Rigoberta Menchú, Reconsidered

In 1992, an indigenous activist from Guatemala named Rigoberta Menchú won the Nobel Peace Prize. She had risen to global notoriety during Guatemala's civil war in the early 1980s, when her life story was published in I, Rigoberta Menchú.

Turns out, parts of that story were, shall we say, less than 100% true. Menchú herself has conceded as much, though she maintains that the story she told was in important ways representative of the experience of her people, a claim that's mostly beyond dispute.

David Stoll, an anthropologist, garnered his own share of controversy with the publication of Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, in which he brought Menchú’s inconsistencies to light.

I'm not very far into Stoll's book (I read Menchú’s account years ago), but it's been interesting to note that Stoll actually affirms the broad contours of Menchú’s testimony as well as some key particulars. What's more, he does not believe her Nobel should be rescinded – a matter of fierce debate twenty years ago.