SOURCE: Stoll, David. “Rigoberta Menchú and the Last-Resort Paradigm.” Latin American Perspectives 26, no. 6 (November 1999): 70–80.

In the following essay, Stoll, author of Rigoberta Menchú and the Story of All Poor Guatemalans, responds to his critics by analyzing the nature of insurrection and by differentiating between solidarity work and human rights activism.

Many people have asked whether I am surprised by the furor over my book. The answer is no, not really—except for the reaction from some of my colleagues in Latin American studies. I am surprised that, 17 years after Rigoberta told her story and 2 years after the Guatemalan peace agreement was signed, Carol Smith, Victoria Sanford, Norma Chinchilla, and Georg Gugelberger object to my reexamination of I, Rigoberta Menchú. Ordinarily a Nobel peace laureate is subject to scrutiny much earlier in her career. In Rigoberta's case, she expects to run for president of her country. Truth commissions, exhumations...