“What We Can Learn About the Power of Collective Memory from Rigoberta Menchú”
Location
Ponderosa Room B
Presentation Type
Presentation
Presentation Topic
Latin American Studies, History, Transnational Feminism, Language and Testimonies
Start Date
6-3-2026 10:10 AM
Event Sort Order
5
Abstract
The research I would like to present is research I have done in preparation for my undergraduate Honors and College (College of Arts and Sciences) thesis. This research includes Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonio, Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia, Juan Gonzalez’s Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, and various academic sources from scholars from around the world. Menchú lived through the Guatemalan genocide that left more than 75,000 indigenous Mayans murdered by 1985. Her testimonio is not just her story, though; she claims it as a collective memory for indigenous Guatemalans, specifically for her community. Her story is a powerful one that leads the reader to feel empathy towards Guatemalans and to understand why the current living conditions in Central America and other Latin American countries are so harsh. I paired this reading with Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America because one cannot understand the former without understanding how the U.S.’s involvement in Guatemala led to the genocide. In this project, I will give a background on the history of Guatemala and the U.S.’s relationship and on the C.I.A.’s coup “Mission Success.” From there, I will go into Menchú’s collective story and experiences, mentioning too the Nobel Peace Prize she later won for her advocacy work. Building from those stories, I will go into what collective memory is - a shared memory amongst a community that gets passed down between generations and works as a living organism - and its importance in countries that have not had the privilege of the type of Western documentation we have had in the U.S. In this conversation, I will include critiques that Menchú and the entire testimonio genre face and what those critiques tell us about what type of lived experiences we accept in Western academia. Lastly, I will end by talking about Menchú’s continuing advocacy efforts and how we can use what we’ve learned from her to not continue making the same mistakes that silence vital collective memories. Though there is not one specific section for how feminism can help us understand this deeper, it is a very important part of my thesis and is applied to all the themes of my research; most prominent is transnational feminism and analyzing women’s roles in times of war.
“What We Can Learn About the Power of Collective Memory from Rigoberta Menchú”
Ponderosa Room B
The research I would like to present is research I have done in preparation for my undergraduate Honors and College (College of Arts and Sciences) thesis. This research includes Rigoberta Menchú’s testimonio, Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia, Juan Gonzalez’s Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America, and various academic sources from scholars from around the world. Menchú lived through the Guatemalan genocide that left more than 75,000 indigenous Mayans murdered by 1985. Her testimonio is not just her story, though; she claims it as a collective memory for indigenous Guatemalans, specifically for her community. Her story is a powerful one that leads the reader to feel empathy towards Guatemalans and to understand why the current living conditions in Central America and other Latin American countries are so harsh. I paired this reading with Harvest of Empire: A History of Latinos in America because one cannot understand the former without understanding how the U.S.’s involvement in Guatemala led to the genocide. In this project, I will give a background on the history of Guatemala and the U.S.’s relationship and on the C.I.A.’s coup “Mission Success.” From there, I will go into Menchú’s collective story and experiences, mentioning too the Nobel Peace Prize she later won for her advocacy work. Building from those stories, I will go into what collective memory is - a shared memory amongst a community that gets passed down between generations and works as a living organism - and its importance in countries that have not had the privilege of the type of Western documentation we have had in the U.S. In this conversation, I will include critiques that Menchú and the entire testimonio genre face and what those critiques tell us about what type of lived experiences we accept in Western academia. Lastly, I will end by talking about Menchú’s continuing advocacy efforts and how we can use what we’ve learned from her to not continue making the same mistakes that silence vital collective memories. Though there is not one specific section for how feminism can help us understand this deeper, it is a very important part of my thesis and is applied to all the themes of my research; most prominent is transnational feminism and analyzing women’s roles in times of war.
Presenter Bio
Milli Ciprian (she/they) is a fourth-year undergrad student originally from Kearney and with a Mexican background. She attends the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, where she majors in Women’s and Gender Studies and minors in Spanish, English, Communication Studies, and LGBTQ+ Studies. She plans to graduate in May of this semester and go on to a master's program in Latin American Studies at UNL. A fun fact about Milli is that she climbed the stairs to Machu Picchu twice in 2025, both times with less than 3 hours of sleep but lots of excitement.