In an interview Diego Cardenas and Monsignor Raul Vera said that the award, which they received in Madrid from Spain's Crown Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia, honors the spirit of Fray Bartolome.

Awarded by Spain's State Secretariat for International Cooperation and the Casa de America cultural center and museum, the Bartolome de las Casas Prize distinguishes people, institutions or organizations that promote concord with the indigenous people of the Americas, the protection of their rights and respect for their values.

"It's an act of justice toward him, a person who in his time fought for the same people and before the same institutions," Cardenas said in reference to the work of De las Casas (1484-1566), a Spanish priest who, from his position as the first Catholic bishop in what is now the Mexican state of Chiapas, battled the enslavement and oppression of the country's indigenous peoples.

Cardenas added that the honor provides a good opportunity to "look back and see the entire road that the indigenous communities of Chiapas have traveled in that time."

Vera said the center has played an essential role in recent years in the arduous struggle for indigenous rights and made special mention of the work carried out by its founder, former Bishop Samuel Ruiz.

Vera, who succeeded Ruiz in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas, and is now bishop of the northern diocese of Saltillo, said that among the center's most notable achievements since its founding in 1989 has been helping to restore the concepts of "dignity" and "rights" among the Chiapas Indians.

"One day, Don Samuel told me in reference to (Indians): They're individuals Raul, some good, others bad, but all individuals. That has always been the goal of the center, to restore the category of 'persons' to those who have lost it," the bishop said.

The restoration of dignity and "social rights" in a place like Chiapas, where "the state itself is the biggest enemy," has been achieved, according to Vera, thanks to a powerful grassroots base.

"The key to the work that's being carried out is grassroots organizing, because citizens there don't even have the right to be participants in the construction of their own country," he said.

The bishop said that during the brief war the region suffered in the 1990s, pitting government troops against guerrillas battling for indigenous rights, the center "was crucial in accompanying the peace proceedings from the standpoint of respect for human rights and the search for justice."

For his part, Cardenas emphasized that the center strives to promote the rights of human beings and work toward a society based on justice and solidarity.

He hailed the exchange of ideas that arises from the work carried out among the indigenous communities, "because we know that there's a great wealth (of knowledge) there that's been acquired in all the years of struggle and resistance."

"In these 20 years of work, we've realized that legitimacy takes precedent over legality and on that basis we think it is even legitimate not to obey a law that violates human rights and perpetuates poverty," Cardenas said.

Since its founding, the Bartolome de las CasasCenter has developed "a national and international presence that we now offer to the peoples and organizations. We're like a display case that contains the voice of the communities."

"This prize gives us a certain amount of (media) coverage and positions us better vis-a-vis the state and for that we're grateful," Cardenas said.

The center's directors plan to use the 50,000-euro ($70,000) cash prize that accompanies the award to build the organization's headquarters in San Cristobal de las Casas.

According to a 2006 report from the Inegi national statistics office, Mexico's indigenous population accounted in that year for 9.5 million, or 9.17 percent, of the country's 103 million inhabitants. The majority of Mexico's population identify themselves as mestizos, people of mixed Spanish and Amerindian ancestry.

Indians represent a disproportionate number of the nation's poor, illiterate and malnourished.