September 09, 2026

Not Mine Alone

My personal experience is the reality of a whole people.

Rigoberta Menchú, a Quiché Maya woman from Guatemala, dictated her testimony to Elisabeth Burgos in 1982 while living in exile, after the Guatemalan military killed her father, mother, and brother during the campaign against indigenous communities. She refused to let her suffering be read as hers alone, insisting instead that her life stood for the collective memory and struggle of her people. This was not modesty but a claim about identity itself — that who she was could not be separated from the community that raised her. Her words push against a culture that often treats personal story as private property, reminding us that we carry others inside every account of ourselves.