Ignacio Manuel Altamirano

Ignacio Manuel Altamirano Basilio (Spanish pronunciation: [iɣˈnasjo maˈnwel altamiˈɾano βaˈsiljo]; 13 November 1834 – 13 February 1893) was a Mexican radical liberal writer, journalist, teacher and politician.

It tells the story of an honorable and courageous Indian blacksmith who falls in love with a haughty village girl, only to have her elope with the cold-blooded bandit, "Zarco Blue Eyes.

Altamirano was president of the Sociedad Mexicana de Geografía y Estadística (Mexican Society for Geography and Statistics) from 1881 to 1889.

In contrast with othe Mexican liberals from his epoch, as Ignacio Ramírez or Vicente Riva Palacio, he was not a skeptical in religion or radical anticlerical (although he supported the Church-State separation and the expropriation of ecclesiastical properties, i.e. the Mexican Reform).

He was an enthusiast of Reason and civilizational Progress and believed in the superior capability of science to free Humanity of its atavisms.