Background
He was born in Ixhuatán, Oaxaca.
linguist writer member of the Senate of Mexico
He was born in Ixhuatán, Oaxaca.
Then, he studied at the National High School and after, at the Jurisprudence National School, where he started law studies but he did not graduate. At the same time, he studied at the Philosophy and Literature Faculty at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México).
In addition to his prose and poetry, Henestrosa was elected to the federal legislature, serving three terms in the Chamber of Deputies, and as a senator for the state of Oaxaca from 1982 to 1988. Andrés Henestrosa started studying at Juchitán, Oaxaca. Until he was 15 he only could speak his native language, Zapotec.
After finishing his basic education, Henestrosa moved to Mexico City and started studying at the National Teacher"s School, where he learned Spanish excellently.
Henestrosa contributed in many ways to Zapotec culture, keeping a line of investigation and exaltation of lieutenant He also was one of the Mexican exponents of the literary movement called Indianismo, since his first book
He also wrote essays and political documents during his long career. In 1936, the Guggenheim Foundation gave him a scholarship to investigate about Zapotec culture and visited United States at the linguistic, resulting in Zapotec language phonetization, the adaptation of the Latin alphabet and a Zapotec–Spanish dictionary.
During this trip, while in New Orleáns in 1937, he wrote one of his most famous books: My Mother’s Portrait ("El retrato de mi madre").
He was the treasurer of the Academy from 1965 to 2000. In 1929, he supported (as did many Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México students) the presidential campaign of José Vasconcelos, being an active part of the campaign acts and writing many essays and chronicles. But almost all of the original hand-wrote transcriptions were lost, being published in many magazines and newspapers.
Academia Mexicana de la Lengua]
He was a member of the Mexican Language Academy from October 23, 1964 to his death, as numerary member with chair 23. Andrés Henestrosa was one of the most prominent members of the Mexican intelligentsia. In 1982 he was elected senator for his home state, Oaxaca, as a member of the Institutional Revolutionary Party.