Community

The book contains detailed descriptions of Quiché Indian ceremonies, traditions, and customs, which Menchú gives in order to explain the profound sense of community which fuels Indian village and family life. The village is an extension of the family, and all previous generations are represented in the village through remembrances of ancestors and their ways.

The ceremonies for childbirth, marriage, and death all emphasize the importance of community involvement. A pregnant woman is given all the comforts and attention that the village can afford, and the birth itself is one of the rare occasions when the village will kill an animal to celebrate. Indians engage in intricate ceremonies to ask the earth's permission before sowing and harvesting; it is considered blasphemous to abuse the land, when the earth is the mother and father of all that exists upon it. Marriage is undertaken only after an elaborate...