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Juan Gregorio Palechor: The Story of My Life

2015; Duke University Press; Volume: 95; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1215/00182168-2837180

1527-1900

Marc Becker,

Early Modern Women Writers

The contested nature of Indigenous autobiographies that are publicly presented through the intermediation of an anthropologist became a matter of open debate when David Stoll questioned the authenticity of the narrative in I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala (1984). This controversy did not halt the production of such testimonios, but it did lead scholars to reflect much more critically on the representations contained in such works. Duke University Press's Narrating Native Histories series seeks to advance these debates through serious engagement with the role of native intellectuals and cultural interpreters in publicizing Indigenous knowledge and political perspectives.Anthropologist Myriam Jimeno's presentation of the life history of Colombian Indigenous activist Juan Gregorio Palechor is an excellent contribution to our understanding of how narratives are constructed and publicly expressed. The book is a translation of a 2005 Spanish-language publication and is based on interviews Jimeno conducted with Palechor before his death in 1992, with some of them dating back to 1980. The lengthy delay in the book's publication is evidence of Jimeno's ongoing political commitments, both to Indigenous rights and to making subaltern voices available to a broader public. As Joanne Rappaport notes in her foreword to the book, Jimeno's work provides an excellent example of the important contributions that a public or engaged anthropologist can make to political debates.The book is broken into three parts and includes an appendix of documents from the Consejo Regional Indígena del Cauca (CRIC) during Palechor's leadership of the organization in the 1970s. In the first part, Jimeno provides critical analytical reflections on the writing of life histories and the roles of anthropologists in their creation and interpretation. She notes that autobiographies are complex cultural products and that they become even more so with the involvement of anthropologists in their creation. She also debates whether the tension between orality and literacy in native worlds means that discussing an “indigenous autobiography” is inherently a contradiction in terms (p. 7). Jimeno's theoretical reflections will prove useful to activist scholars committed to the preservation and publication of marginalized voices.In the second part of the book, Jimeno presents her analysis of Palechor's life history. The third part, which comprises about half the book, is Palechor's own autobiography. Palechor describes himself as coming from a traditional and socially conservative society. His community had lost the ethnic customs, language, and dress that would typically mark it as native, but nevertheless its members faced discrimination as Indigenous peoples. At the same time, they used that identity to organize and fight for their land rights. Palechor's family became partisans for the liberal cause in the War of a Thousand Days. Palechor subsequently became committed to the political ideals of Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, and after the caudillo's assassination in 1948, Palechor experienced repression at the hands of their Conservative opponents. Later, Palechor became involved in other political activities. His autobiography highlights that local Indigenous movements operate within a much broader political context.Perhaps appropriately for a book about anthropological mediation of Indigenous voices, a theme that runs throughout Palechor's narrative is his own mediation of native concerns. He entered into Indigenous organizing efforts through using his Spanish language and literacy skills to draft a petition to the government for a school. In that way, Palechor became a tinterillo, an informal lawyer, to defend the interests of his community. Jimeno notes that tinterillos often allied with dominant political and economic interests, but occasionally they became dissidents who used their skills to fight against economic oppression and racial exclusion.Palechor is an example of the second type of tinterillo. He operated at the intersection of oral and literate societies, and he gained prestige and renown through his work as an organic intellectual. Rather than relying on external intermediaries, Palechor learned to manipulate legal and political systems to the advantage of his own community. He was paid for his legal work, which meant that he was able to support his family while at the same time defending community members from abuses. These skills led to a leadership position in the CRIC.Palechor's life story, together with Jimeno's anthropological analysis, provides a valuable contribution to our understandings of Indigenous organizing efforts. The activist perspective will provide probing insights to scholars, and the fluid text will work well for classroom adoption. The editors of the Narrating Native Histories series at Duke University Press are to be congratulated for making this important work available to a broad audience.