Alejandro Cruz Martinez

A story about a beautiful young woman who becomes the envy of a town. She is exiled, but it happens to be the case that the river, fishes, and otters loved her so much that they would not leave her hair and went with her into exile. The towns people were devastated and forced to try to bring her back. Lucia was not a spiteful person, so she returned to the village, and with her came the river, fishes, and otters. Especially the otters.

Lucia Zenteno is like nature personified and when she firsts arrives in the villages all the people love her as well. But then people become afraid and finally so afraid that they drive her from the village. Unfortunately for the villagers all the water from the river and all the animals leave with her,leaving behind a wasteland. When the villagers see what they have done they repent and Lucia Zenteno brings back the water and the animals telling them to be kind to those different than show more yourselves. She never lived in the village again. show less

I have this bilingual book because I am learning spanish and it helps when I can see the english translation too. I like that the book is multicultural and is based on an old mexican-indian folktale. I also like the fact that it teaches about environmentalism in that it warns us to protect and value what we have.

The legend of Lucia Zenteno is part of the oral history of the Zapotec Indians of Oaxaca, Mexico—a region of Mexico renowned for its rich cultural history with roots that go back many centuries before Columbus. Alejandro Cruz Martinez, the Zapotec poet who wrote down the original version of The Woman Who Outshone the Sun, later gave up his life in his struggle to help win back the water rights of the Zapotec people.