT STOLL UNDERMINES TESTIMONY AS A RESOURCE FOR HISTORY WHEN HIS OWN RECONSTRUCTIONS OF HISTORY LACK CREDIBLE SOURCES. TESTIMONY HAS BEEN AND CONTINUES TO BE THE PRINCIPAL AVENUE BY WHICH SEMILITERATE AND ILLITERATE PEOPLE CAN COMMUNICATE WITH THOSE WHO WISH TO UNDERSTAND THEIR STRUGGLES. MENCHU NEVER CLAIMED TO BE APOLITICAL. TESTIMONY IS ITSELF INHERENTLY POLITICAL, AND STOLL ATTACKS THE VERY ESSENCE OF MENCHU'S BOOK, WHICH IS THE RIGHT OF THE MAYA IN GENERAL AND MAYA WOMEN IN PARTICULAR TO POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, SELF-REPRESENTATION, AND POLITICAL ACTION.