Cuentos: Tales from the Hispanic Southwest

by José Griego Y Maestas, Rudolfo Anaya, Jaime Valdez (Illustrator)

Witchcraft, magic, and events from everyday life provide lively twists to these twenty-three folktales that evoke the rich traditions of the early Spanish settlers and their descendants.

Genres: Spanish Literature, Fiction

174 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

Reviews

[Melki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written in both Spanish and English, this is a decent collection of folk/fairy tales that reflect the cultural traditions of the Southwest.

Many of the stories are essentially Grimms' fairy tales with a Roman Catholic infusion. Priests, saints and the Virgin Mary take the place of woodcutters, elves and fairy godmothers.

Some of the tales are no more than retellings of corny old jokes with great zingers at the end...AND a surprising number of digs at dishonest clergy members.

Snicker.

As in most stories of this type, everyone learns a lesson and the endings are, for the most part, happy.

[Sandy]

I ended up reading this book because of a class assignment which is kind of sad because my mom had showed it to me a few years back and I really should have read it, but in any case I’m still glad I finally did. I admittedly only read the English parts because I was scared my academic Spanish wouldn’t hold up to an older and more dialectic Spanish, but maybe that would be something worth trying in the future. I found it interesting to see and try to understand both the Spanish and Native influences and I think it would have been nice to see those Native influences have more of a prominent role. It felt to me based on the introductions and the stories themselves that this book wishes predominantly to hold up Spanish traditions.

In regard to the stories themselves, it seems strange now to read fables and folk tales in the context of what storytelling is considered to be in mainstream media. In truth since I have not read or interacted much with material or literature from this area I don’t really know how it compares. It does remind me however of Arabian Nights of which I have read some for fun. In this way the stories are very similar in that they share similar messages, center on a very similar masculine perspective, and engage with similar character types. I did feel annoyed as I did with Arabian Nights in how women are portrayed and not really allowed the space to be the main character except for the story Fabiano and Reyes which was nice to read amongst the other stories. It was interesting to see the stories’s attitudes toward religion and I also was especially interested in the stories where Death is a character.

I’m not sure I really have anything profound at all to say about these stories but it does leave me curious about who is/was allowed to be a storyteller, who the specific storytellers of these stories were, what stories from a non-male perspective might have looked like, how these stories currently impact this area’s cultural literature, and what those current stories are.

[Armando Maese Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disfruté leer estos cuentos cortos. Aprendí unas nuevas palabras distintas a Nuevo México y de la región circundante. Además, los cuentos tuvieron mucho sentido común y a veces fueron graciosos. En cierto modo, siento que he logrado a entender más la perspectiva de la gente nativa de Nuevo México a través de leerlos. El cuento que más me gustó fue ‘Los tres hermanos.’ Tuvo un significado teológico que me impresionó mucho.

[Judy]

Tales with morals, one of which has an Anti-Semitic characterization that is not translated into the English version.

[Anxious Bibliophile Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The moral of most Hispanic tales: take care of your elderly or you'll be tormented and likely go to hell.

This tracks with every story I've ever heard from my Mexican family.

[Judith the Book Gobbler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love love love the illustrations!

[OGOWEE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love the stories

[Rem · Rating 5 out of 5]

"...Don't ask about what doesn't concern you. And don't jump to conclusions about what you hear and act too hastily." Pg.89

[Ramiro602 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s a book that talk about cuentos or tales in Spanish and English, that’s why the title its “CUENTOS tales from the Hispanic southwest “ Southwest were the tales take place in the Hispanic villages of New Mexico and Southern Colorado or came from. The book combines the events of everyday life but also it adds something extra to it something magic. The cuentos symbolize the tradition that the people passed and it’s still passing from generation to generation . The tales take life every time that they are narrated by the grandmothers to the young generations it’s like a chain , but this is a good thing because if they didn’t told the relatos many of the tales will died by the past of the time . In many of the tales also u can find a lot of advices that will help in you daily life , you can take the advice or like old people said “ nadie experimenta en cabeza ajena “ . The authors of this book are Jose Griego y Masetas & Rudolfo Anaya , both of them bilingual . Jose he was a assistant professor and director of bilingual education at the College of Santa Fe . Rudolf a associate professor of English at the University of New Mexico , he teaches there creative writing and English Literauture . I think it’s a good book because of the traditions but also because its bilingual and many people can read it .