Elizabeth Burgos

Venezuelan anthropologist Elisabeth Burgos-Debray, wife of the Marxist journalist and statesman Regis Debray, was the editor of Rigoberta Menchú's controversial autobiography "I, Rigoberta Menchú". However, since Rigoberta told Burgos her life in a series of interviews, Burgos became in fact more than just the editor of Menchu's testimony. Menchu claims in the book that she couldn't read or write in Spanish very well. She also adds that her spoken Spanish was poor. Nonetheless, when you read "I, Rigoberta Menchu" in the original Spanish (Me llamo Rigoberta Menchú y así me nació la conciencia), the prose flows fluently as if it came from a somewhat fluent speaker and writer of Spanish such as Burgos. In the text, Burgos also adds quotes from the Popol Vuh, the sacred book of the Mayans. Those epigraphs foreshadow the narrative of the testimonial of Menchu. In essence, Burgos becomes almost like a ghost writer in plain sight since her name also appears as the editor of the book. The translation into English became an international phenomenon, but it must be noted that this version followed the Spanish text that in general had been arranged by Burgos to fit Menchu's needs.