1. Rigoberta Menchú Tum Born in 1959 in Guatemala’s
department of El Quiche
Native language
is Quiche (K’iche)
Mountainous topography of Quiche: site of much guerilla activity and subsequent army repression

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. huipil (p’ot): blouse corte (uq): skirt faja (ximbal): belt

7. 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

8. Elaborate Traje

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

11. Weaving on a Backstrap Loom

12. 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

13. 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)

14. Maya Revitalization Mixing of traje: Solidarity Status
Admire beauty of clothing
Men’s bomber jackets symbolic of participation in Maya movement in 1990s

15. 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