Testimonies of violence: Rigoberta Menchú and collective experiences of violence in Guatemala

<p dir="ltr">In 1999, US anthropologist David Stoll published a critique of Mayan K’iche’ activist and Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum’s account of her life and experiences of violence during Guatemala’s internal armed conflict and genocide, alleging factual inconsistences and a political agenda. Drawing on this case, I highlight meanings, representations, and implications for understanding violence and its memory as collectively felt and held, with reference to the Guatemalan context. I first ask, what structures of power are instituted and reinscribed in critiques of Menchú’s accounts of violence, and how are they challenged, not only by Menchú, but also by those who defend her? Secondly, how can researchers ethically assemble, protect, engage with and defend the epistemic and political significance of collectivist accounts and testimonies of violence? Informed by communitarian, postcolonial, and decolonial feminist critiques, I draw attention to the emancipatory epistemic possibilities for understanding violence in relation to collectivist framings and community. Through an analysis of Menchú’s case, I argue that violence recounted in relation to collective experiences and memory, pushes feminists to broaden understandings of violence as existing across various registers, whilst simultaneously engaging with contentious and inevitably political aspects of recording, naming and recognizing violence in its diverse manifestations.</p>