Luisa Chavez, recorder, 1975
File — Box: 4, CD: 406
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
- 1975
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
Felicitas Torres y Trujillo, born 1904, Truchas, NM. Begins at 00:02 and ends at 50:26. See notes in Cobos file. 1. Conversation, Past times (fair recording, personal experiences, speaker describes the old times, girls, women, diversiones, leisure time, juegos, games, children, el floron, el pano, el canute, going to church, el trompo, top, los colores, el fuente, el pipis y gallo, la herradura, horseshoes, el chueco, el gato quiere rincon, los pares y nones, two people played it, adivinanzas, puzzle questions, if not answered person had to say several prayers); 2. Bailes, dances (fair recording, local traditions, dance customs, if asked to dance the girl could dance but could not talk to the boy, considered a lack of respect); 3. Canciones (fair recording, local traditions about songs, only the men could sing popular songs, the women and girls only sang religious songs); 4. Chiflar, whistle (fair recording, local traditions, girls could not whistle, they would be considered a tom boy, could not even whistle hymns); 5. Conversation, traditions (fair recording, local customs, speaker states that single life is normal, in the past single girls and women were under orders of their parents, family, married women under orders of their husbands, marriage, wedding, working, employment, not hold a job, women worked just to help out, plastering walls, never for money, payment, women stayed home, cared for family, husband, man supported the family, when children grew up, got married, started own home, moved next to their parents, children, women, had large families, sex, no birth control, no contraception, considered a sin, breaking the commandments, law of God, today many stealing, killing, adultry, forgetting the consequences in the after life, judgement of God, religion); 6. Cancion, song (fair recording, description of a traditional song, January 1, los Manueles, Manuelas, Emmanuel, sung by men from the community, guitar, violin, words to song in Cobos file); 7. Conversation (fair recording, personal experiences, about her life, explains the origin of her last names, speaker tells about her father, husband, children, grandchildren, all Bilingual and married in the Catholic Church, Torres, Trujillo, genealogy, etc.); 8. Life in 1914-1915 (fair recording, local history, tells about taking their burros to get clay for making pottery, up in the mountains, also bring dirt of color of adobe for the walls of the house, burros carried the clay and dirt, they walked, also picked herbs for remedios, home remedies, and also broom grass for floor brooms, and dust mops, popolillo, pingue herb for chewing gum, also lemita fruit as gum, few doctors, closest one was nineteen miles away, twenty years ago she fell on a pitch fork and ruptured intestines, doctor helped her or she would have died, medicine, health); 9. Dichos, adivinanzas (fair recording, wisdom, proverbs, riddles); 10. Cuento (fair recording, story about a man who understood the language of the animals, the rooster says that the man cannot control his wife, the man beats his wife so that she doesn't ask him what they are saying, women, marriage, domestic abuse, machismo); 11. Historia, cuento (fair recording, story about a man and wife who was mean, she died, great weight taken off him, women, marriage); 12. Historia, cuento (fair recording, story about a woman from mountains and a city lady, never saw an airplane and bombs for soldiers, bombas, play on words, miss understanding, Spanish language); 13. Historia, cuento (fair recording, story about a man named Jose, made adobe, plastered walls, tired of job, looks for another, meets St. Peter, who shows him he is happier doing his old job); 14. Chiste (fair recording, joke about a boy and his short hair cut); 15. Cuento of a sordo (fair recording, story about a man who was deaf, a rancher, and his friend, misunderstanding between them, language); 16. Cuento, la senora que se gano el torno (fair to poor recording, story of an ugly old woman who never gave into invitations from her girls friends to go to dances and parties, she instead married as young girl, she cared well for her husband and family and did good deeds her whole life, virtue, when she died, went to heaven, was on the day heaven was having a party for the Virgin Mary, and people in heaven wanted to be next to the Virgin and give her gifts, but St. Peter seated the old woman next to the Virgin and after all the other gifts were opened, she received a Box full of all the good deeds she had done in her life, they scattered all over, none of the other people had done what she had done, women, moral of the story, conversation); 17. Cuento de la anima sola (fair to poor recording, incident that happened to her grandmother, Senora Teresita, husband Nasario Lopez, in Cordova, New Mexico, her belief in saints, santos and promises to them, learn never to make promises that you cannot fulfull, old woman made promise to make a pilgrimage, not kept and then died, spoke from the grave after death, muerte, asking her husband to fulfill it for her, so to be in peace, Stephanita Montoya, Espanola, Abiquiu, dicho for this story, explanation, una anima abandonada, sufriendo, es patrona de Abiquiu).
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
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