ABSTRACT
An abrupt ridge dominated the skyline above Chimel, with the houses nestled among hillocks and hollows at its foot. Breaking through Rigoberta Menchu’s descriptions of exploitation are childhood memories of her village as a bucolic place. Rigoberta’s 1982 testimony weaves together many threads of the indigenous experience in Guatemala, but one that is missing is land conflict between peasants. The rest of the village spent the month camped outside their houses, wet and miserable. National Institute for Agrarian Transformation (INTA) sent a commission, which decided in Vicente’s favor and enabled his community to reoccupy their homes—until another court-ordered eviction forced them to repeat the process. The refusal to stop fighting for the 151 hectares, thereby delaying the INTA title for the 2,753, became the basic grievance against Vicente within Chimel. The least charitable explanation for Vicente’s behavior, the one offered by opponents, is that he was fattening off the collections for legal expenses.
