Differen Rigoberta Menche Indian Culture Summary

A Thorny Path Of the Quiche Indians
When we hear the word “Culture” every person thinks about different things. Some people might think about an ethnic dance or traditional clothes, or something totally different, like importance of the family or values of ancestors. Every culture is unique. We won't be able to truly understand different cultures, until we spend a relatively long time living deeply drowned in it. However, only living in the culture won't help people to solve issues brought by different backgrounds, understanding the culture is a main goal. The only way that people will be able to reach it - is through communication.
It is not a secret that communication is a very powerful tool. People, who know how to use it, will be successful in many different areas. Almost all wars, problems and negative experience occur due to lack of communicational skills and difficulties of understanding the culture values of different tribes. One of the main problems that might occur between two people from the
different parts of the world is that they would look at the things through different perspectives. Their judgments will be based on their norms and values in which they were raised. For instance, Geert Hofstede made a significant impact on the study of cultural dimensions. He proposed a set of indicators that define the cultural characteristics of different nations that were based on his research. His work of cultural dimensions helped in many arias connected with communications. For example, with understanding main issues of cross-cultural interactions, diplomats improved their relations with different cultures or many international organizations advanced their work worldwide. Hofstede's work helps to understand and explore the differences and similarities of various cultures.
The book “ I Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala” is based on a real experience of a brave woman that despite all the obstacles and circumstances that was given her by fate, achieved incredible goals that seemed to be impossible for almost every person in her community. She was born in the family of the Quiche Indians, who were settled in the Guatemalan mountains, in the place called Altipanos. Her people have been suffering for many years before she was born, and they suffered for many years after. Suffering made the Quiche Indians appreciate the value of family and community.
When the Guatemalan army came to the Altipanos, they destroyed almost everything: starting with material things and ending with ruining families. From that point, Rigoberta Menchu and the Quiche Indians went straight into fighting. The pain of loosing the family and community was like a trigger for them. The Quiche Indians were silent for many years, but realizing that they lost the most important in their lives, their family and friends, made them strong to resist the enemy.
When Rigoberta Menchu was thirteen her parents told her that her life wouldn’t change, “...it would go on the same- work, poverty, suffering ” (p.48) However, Rigoberta's willingness to change the life of her people, to fight with the cultural discrimination that they were facing and give the voice of her ancient culture, gave her a power to speak up loudly and make the world to listen to her voice.
The Quiche Indians have a very high context culture. The main characteristics of high culture were discussed through out Rigoberta’s story. In high context culture people usually indirect and polite, they value family, friends and personal relations. They trust and take care of each other. One of the main parts of the Quiche Indian's culture is based on the strong sense of the community. All struggles that the Quiche Indians went through together made them very close. They live like one big family. Their relations build on trust, and everyone is sure that their children are safe in the community. When a woman is pregnant, all neighbors from the community would support her with attention. It is a custom to visit, talk, bring gifts and share food with her. People in the community have a very hard live, but they still try not to stop doing good things. They know that the whole community is watching them, so it is hard to hide something from them. The Quiche Indians keep their tradition in secret and pass them from generation to generation.
In the Quiche Indian culture they have a tradition to select representatives from the community, which are becoming like second parents for everyone. The Quiche Indians usually have very big families. When someone in the community gives a birth to the child, this child belongs to everybody in the community. If something happens to the parents, the representatives of the community will take care of the baby.
In addition, the Quiche Indians shares the land among each other. Each family has their own land where they can grow food. Also, the whole community shares the common piece of land. It is used in a case when a family would need an extra food due to illness or injure. The sharing land has a huge meaning for the Quiche Indians that brings them closer to each other. It is normal for them to do hard work together. As Rigoberta Menchu stated, for one family the clinging bushes will take a mouth, but together they will finish in a couple of days.

