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Rigoberta Mench And The Utilization Of Testimonio

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Noah Arbesfeld Professor Jani EL6540 March 11, 2024 Rigoberta Mench and the Utilization of Testimonio In the non-fiction book I, Rigoberta Mench: An Indian Woman In Guatemala, Mench dictates her life story through the medium of testimonio, or the oral transmission of a collective history and subsequent acts of injustice in order to be transcribed into a literary narrative. The testimonio as a genre allows for marginalized groups to present their customs and struggles into the dominant culture, as Mench exemplifies by centering the indigenous community of Guatemala and the Americas. Furthermore, Mench acts as a witness through the testimonio to the oppression and suffering of her people, offering a narrative that positions colonization as a form of oppression, illuminating the overall …show more content…

Furthermore, the testimonio incorporates the stories that have been passed down through generations, with Mench continuing the tradition of passing history through oral communication. Still, the book primarily follows Mench’s first-hand accounts of her experience, but is not limited by the individual perspective. Through the genre of testimonio, Mench shares her story with the dominant culture in the language of the oppressor, allowing her story to be recognized internationally, while remaining within the traditional genre of communication via oral storytelling rather than prescribing to Western expectations of narrative structure as expected from the memoir or autobiographical genres. Throughout I, Rigoberta Mench: An Indian Woman In Guatemala, Rigoberta Mench utilizes the testimonio genre to highlight the culture of her people, while underscoring the ongoing oppression due to the implementation of colonization in the

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