Ruben Cobos, recorder, January 1976
File — Box: 4, CD: 361
Scope and Content
From the Collection:
The collection consists of 591 recordings of folk songs, folklore and local histories collected by Ruben Cobos from 1944-1974 in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. Also included in the collection are about 270 additional recordings of selected music - a few from New Mexico, many from Mexico and Latin America, and others from Spain, Europe and the U.S. The recordings vary in quality between good, fair, and poor. They contain both musical and spoken content. Most recordings are in Spanish, however, a few are in English. Others are Bilingual or represent the use of Spanglish.
The informants are mainly from New Mexico and Colorado, with a few from California, Texas and Mexico. The collections focuses heavily on spoken Spanish, with examples of poetry, riddles, proverbs, legends, anecdotes, folk tales, mysteries, prayers, nursery rhymes, games, jokes, language use, tricky words, tongue twisters, memories, local history and family history. The Spanish songs include alabados, entriegas for weddings and baptisms, inditas, corridos and ballads, pastores, posadas, love songs, folk dance music, etc. Traditions of Los Juanes and Los Manueles, Penitente morada practices, including women Penitentes, Holy Week songs and activities and the role of the church, santos and fiestas in the lives of the people are also included. There are also several lectures on folklore, music and culture by Cobos and other scholars, including Fray Angelico Chavez, Charles Briggs, Alfonso Ortiz, Arthur Leon Campa, Marta Weigle, Guadalupe Baca Vaughn, Anita Thomas and others. Included also are autobiographical accounts by Ruben Cobos and his wife Elvira.
Songs and stories about and for children, their health and education are included. Although the majority of the information is about Spanish and Hispanic traditions, the collection also provides some materials by and about non-Hispanics and the relationship between the races. A small amount of stories and songs relate to Apaches, Navajos, Pueblos, Mexicanos, African Americans, and Anglos (gringos).
Songs and stories by or about males show them in every walk of life, as rich and poor, old and young, as husbands, widowers, fathers, sons, relatives, compadres, friends, orphans, opponents, collaborators, kings, princes, commoners, giants, ranchers, cowboys, shepherds, farmers, woodcutters, shoemakers, vendors, railroaders, hunters, priests, doctors, teachers, politicians, attorneys, meteorologists, soldiers, witches, simpletons, gamblers, murderers, drunks, adulturers and thieves.
Recordings by and about women add value and perspective to the collection. Females are rich and poor, old and young, girl friends, lovers, adulteresses, wives, widows, mothers, comadres, church attendees, housekeepers for priests, nuns, princesses, queens, teachers, curanderas, cooks and witches. Some of the characters found in the collection are Cinderella, Genoveva de Brabanate, Goldilocks, Delgadina, La Llorona, Doña Cebolla, Dona Fortuna and the Virgin Mary, as well as San Antonio, San Pedro, Bartoldo, Don Cacahuate, Juan Charrasqueado, Pedro and Juan de Urdemalas, Ali Baba, Don Dinero, Tio Botitas and others.
The collection contains descriptions, traditions, local history and songs for New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, Kansas and Mexico. There are references to the Civil War in New Mexico, the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II. Stories tell of superstitions, supernatural, unexplained phenomenon, balls of fire and light, lightening, a comet, the sun, moon, finding treasure, ghosts, devils and magic. Additional topics include traditional food and cooking, health and home remedies. Included also are stories and references to insects, animals, birds, fish and snakes, as well as floods and storms, and automobiles and airplanes.
