Benito Juárez “nació el 21 de marzo de 1806 en un poblado de indígenas zapotecos, San Pablo Guelatao” (was born on March 21, 1806, in a village of Zapotec Indians, San Pablo Guelatao). This is how a biography by INEHRM, the federal institute for historical studies, begins.
His parents died when he was small. He worked in the fields and as a shepherd. At 12 he went to the city of Oaxaca, to the house where his sister worked as a cook. He learned Spanish only at about that age. After his law studies, he was the first graduate of the Institute of Sciences and Arts of Oaxaca.