The Quiche Indians strongly connected with nature. Even when a child is not born yet, his mother is talking with him about importance of the nature. “You must never abuse the nature and you must live your life as honestly as I do” (p.8) Nature plays an important role in the Quiche Indians culture. Everything that Indians have is given them by the nature. The Quiche Indians build houses from the wood, and they eat maize that is growing from the earth. Everything that helps them to survive is connected to the nature. Every time before working on a field, the Quiche Indians ask the earth for permission and they apologize for cultivating it. Also, one of the most sacred things for Indians is water. From very early age they are thought to use it wisely.
Moreover, animals play a big role in the Quiche Indians culture. The Quiche Indians identify themselves with one of spirits of different animals, called Nahual. They believe that the spirit of the animal describes person’s character and protects throughout life.
The Quiche Indians believe that the sun represents the way to the God, a heart of the sky and everything that lives on the Earth. They have a lot of ceremonies when they pay their respect to the nature. The Quiche Indians cherish their traditions that are transmitted from generation to generation. The Quiche Indians are past oriented. They value traditions, respect the ancestors and know their background. Rigoberta Menchu believes that keeping the traditions pure and secret would help with the fighting for their rights. However, when they are working on the finca the time changes to more present - oriented because people focuses on every day actions. The same change applies to the time perception. The Quiche Indians are culturally polychromic, but the influence of the external culture made them monochromic. The work on the finca is based on schedules, deadlines and agendas.
Rigoberta Menchu described in many details the roles of man and woman in the Quiche Indians community; their chores, duties and responsibilities. Each gender has specific way of interacting in the society. The Quiche Indians life's depends on circumstances. As it was described in the David Brooks article " The Summoned Life", there are different perspectives of living the life, such as "Well Planed Life", "Summoned Life" and "Well Considered Life". People who are living the summon life depending on the situation they are in. The Quiche Indians don't know what to expect tomorrow. They can have work today and be thrown away next day. They always think of what they have to do in order to survive.
Culture Conflict: Stereotyping, Bias and Discrimination;
In the article by Arie Nadler “The Origin of Prejudice”, the author stated that people naturally separate the social world into different parts. They perceive the world as "we", "not we" and "them". That’s why there is a place for such things as prejudice and stereotypes.
The story of Regoberta Menchu is full with different examples of stereotyping.
For instance, the Quiche Indians negatively perceive ladinos. Rigoberta’s parents always give her a ladino as an example of a person she shouldn't be. For them, people who don’t wear traditional close, speak Spanish, steal their things and don’t value ancestors is ladino. Society doesn’t accept the Quiche Indians due to stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination. Since they haven't a chance to communicate with each other, they can't perceive each other without back thought in their heads. The Quiche Indians generalized ladinos and don’t accept their view on the world. However, later on Rigoberta Menchu founds many similarities between these two groups.
“Ladios are mestizos, the children of Spaniards and Indians who speaks Spanish” (p.169) Ladinos believed that their blood is superior. Even if the ladinos and Indians would have the same conditions, they still would consider themselves different. The ladino would never steel from another ladino, but they will steal from Indians.
In the Guatemalan society the Quiche Indians feel deeply rejected. For example, if the Indian gets on the bus, no one will sit close to him due to the of the social identity that Indians have in the society.
The Quiche Indians were discriminated for five hundred years. Rigoberta were describing her experience on the finca. People had to work in the horrible conditions for a very little payment. They were treated with no respect and often were humiliated. They were stereotyped as a dirty, uneducated people who were stuck in the past. Some facts were true. For example, Rigoberta Menchu explained that during their work on finca, they hadn't time to wash their close and they hadn't other clothes to change. These fact might led to the thought that if you are an Indian you have to be dirty. The stereotype that the Quiche Indians are ignorant is coming from the situation of their separation from others. No one ever reckon for their opinion, so they keep their thought and voices inside the community. The Quiche Indians hide their identity in order to resist and protect themselves from the government. The Quiche Indians are also against the progress. They want to live in the way that their ancestors were living for hundreds of years. That’s why they maintain the rites for their community. Through out the book the Quiche Indians faced prejudiced. People would say that: “Indians are lazy, they don’t work that’s why they poor”. Rigoberta Menchu hadn't other choices than adopt a lot from the external cultures in order to protect and resist her own culture. Language is a very powerful tool. She learned Spanish because it was the only way she could express herself to the world. She used Spanish as a tool for fighting for her culture.
