In 1992, Indigenous and human rights
activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum’s Nobel Peace Prize brought to a world audience
the truths of the U.S.-orchestrated and –supported Guatemalan government’s
36-year campaign of genocide against the Maya there—and of one of the longest
guerrilla resistance movements in Latin America. After her brother and mother
were “disappeared” and her activist father was tortured and burned alive in the
assault on the Spanish Embassy in 1980, Menchú went into exile and took up
residence in Mexico, where she taught herself Spanish in order to denounce to the
world the atrocities committed by the Guatemalan army.
Despite the hardships and poverty her
people have endured—and rebelled against—ever since the Spanish conquest,
Menchú’s wonderful recounting of her childhood stories in these titles, in
close collaboration with Guatemalan author Liano, shows what it is to live with
beauty and integrity, with land, culture and community. Domi’s oil paintings,
on a jeweled palette of all the colors of the Mayan forests, jungles and
mountains, are a luminous symphony of colors and images.
author: Rigoberta Menchú Tum
author: Dante Liano
translator (Spanish to English): David
Unger
illustrator: Domi
Groundwood Books/ House of Anansi Press, 2003
grades 3-7
Maya
As The Girl from Chimel begins,
Rigoberta introduces herself and her village:
I am Rigoberta. Chimel is the name of my village when it’s large, and Laj Chimel when it’s small, because sometimes the village is large and sometimes it’s small. During good times, when there’s honey and the corn is so heavy it bends its green stalks, when the yellow, green, purple, white and multicolored orchids bloom, displaying their beauty, then my village is big and it’s called Chimel. During bad times, when the river dries up and ponds can fit into the hollow of my hand, when evil men walk the earth and sadness can hardly be endured, the village becomes small and is called Laj Chimel. Right now, I’m remembering Chimel…
It is in the hearts of the people of
Chimel, then and now, that the old stories reside. Traditionally, told stories
such as the ones in Menchú’s trilogy teach children how the world works. For
young Rigoberta and other Mayan children, this is how they are taught about the
history of the land and right behavior; about compassion, courage, and
generosity; about asking permission from the nahuales, the spirits who reside
in everything; about planting seeds and harvesting fruits; and ultimately,
about fighting injustice and struggling for a better world.
author: Rigoberta Menchú Tum
author: Dante Liano
translator (Spanish to English): David
Unger
illustrator: Domi
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2006
grades 3-7
Maya
In The Honey Jar, Menchú imparts
some of the cultural knowledge she learned as a child: How Grandfather Sun and
Grandmother Moon created the stars, and Mother Earth and Father Sky, whom they
carefully instructed in the creation of sea, land, plants, and animals. How
each creature was assigned to be a nahual, a keeper of something. How the
elders were given power and wisdom and why they deserve respect. What happens
when people violate nature’s laws and don’t apologize and what happens when
they do. How monkeys are descended from humans (not the other way around). How
the weasel taught people to be grateful for what they are given. How a man and
a buzzard exchanged bodies and what they learned from their horrible
experience. How the hormigo tree, suffering from nostalgia—the illness borne of
longing “to sing and release from its heart all the trills the birds had sung
throughout its life”—is given the gift of music.
author: Rigoberta Menchú Tum
author: Dante Liano
translator (Spanish to English): David
Unger
illustrator: Domi
Groundwood Books / House of Anansi Press, 2008
grades 3-7
Maya
In The Secret Legacy,
Seven-year-old Ixkem’s grandfather is 100 years old, and he is ready to pass on
his legacy and knowledge. Of all the people in the village, Grandfather chooses
his youngest granddaughter to be the new caretaker of the cornfields. “But I’m
too little,” Ixkem protests. “Neither age nor size has anything to do with it,”
her grandfather assures her.
Off they go together, the old man and the
little girl, through the forest, to the cornfield, the “best place to scare off
parakeets, blackbirds, wild boar, squirrels, turtle doves, the smallest of
worms and moths and even a few invisible insects who wanted to eat the corn.
Now it would be Ixkem’s job.” Her yelling and thumping reach the nahuales who
live at the center of the earth. A committee of b’e’n (as the nahuales are
called in K’iche’ language) brings Ixkem down to their underground turf, where
she tells them about life on the surface and the amazing stories her grandfather
told her.
Among them: How an arrogant, boastful
lion learns a lesson in humility. How the futures of young children can be
shaped by what is done to their umbilical cords. What makes good people good
and bad people bad. How a hummingbird brings happiness into the world. About
the miracle of falling in love and the requirement of a lengthy courtship. How
happiness comes from a peaceful heart and the love that others know how to
give. Why the light in our eyes is a reflection of those who love us.
In exchange for these stories, the b’e’n
whisper a secret in Ixkem’s ear for her to take back to her grandfather. Now
that he knows that Ixken will hold this secret legacy for the next hundred years
and that the Mayan lineage will “live forever in the forests, in the jungles,
in the mountains and on the coasts of Guatemala,” the grandfather happily
closes his eyes.
When one considers the past and recent
history of the Maya, Menchú’s children’s stories become even more poignant, and
each story in each book has a significant message for children today. As Ixkem
explains to the tiny b’e’n,
There are some bad people with lots of power….They declare war on others, they enslave their fellow man, and they don’t know how to share their wealth. Of course there are good people who fight for peace, set slaves free and give to others. The future of the world depends on these good people.
In The Girl from Chimel, there is
a story of Rigoberta’s mother, who as a child fought off a pack of coyotes to
rescue her pet pig. It was said that the whole village was awed by her courage.
Our elders said, “This is a good sign. She’ll grow up to be a brave woman who will survive many challenges. She should thank her nahuales and they in turn will give her strength and wisdom and will protect her memory forever. Her sons and daughters and grandchildren will all be courageous.”
If there’s a word to describe Rigoberta
Menchú Tum and her mother and all the Maya who continue to struggle to maintain
land, culture and community, that word would be “courageous.”
These three beautiful storybooks are
about a happy little girl, secure in her world, with a “heart full of
sunlight,” who, as an adult, wants for the world all that she had: “a mountain
to protect me, a river to refresh me, birds to sing to me.” Both Rigoberta
Menchú and her stories are an international treasure. Highly recommended.
—Beverly Slapin
(published 9/22/14)
This
review first appeared in MultiCultural Review. We thank Editor-in-Chief Lyn
Miller-Lachmann for permission.
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