Part 1:

Chapter XVII Autodefensa en la aldea. In the last few pages of this chapter she continues to describe how the community and surrounding communities organized to defend themselves against the soldiers. Chapter XVIII Actividad política en otras comunidades. Ayuda a sus amigas violadas por el ejército. Problemas de comunicación por las diferencias de lengua. Toma de la aldea por el ejército. Un soldado hecho prisionero. She begins by talking about how her community and the surrounding communities came together with labor and materials to help support one another. She mentions the language barriers that existed among communities as well. Another issue that came up was the threats of soldiers to women. The women in the communities often would sacrifice themselves to the soldiers to protect the community. They would often end up pregnant and she describes how the community and the mothers would deal with the pregnancy. She then proceeds to describe night invasions by soldiers and how the community prepared for this by taking out all their things from their homes and building traps in the houses. Most of the community members would evacuate to another settlement nearby.

Part 2:

Chapter XVIII Actividad política en otras comunidades. Ayuda a sus amigas violadas por el ejército. Problemas de comunicación por las diferencias de lengua. Toma de la aldea por el ejército. Un soldado hecho prisionero. She continues in this chapter to talk about the defense of the community. In particular she describes how an older woman in the community killed one of the soldiers and how using violence against the soldiers was hard for them because they didn’t believe it in, but they saw violence as their only alternative. They held one soldier captive and had a conversation with him about his experience as a soldier and this is when Menchu begins to understand better how the military is recruiting and manipulating men. They end up allowing the soldier to leave. Chapter XXI El CUC sale a la luz pública. Represión en el Quiche. Empieza a aprender el castellano. She describes the formation of the CUC (the political organization of united peasants). They started performing strikes against the government and Menchu decided to become a leader within this organization. She then describes her decision to learn other indigenous languages, as well as Spanish.