The informants are mainly from New Mexico and Colorado, with a few from California, Texas and Mexico. The collections focuses heavily on spoken Spanish, with examples of poetry, riddles, proverbs, legends, anecdotes, folk tales, mysteries, prayers, nursery rhymes, games, jokes, language use, tricky words, tongue twisters, memories, local history and family history. The Spanish songs include alabados, entriegas for weddings and baptisms, inditas, corridos and ballads, pastores, posadas, love songs, folk dance music, etc. Traditions of Los Juanes and Los Manueles, Penitente morada practices, including women Penitentes, Holy Week songs and activities and the role of the church, santos and fiestas in the lives of the people are also included. There are also several lectures on folklore, music and culture by Cobos and other scholars, including Fray Angelico Chavez, Charles Briggs, Alfonso Ortiz, Arthur Leon Campa, Marta Weigle, Guadalupe Baca Vaughn, Anita Thomas and others. Included also are autobiographical accounts by Ruben Cobos and his wife Elvira.
Songs and stories about and for children, their health and education are included. Although the majority of the information is about Spanish and Hispanic traditions, the collection also provides some materials by and about non-Hispanics and the relationship between the races. A small amount of stories and songs relate to Apaches, Navajos, Pueblos, Mexicanos, African Americans, and Anglos (gringos).
Songs and stories by or about males show them in every walk of life, as rich and poor, old and young, as husbands, widowers, fathers, sons, relatives, compadres, friends, orphans, opponents, collaborators, kings, princes, commoners, giants, ranchers, cowboys, shepherds, farmers, woodcutters, shoemakers, vendors, railroaders, hunters, priests, doctors, teachers, politicians, attorneys, meteorologists, soldiers, witches, simpletons, gamblers, murderers, drunks, adulturers and thieves.
Recordings by and about women add value and perspective to the collection. Females are rich and poor, old and young, girl friends, lovers, adulteresses, wives, widows, mothers, comadres, church attendees, housekeepers for priests, nuns, princesses, queens, teachers, curanderas, cooks and witches. Some of the characters found in the collection are Cinderella, Genoveva de Brabanate, Goldilocks, Delgadina, La Llorona, Doña Cebolla, Dona Fortuna and the Virgin Mary, as well as San Antonio, San Pedro, Bartoldo, Don Cacahuate, Juan Charrasqueado, Pedro and Juan de Urdemalas, Ali Baba, Don Dinero, Tio Botitas and others.
The collection contains descriptions, traditions, local history and songs for New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Missouri, Kansas and Mexico. There are references to the Civil War in New Mexico, the Spanish American War, World War I and World War II. Stories tell of superstitions, supernatural, unexplained phenomenon, balls of fire and light, lightening, a comet, the sun, moon, finding treasure, ghosts, devils and magic. Additional topics include traditional food and cooking, health and home remedies. Included also are stories and references to insects, animals, birds, fish and snakes, as well as floods and storms, and automobiles and airplanes.
Dates
- January 1976
Language of Materials
From the Collection:
English, Spanish
Access Restrictions
The collection is open for research.
Extent
From the Collection: 13 boxes (12.25 cu. ft.)
