On the occasion of the 80th birthday of Rodolfo Stavenhagen, a distinguished Mexican sociologist and professor emeritus of El Colegio de Mexico, Úrsula Oswald Spring (UNAM/CRIM, Mexico) introduces him as a Pioneer on Indigenous Rights due to his research on human rights issues, especially when he served as United Nations Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples. First, in a retrospective Stavenhagen reviews his scientific and political work for the rights of indigenous peoples. Seven of his classic texts address Seven Fallacies about Latin America (1965); Decolonializing Applied Social Sciences (1971); Ethnodevelopment (1986); Human rights and wrongs (1998); Indigenous peoples and the state in Latin America (2000); Building intercultural citizenship through education (2006); Making the delaration work (2009).