Menchu, a native of Guatemala, is internationally known for her work in defense of human rights, peace, and the rights of indigenous people. She received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1992, becoming the first indigenous and youngest person ever to receive this distinction.

Menchu's talk, "Code of Ethics for a Millennium Peace," is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union, on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge. Her speech is free and open to the public.

"We want to enlighten our students, and the community, about the peace process around the world, which also includes cultural diversity, understanding and acceptance," said Frank Muñiz, special projects coordinator for CSUN's Educational Opportunity Program and an organizer of the event.

Menchu is Quiche, one of the 20 groups of the Mayan who constitute about 60 percent of Guatemala's population.

Her family worked the coffee plantations in rural Guatemala in near slave conditions. An elder brother died from inhaling fumes from the pesticides that were sprayed on the crops. A younger brother died of malnutrition. By age 8, Menchu was working in the fields from 3 a.m. until dusk alongside her mother for subsistence wages. At age 12, Menchu went to work as a maid in Guatemala City.

In 1979, Menchu and her brothers joined the Committee of Peasant Unity and became active in fighting for the rights of the poor and indigenous people of Guatemala. That same year, her 16-year-old brother was turned into the army and was literally dragged from his village and tortured for 16 days before being flayed and burned alive with other prisoners in view of the entire community.

Menchu's father was killed along with 38 other people in 1980 when Guatemalan soldiers lobbed several hand grenades into the Spanish Embassy, where several activists and members of the Committee for Peasant Unity had sought refuge. Three months later, Menchu's mother was kidnapped. After being repeatedly raped and tortured for weeks, she was left to die on a hillside.

Fearing for her own safety, Menchu fled to Mexico where she continued her efforts to draw attention to the situation in Guatemala and wrote a book, I, Rigoberta Menchu, chronicling her life.

She returned to Guatemala briefly in 1988, and was immediately taken prisoner. International media scrutiny and public outcry eventually forced her release. She permanently returned to Guatemala in 1994.

Her tireless efforts on behalf of the poor and indigenous people of Guatemala earned the attention of the Nobel Institute, which awarded her the Peace Prize in 1992.

California State University, Northridge has more than 32,500 full- and part-time students and offers 59 bachelor's and 41 master's degrees as well as 28 education credential programs. Founded in 1958, it is the only four-year university in the San Fernando Valley and the third largest in the 23-campus CSU system. The Western Association of Schools and Colleges recently said CSUN "stands as a model to other public urban institutions of higher education."