Oral Tradition In Menchu's Community

Menchú’s community has an oral tradition through which they pass information about traditions and history from one generation to the next. Because of the variety of language spoken among the larger Indian population, however, Menchu finds that Indians cannot communicate with one another, despite their similar circumstances. Menchú’s family is afraid that she will acquire other undesirable ladino traits if she learns Spanish, but ladinos have kept Indians from learning Spanish anyway, by keeping them out of their homes and schools. Menchu learns how disempowering it is not to be literate, particularly in Spanish, when her family is cheated into signing documents they did not understand, which ultimately left them landless. The chapter where