Herón Martínez Mendoza (1918-1990) was a potter from Acatlán, Puebla, Mexico. At first, he was reluctant to follow his family's footsteps to become a potter, and after trying different lines of work, he joined the family business of creating clay pottery. He started creating utilitarian pieces. He designed a container to carry water, and became successful due to the way the handles were made from breaking. He moved on to creating pots and planters which, over time, started to take a creative form, representing animals, fish and various birds. Many collectors sought Herón's works, which ranged from trees of life to whimsical zoomorphic pieces, pots, churches, masks, wall plaques and more. Before his passing in 1990, Herón said in an interview that he wanted his legacy to be that he had produced a great seed for his city and that he wanted the art to not perish.
