Andres Henestrosa from fables to fame: this self-taught Mexican writer captures the folktales and lore of his indigenous heritage, lifting them to new heights as literary works.

• Author: Bach, Caleb
• Position: Biography

Andres Henestrosa remembers when he first departed his beloved Isthmus of Tehuantepec for Mexico City. The year was 1922; he was sixteen. He sold his horse at the Juchitan train station and, with just thirty pesos in his pocket and a pillowcase holding a change of clothes, he headed for the capital. It was the first time he had ever worn shoes. Arriving alone, a stranger in such a big city, he was afraid of course, but a kind soul took him under his wing and found him modest accommodations. "By chance it was in this very building, Motolinia 8," he explains. "Downstairs there was a store serving oaxaquenos arriving in the capital. I could barely express myself in Spanish because I'd grown up speaking Zapotec and Huave, but I found a countryman to serve as translator when, a few days later, I went to see Jose Vasconcelos, who directed the Secretariat of Public Education. I told him it was his fault that I had come because he had declared the Revolution would mean education for the poor, the Indians, and orphans. I was all three! When he said the deadline for scholarships had passed three months earlier and all funds had been spent, I accused him of being a liar. This word must have bothered him because then and there he arranged for me to attend the Normal Teachers' School, where I could sleep and eat as well. He also gave me copies of the classics, eighteen volumes he himself had edited: works by Homer, Plato, Dante, and Tolstoy. And so my self-education began."

Incredibly, seven years later, the young man would publish Los hombres que disperso la danza [A Nation Scattered by the Dance], a highly lyrical rendition of Zapotec legends and folktales recollected from his boyhood on the Isthmus. Today, the book is an enduring fixture within the tradition of indigenous literature in Latin America; since its release it has never been out of print. Most recently, to commemorate the diamond anniversary of its publication, Editorial Miguel Angel Porrua in Mexico City created a special facsimile edition with the same green boards used in the original binding. In recent years there have been other editions, including a stunning bilingual (Spanish/English) version first issued by Carla Zarebska in 1995 and then reprinted late last year in response to popular demand. Ricardo Salas, a leading book designer, did the beautiful layout, while Zarebska herself penned an extensive introduction dealing with the origins of the book and aspects of the author's background. What makes the book so special are its illustrations by two great Mexican artists also steeped in the lore of the Zapotecs. Photographer Graciela Iturbide provided images of people and scenes from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, while Francisco Toledo contributed gouache paintings inspired by many of the same stories about bats, turtles, iguanas, bees, and other creatures that make up the collection. Both Toledo and Iturbide have enjoyed a long-standing friendship with the author who, at age ninety-eight, remains remarkably vigorous and active.

"I was born in Ixhuatan near Juchitan in the Isthmus," Henestrosa says quite 11 loudly (he is a bit hard of hearing). "My mother was Zapoteca--Martina Henestrosa--everyone called her Tina Man. As a young woman it was said she was the most beautiful woman in Juchitan: como flor del pueblo. She had very pale skin. Until her death at age 101 she always wore a huipil with skirts and the traditional ribbon threaded through her braids. Our family raised livestock on a little ranch, but I went to school in Juchitan. During the Revolution, life was very hard: constant violence, pure anarchy. My father was Huave--Arnulfo Morales--dark, with bowed legs from riding horseback since childhood. The Huaves, the sea people, as they are called...