SOURCE: Moore, Molly. “Nobel Winner's Work Disputed; Scholar Claims Guatemalan Exaggerated Her Horrifying Story.” Washington Post (21 January 1999): C01.

In the following essay, Moore discusses Menchú's first public statements regarding the allegations of falsehoods in her autobiography I, Rigoberta Menchú.

Rigoberta Menchú, the Guatemalan Indian who suffered through the savage wartime assassinations of both parents, government persecution for championing the cause of indigenous peasants, and death threats that prevented her from returning to her home town to celebrate her 1992 Nobel Peace Prize, is now facing a new inquisition.

It involves allegations that Menchú exaggerated and embellished her 1983 autobiography—a potent weapon in her fight for Indian rights and a compelling argument for the Nobel Peace Prize committee—with fabrications that made an already horrendous life story appear to be even more shocking.

Today, the 39-year-old Menchú issued her first public response, charging that her critics are politically motivated...