General
Elvira Cobos, born November 21, 1926, Ranchos de Taos, recorded January 1976. She is Dr. Cobos' wife. Begins at 00:04 and ends at 38:40. 1. Local traditions (fair recording, various memories, la cosecha, harvest, local history, agriculture, New Mexico in the past, personal information, rezo, prayers, Salve por vida y salud, prayer for the dead, muerte, el dia de San Juan, women, how to make chicos, dried corn, apples, food, cooking, corn fields, milpas, maiz, elotes, cooking in the horno, con carne, meat, saints, santos, feasts, fiestas, June 4, la bendicion por los padres para sus hijos, parents blessing the children; mayordomos, iglesia, care of the church, misa, Holy Mass, etc. Chistes, jokes, The Pope, The Hungry nan, The Blind horse, El sudario, wake, funeral, muerte, death, dichos, rimes, rhymes, superstition); 2. Personal experiences (fair recording, local traditions, grandmother used to tell her witch stories, examples, brujas, brujeria, women); 3. Christmas traditions (fair recording, Navidad, Christmas eve, gifts, meal, food, cooking, Las Posadas, la noche grande, rosario, luminarias, midnight mass, misa de gallo, pedir oremos, verso de juegos de ninos, versos de los Manueles, food, cooking, meal, women); 4. Personal experiences (fair recording, local history, traditions, lena, hauling firewood, men would wake up very early and go off to get the wood, use of word lonche, lunch, Ranchos de Taos, September and October, weather, conditions, lambing time, sheep, ehiyadero, hiyadero, shearing, la tresquilla, farming, garden, animals, threshing wheat, trigo, triando, plastering walls, enjarando, mud and straw, wall paper, empapelando); 5. Local traditions (fair recording, personal experience, saints, feasts, stories, witches, Christmas, social, embalming bodies, death, muerte, wake, home funerals, no mortuary, Penitentes, mass, velorio, rosario, baking, cooking, food for the visitors, sharing food, bocaditos, women would cry over the body of the dead, grief, luminarias, wooden coffin, dressed all in black, widows did not remarry, men feared their families, adults, luto, mourning, velorios de angelito, wake for children); 6. Local traditions (fair recordings, in past times, people visited their friends and neighbors every day just to talk and share stories and adivinanzas, the host family would always send them home with food, past times, leisure, daily, life, sewing, making clothes, cooking, women, meals, schedule); 7. Curanderismo, home remedies (fair recording, curandera, herbs, hierbas, remedios, medicine, health, mal ojo, aire, empacho, remedios caseros, osha to repel snakes, osha takes teeth pain away, osha for rheumatism, milkweed, chamiso, lavender for stomach pain, hierba buena, spearmint, manzanilla, pineapple weed, worm wood, estafiate, romero, manteca de marrano); 8. Entriega de novios (fair recording, wedding traditions, singing, marriage, church, blessing, for eternity, food, meal, baptism, La Llorona, corriendo gallo, rooster pull, making bread in horno, pan de horno); 9. Matanza de marrano (fair recording, pig roast, manteca, chicharrones, food, women cooking, all day, after music interlude, cont.).
Rubencito Cobos, Jr. Begins at 38:40 and ends at 39:52. Instrumental song (fair recording, Spanish guitar, flamenco song, Ruben Marcelino? probably Cobos recording family at home.)
Elvira Cobos, born November 21, 1926, Ranchos de Taos, wife of Dr. Cobos, recorded January 1976, cont., begins at 39:54 and ends at 46:13. 1. Local traditions (fair recording, carne seca, meat, preservation, food, storage, beef jerky, dried meat, there were not refrigerators in that time, they would smash the dried meat to soften it, cooking); 2. Superstitions (fair recording, basilisk, basilisco, snake, bad luck, bad omen); 3. Comida tradicional (fair recording, food for Lent, cooking, local traditions, calabazitas, maiz, chicos, comida seca, pastel de fruta, cherry, apple, peach, cake, biscochos, bizcochitos, nuts, candies).
Rubencito Cobos, Jr. Begins at 38:40 and ends at 39:52. Instrumental song (fair recording, Spanish guitar, flamenco song, Ruben Marcelino? probably Cobos recording family at home.)
Elvira Cobos, born November 21, 1926, Ranchos de Taos, wife of Dr. Cobos, recorded January 1976, cont., begins at 39:54 and ends at 46:13. 1. Local traditions (fair recording, carne seca, meat, preservation, food, storage, beef jerky, dried meat, there were not refrigerators in that time, they would smash the dried meat to soften it, cooking); 2. Superstitions (fair recording, basilisk, basilisco, snake, bad luck, bad omen); 3. Comida tradicional (fair recording, food for Lent, cooking, local traditions, calabazitas, maiz, chicos, comida seca, pastel de fruta, cherry, apple, peach, cake, biscochos, bizcochitos, nuts, candies).
Creator
- From the Collection: Cobos, Rubén (Person)
Repository Details
Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository
Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451
cswrref@unm.edu