ABSTRACT
Rigoberta was dramatizing her life like a Hollywood scriptwriter might, in order to have an impact. Still, factuality is a legitimate issue for any narrative claiming to be an eyewitness account, especially one that has been taken as seriously as Rigoberta’s. Uspantan is not a microcosm for the entire war, but through Rigoberta’s story it has been widely construed as archetypal. I, Rigoberta Menchu was an echo in Paris of the Guerrilla Army of the Poor. It was also the story of a young woman who “tried to turn some experience into something which was common to a whole people.” Rigoberta was not known to most indígenas until the left began to publicize her as a Nobel candidate in 1991. International adulation for Rigoberta has brought out the Guatemalan penchant for backbiting. Abroad it is the published version of Rigoberta’s story that prevails so foreign admirers have put their faith in a more detailed, problematic version of Rigoberta’s story.
