Dauno Tótoro was born in Moscow and has lived in several Latin American countries before making his home in Chile. His experience as a documentary director and reporter in several conflict zones has been the inspiration for the landscapes and characters in his work. He won the Latin American José Martí prize for journalism in 1995, he is the author of the published journalistic article and essay collections Green Path; EXLN, the Army that Came out of the Forest (Planeta México, 1994); Zapatistas (Liberarte, Buenos Aires, 1995); The Bullet-Proof Brotherhood, and Being on the Left (both with Cuarto Propio, Chile, 2003 and 2005); The Men Who Let the Butterflies Drink (with Compañía Teatrocinema and illustrator Abel Elizondo, 2014); and the trilogy of novels The Smile of the Caiman, The Time of the Caimiguana and the Shell of Ukucma (coming soon in the Black Shore collection).