Period of reflection on the road to follow

Introduction

In this paper, we are going to critically analyze the chapter 16 of the book which is, “Period of reflection on the road to follow”,. We will make analysis of each and every part of this chapter in order to understand the main point of the author describing in this chapter.

Discussion and Analysis

This chapter clearly, the present airings of doubt about Rigoberta Menchu's life story are emblematic of the political skepticism of the 1990s--a decade that witnessed the collapse of really-existing socialism, the failure of Sandinismo in Nicaragua and the retreat of progressives everywhere from any semblance of a radical engagement or a global vision (Rigoberta & Burgos, 119).

The chapter presents controversies surrounding I, Rigoberta Menchu also require an understanding of how its literary-polemical form, the testimonio, or testimony, emerged in the 1970s and 1980s. The testimony grew out of the unique relationship between popular movements in Latin America--especially Central America--and solidarity movements in the United States and Western Europe. The goal of the testimony was to didactically convey salient sociological facts to a Northern audience through an exemplary life history, and to thereby solicit moral, political and economic support for local struggles (Rigoberta & Burgos, 120).

Revolutionary upheavals in Central America were in no small part struggles over basic material resources. These conflicts acquired horrific scale and brutality owing to the racist legacies of colonialism and the entrenchment of landed elites in authoritarian governments and abusive militaries. Communicating complex historical lessons like these has always been difficult, but it proved well-nigh impossible to convey the salient facts against a Reagan propaganda offensive demonizing Communist aggression in "our backyard."

This chapter describes Rigoberta Menchu's life story was more successful than myriad other testimonies of the period because, in the circulation of meanings on a ...