Nobel Peace Prize laureate and American Indian rights activist Rigoberta Menchú Tum will give the keynote address Thursday for the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
The U Office for Equity and Diversity is sponsoring a series of events this week and on Monday to pay tribute to and raise awareness about indigenous peoples’ continued struggle for equal civil rights.
The planning committee for the 25th anniversary commemoration week wanted to take a broader look at King’s message of equality.
“The indigenous struggle for civil and human rights is in keeping with King’s dream,” said Colleen Casto, the spokeswoman for the Office of Equity and Diversity. “(Menchú Tum) personifies that struggle.”
Menchú Tum started her advocacy work as a teenager on the Pacific coast of Guatemala. As the civil war embroiling Guatemala continued through the 1970s and 1980s, her family joined the Indian peasant rights movement. In 1979, Menchú Tum joined a prominent peasants’ rights committee. That same year, the army killed her brother. Soon after, Menchú Tum’s mother and father also died following government arrest.
In 1982, Menchú Tum co-founded the United Representation of the Guatemalan Opposition. Since then, Menchú Tum has become a leading international advocate for American Indian rights.
The student committee for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemoration is screening a docudrama of Menchú Tum’s life story in the Union Saltair Room tonight at 7 p.m. Following the screening, a panel of U social justice student scholars will discuss issues raised in the film and answer questions from the audience, said Dhiraj Chand, chairman of the student committee.
Menchú Tum’s keynote address will be held in Kingsbury Hall at noon Thursday. The event is free and open to the public.
For more information about the address and other events, visit www.diversity.utah.edu.
Rigoberta Manch