The Woman Who Outshone the Sun/La mujer que brillaba aún más que el sol

Book Review:

This folktale of a beautiful woman, ostracized by the people of a village, captures the imagination through its colorful illustrations and cultural roots. It is written in English and Spanish, giving the story an authentic feel to this mythical story.

The people of the village believed that their river had fallen in love with Lucia Zentano, the mysterious, beautiful, woman that some said outshone the sun. The river so loved her that it would leave its banks to flow through her hair and stay there until Lucia combed it out with a comb made from wood of the mesquite tree. The people were afraid of her because of her powers. She was so different that they became very fearful of her. They became cruel and taunted her until she decided to leave the village, taking the river with her. What was to become of the drought-ridden village now that their river had abandoned them?

Fernando Olivera paints a mesmerizing account of this story. His brightly colored paintings depict Lucia as a larger-than-life woman. Not showing much emotion in her face, it is Lucia's surroundings and Olivera's symbols that show us how Lucia is feeling. Olivera's somewhat surrealistic style of flying ladies, legs falling into bushes, and ladies flying on birds, seem to be telling a different story while still maintaining the flow of the tale at hand. The pictures are so artistically beautiful one may forget to read and simply leaf through the pages to see the next wonderful oddity. To view more of Fernando Olivera's work: http://www.indigoarts.com/gallery_oaxaca_olivera1.html

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