SOURCE: Larson, Linda. “A Culture Fights for Survival.” English Journal (December 1994): 105–06.

In the following positive review of I, Rigoberta Menchú, Larson argues that the autobiography is successful because of Menchú's deep connection with her country and the land.

Rigoberta Menchú's story [in I, Rigoberta Menchú] strikes the reader as significant on several levels: It is a social and political comment narrated by a 23-year-old Guatemalan woman whose Indian heritage, while it places her in the numerical majority, condemns her to the status of expendable political minority. It is a candid story told by a speaker who was forced to learn Spanish in order to break out of the isolation her native Indian language imposed on her. It is also a chance for the rest of the world to glimpse a culture struggling to keep its rituals and identity from systematic extermination.

Menchú derives the courage to...