There are also a couple scenes, when people couldn't protect themselves in finca because they couldn't speak Spanish. They couldn't explain and resist the landlord that led to the unfair treatment, nonpayment and mockery. When Rigoberta Menchu was in finca with her mother and some siblings, her little brother Nicolas was dying from malnutrition. Her father was working in different place, and no one could help except those who were working with them. Their neighbors were people from different places, and they still were willing to help. However, they could not communicate with each other and understand what they had to do because they spoke different languages.
Rigoberta Menchu chose to fight for her people using words, not guns.
She used one of the most effective weapons - communication. In contrast, her brothers and sisters decided to fight using more harsh way to fight against the Guatemalan army. Many of her siblings were killed during that period, but Rigoberta Menchu achieved her goals. This example shows how much power communication contains.
Rigoberta Menchu was put in the situation when she had to spend a lot of time working with ladinos. She never really communicated with them before, so her impression of them was consist only of the situation that she heard or was witness. There is also a place for prejudice that occurred from both sides. The first obstacle that Rigoberta Menchu faced during her work with ladinos is to listen to the criticism and accept the fact that they struggled too. The recognition of the perspective of different culture brought Rigoberta Menchu to the first stage of
reconciliation. Rigoberta Menchu was discussing a lot of important things with her compañeros, so little by little they understood that the main problem lies under the government and landowners. That brings us to the Younkins article about cultural relativism and its descendants where he discusses Kant and Hume's ideas of objective world. As it was written in the article, Rigoberta Menchu gained her knowledge from her experience and through the communication with ladinos. However, the idea of cultural relativism in the book was supported by the distinct perceptions among different cultures. Even though these cultures had the same standings, they still determined the view on the world in opposite ways. The idea of Immanuel Kant about impossibility of exploring the world objectively, due to cultural and experienced life lenses, might explain why these issues occurred between the Quiche Indians and ladinos. Society, in which they are living in, already settled the norm for people. Each tribe have particular role in the society, where ladinos and Indians couldn’t find peace.
When the Indians decided to rebel against the Guatemalan government, her parents and siblings joined the guerrilla army. Rigoberta Menchu became a representative of Peasant Unity Community, so she could help people and negotiate with enemy. While Rigoberta Menchu chose the peaceful and diplomatic way for fighting against the enemy, some of her relatives chose the another way for resisting, but they didn’t succeed. The Guatemalan war took away from her a lot of close relatives and friends. Her brother was burned alive, her father and mother were killed.
The book “ I Rigobertha Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala” describes the cultural differences between big and small communities. The small communities like the Quiche Indians require more social responsibility from its citizens, whereas the shared values of bigger community has less importance in the individual’s life. For instance, in the Quiche Indians society the attention during the specific ceremonies is somewhere on “must” level. However, for the thirty six million population of New York, the attention is a gesture of being polite.
On the other hand, Rigoberta Menchu is an example of a person who broke the specific stereotypes of her own culture, even if she did it in order to save them from disappearing. She decided not to get married and not to have children. “…My duty was to promise to serve the community and I looked for ways in which I could work for the community” (49).
The book “I Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatemala” was like a scream of help that was eventually heard by thousands of people. This book was a tool for Rigoberta Menchu to bring people's attention on the suffering and struggling of the Quiche Indians.
It is also very unique due to its importance and significance for the Quiche Indian people. Their customs, traditions and values were described in the small details that help to understand and explore their views on different things. After everything that was learned in the book “I Rigoberta Menchu, an Indian Woman in Guatmala”, people can see that basic human feelings like loving close ones, trusting friends and respecting traditions would make things that seemed impossible to come true despite all cultural differences.