In the following interview with Rigoberta Menchú (author of the autobiography,I, Rigoberta Menchú), Burt and Rosen discuss the controversies over the authenticity of the author's biography and the Recovery of Historical Memory (REMHI) project, which collected evidence of civil-war abuses in Guatemala.

Rigoberta Menchu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 and has been a tireless activist for indigenous and human rights, has become the subject of controversy. Last fall, anthropologist David Stoll, a professor at Middlebury College, published a book entitled Rigoberta Menchu and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans (Westview Press, 1998), in which he questions many aspects of Rigoberta's life story presented in I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (Verso, 1984). On December 15, The New York Times ran a front-page story reporting on the controversy, and sent one of its sleuthing reporters to Guatemala to corroborate some of Stoll's findings...