Luis de Lión was a primary teacher who worked in rural schools in various parts of Guatemala and later taught classes at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala City. On May 15, 1984, he was kidnapped by a death squad of the Guatemalan dictatorship as part of the anti-insurgency "dirty war," because much of what he wrote was critical of the Guatemalan government. He is presumed to have been killed three weeks later. Born and raised in Guatemala, translator Nathan C. Henne now teaches Latin American Studies and Spanish at Loyola University New Orleans.