Sacramento State’s Multi Cultural Center invites students and faculty to a guest lecture Monday by Nobel Peace Prize winner and Guatemalan Civil Rights leader Rigoberta Menchu Tum.

Rigoberta Menchu Tum is a Mayan native, who was born in 1959. Because of her family’s struggle with oppression, she became involved in civil rights at a young age. Menchu Tum’s family lived in a small Guatemalan community. They were very poor and worked on plantations to keep from starving. Her two older brothers died as a result of mistreatment on the plantation where they worked as children.

Menchu Tum’s father was imprisoned, tortured and later killed because of his involvement in a peasant movement. Her younger brother and her mother were also killed by the military. She joined the peasant movement with her father and became a leader in the community. She became a wanted criminal by the Guatemalan government and fled to Mexico.

Menchu Tum released a critically acclaimed autobiography in 1983. She narrated “When mountains Tremble,” a documentary film about the struggles of the Mayan people in 1987. She won the 1992 Nobel Peace Prize for her work and used the cash prize to establish a foundation for the fight for indigenous people’s rights.She has been active in the women’s movement as well. She is the U.N. representative for indigenous people’s rights. She speaks three languages: two Mayan dialects and Spanish.

Menchu Tum will discuss the diversity of indigenous people around the world during her campus appearance. This is an important topic, especially for Sac State students, because of the diversity of the college’s population. Menchu Tum will also be meeting with Freshman Seminar classes for smaller group discussions.

The event will be held in the University Union’s Ballroom on Monday at 7 p.m. Tickets are $20 for general admission and $10 for students. They can be purchased at the University Box Office or from Tickets.com.