Nobel Peace Laureate Rigoberta Menchú, a Guatemalan activist, will speak on "Human Rights and Indigenous Peoples" in Mondavi Center's Jackson Hall at UC Davis on Oct. 21. The discussion begins at 8 p.m.

Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, the year of the 500th anniversary of Columbus' first voyage to the New World, Menchú is considered one of today's premier spokespeople for human rights, Latin Americans, indigenous peoples and women.

Menchú takes indigenous peoples' ancestral spirituality as a source of wisdom, interpretation, inspiration and energy. As a survivor of genocide in Guatemala, she seeks the observance of a code of ethics for an era of peace as her contribution to humanity.

"There is no peace without justice, no justice without equality, no equality without development, no development without democracy, no democracy without respect to the identity and dignity of cultures and peoples," she has said.