From: msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca (Mike Morris)
Subject: Travels with Rigoberta
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Sat, 17 Oct 1992 01:12:56 GMT


                                       Friday, the 16th of October, 1992

I read in tonight's paper that Rigoberta Menchu has been awarded
the Nobel Peace Prize. Her name would have meant nothing to me
except that Chapter 3 of Dinesh D'Souza's book, _Illiberal
Education_, is titled ``Travels with Rigoberta''. In that chapter,
D'Souza covers the debate on the Western civ canon at Stanford,
and the aftermath of the introduction of the ``Cultures, Ideas
and Values'' program in 1989. D'Souza takes Rigoberta's book,
_I, Rigoberta Menchu, An Indian Woman in Guatemala_ (edited
and introduced by Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, translated by Ann Wright,
Verso, New York, 1983), as representative of the kind of book
that has been displacing Plato in trendy curricula.

D'Souza's take on her book is to be found on pages 71--73 of his.
Apparently, her book is a transcription by Burgos-Debray of
an oral narrative by Ms. Menchu. According to D'Souza, much of the
book is filled with recollections of an unsurprising
childhood. But the book also tells the story of a political coming of
age, with Rigoberta becoming ``first a feminist, then a socialist,
then a Marxist. By the end of the book Rigoberta is attending
Popular Front conferences in Paris, discoursing on `bourgeouis
youths' and `Molotov cocktails'; there is even a chapter
titled `Rigoberta Renounces Marriage and Motherhood.' ''

OK, so maybe it won't play in Peoria, but D'Souza's animus
continues, basically concluding that the only thing you
you can say *for* Rigoberta is that she's been a victim
(her parents were killed by the Guatemalan security forces):

        But Rigoberta is no ordinary victim. As Burgos-Debray
        argues, she has suffered from multiple vectors of
        simultaneous oppression. Rigoberta is a `person of color'
        and thus a victim of racism. She is a woman, and thus a
        victim of sexism. She lives in South America, which is
        a victim of European and North American colonialism. If
        this were not bad enough, she is Indian, victimized by
        latino culture within Latin America.
           Rigoberta's claim to eminence is that, as a consummate
        victim, she is completely identified with the main currents
        of history. Undergraduates do not read Rigoberta because
        she has written a great and immortal book, or performed
        a great deed, or invented something udeful. She simply
        happened to be in the right place at the right time. She
        supports the historicist pedagogy of CIV advocates who
        believe, with Hegel and Marx, that being is historical
        and that history progresses toward a designated end,
        in this case the final emancipation of the proletariat.
          Rigoberta's victim status may be unfortunate for her personal
        happiness, but is indispensible for her academic reputation.
        Rigoberta is a modern Saint Sebastian, pierced by arrows of
        North American white male cruelty; thus her life story
        becomes an explicit indictment of the historical role
        of the West and Western institutions. Her very appearance
        and tribal garb are a rebuke to European culture; for
        Rigoberta to style her hair, or wear a suit, would corrupt
        her with Western bric-a-brac. As it stands, she is an
        ecological saint, made famous by her very obscurity, elevated
        by her place in history as a representative voice of oppression.
        Now it is her turn to be canonized---quite literally, for her
        to enter the Stanford canon. [pp. 72,73]

In the short wire-service article in our local paper, it calls her
an ``Indian rights activist''. It also says ``Guatemala's
military says Menchu supports the leftist guerillas in the
country's civil war, and it had denounced her nomination for the prize.''
Francis Sejersted, who is the chairman of the Nobel awards committee,
is quoted as saying ``We are aware that this is a somewhat controversial
prize.''

OK, so ever since I travelled to Guatemala in 1987 to hike
inside the rainforest, I've read and taken some interest
in Guatemalan affairs. I certainly have no love for the
Guatemalan military. Also, D'Souza distorts, I think.
But ``Molotov cocktails'' with the Peace Prize?

I'm wondering if anyone out there has actually read _I, Rigoberta Menchu_
and can verify or gainsay D'Souza's take.

               Mike Morris
        (msmorris@watsci.uwaterloo.ca)