In the following review of Rigoberta Menchú's I, Rigoberta Menchú, Roger N. Lancaster examines controversies over the authenticity of the author's autobiography (developed originally as testimony emerging from relationships between U.S., European and Latin-American solidarity movements) by examining the literary form by which her testimony was developed and the goals she sought to meet with it.

Two recent news items on Guatemala have made headlines in North American papers. One is the publication of the report of the UN Commission for Historical Clarification, which found the Guatemalan army overwhelmingly responsible for the political massacres that left some 200,000 Mayans dead or missing in the course of that country's 36-year civil war. The other comes from reports questioning the veracity of the biography of the best-known spokesperson for Guatemala's indigenous peoples, Rigoberta Menchu.

Clearly, the present airings of doubt about Rigoberta Menchu's life story are...