Who Is Rigoberta Menchu?

In 1984, Nobel Peace Prize–winner and indigenous rights activist RigobertaMenchú published I, RigobertaMenchú, her autobiographical account of life in Guatemala undera military dictatorship to great acclaim. The book rapidly transformedthe study and understanding of modern Guatemalan history. Since then,her memoir has increasingly become a target for rightwing historians andcommentators seeking to discredit Menchú’s account and to deny thegenocide carried out by the Guatemalan military regime with US support.Greg Grandin, in this crucial accompaniment to Menchú’s work, takes onher critics to set the story straight. He investigates the historical contextand political realities that underlie Menchú’s past and the ongoing debatesurrounding it, in this substantial new work on Guatemalan history.