José Revueltas was born in Durango in 1914 and died in Mexico City in 1976. He was a writer, screenwriter, and political activist. He participated in the Railroad Workers' Movement in 1958; he was one of the central figures of the student movement of 1968, for which he was imprisoned in Lecumberri (The Black Palace), the place where he wrote El apando. His work offers a wide range of themes, but particularly the human condition in its most raw and dark aspects.