Zapotec author Rocío González (María del Rocío González López) was born on October 29, 1962, in Ciudad Ixtepec, Juchitán, on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, Oaxaca; she died in Mexico City on April 24, 2019. She published nine books of poetry and her works appeared widely in anthologies and literary journals in Mexico. In 1998 she was awarded the National Award for Poetry Benemérito de América for her second book of poetry, Las ocho casas (Oaxaca: Editorial Praxis, 1998) and, in 2001, the Enriqueta Ochoa National Award for Poetry for the collection Lunacero. Her latest book of poetry is Neurología 211 (Mexico City: Trilce Ediciones, 2013), which explores her experiences as a brain cancer patient.