Cruz was a young Zapotec poet who collected this tale prior to being killed in 1987 while organizing his people to regain their water rights. After the Mexican painter Fernando Olivera heard the story from Cruz, he created paintings about the legendary Lucia Zenteno. Olivera's stunning full-color paintings illustrate this bilingual 8 1/4" x 9 1/4" edition of the tale featuring a woman who, when she mysteriously arrived at a village "...brought thousands of dancing butterflies and brightly colored flowers on her skirts. She walked softly yet with quiet dignity, her long, unbraided hair flowing behind her. A loyal iguana walked at her side... Everyone felt a little afraid of someone so wonderful and yet so strange..." When Lucia was driven from the village by misunderstanding and cruelty, the river she loved and all its creatures left with her. The resulting drought caused the villagers to search for Lucia and ask her forgiveness. They found out that just as the river once gave water to all, so - also - were they to "treat everyone with kindness, even those who seem different..." (Ages 5-11)