Cuentos from Long Ago

by Atencio, Paulette

• ISBN13: 9780826320643
• ISBN10: 0826320643
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1999-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of New Mexico Pr

Summary

This bilingual sampler of southwestern tales, legends, and myths offers the modern reader wisdom passed down for hundreds of years. The themes of these stories are universal, love and its costs, forgiveness, good versus evil, but the voices, images, and incidents are unique to the Southwest. Set in New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and northern Mexico, this timeless material offers lessons about life and how to triumph over its hardships: from making a bargain with the devil to gaining peace through true love; from dealing with inexplicable, even supernatural events to accepting special gifts that transform pain into joy; and from overcoming jealousy, anger, or stinginess to accepting others just as they are. Moving stories of the first farolito as well as other Christmastime stories evoke children's wonder at the season's simplest gifts. Throughout the volume, stories simultaneously instruct, console, and even amuse us, such as the accounts of the impoverished hunter who, for lack of a bullet, shoots a deer with a cherry pit and then harvests a crop of fruit from the animal; or the penniless young man trying to win over the family of his loved one who heeds a voice that tells him soon he 'will be sad but glad' if he picks up stones on his journey to her house. These cuentos continue a rich oral tradition in which stories appeal to our emotions and their impact is experienced long after the telling.

Table of Contents

Agradecimientos Especiales	ix
Introduction	x
A Deal with the Devil	2	(10)
The Legend of El Tiradito	12	(6)
The Adventures of Don Cacahuate and Dona Cebolla	18	(6)
Don Cacahuate and His Indian Friend	24	(2)
The Princess Who Could Not Cry	26	(4)
The Little Match Girl	30	(4)
The Hitchhiker	34	(4)
The Baby at Ghost Ranch	38	(6)
Don Simon	44	(4)
The Christmas Miracle	48	(8)
The Christmas Doll	56	(6)
Amapola Fernandez	62	(2)
The Storyteller	64	(4)
The Princess and the Beggar	68	(4)
Isidoro Salfin	72	(6)
El nino perdido	78	(4)
El venadito herido	82	(6)
The Racing Horse	88	(6)
The Woodpecker	94	(4)
Inez del Campo	98	(4)
The Weeping Woman	102	(6)
The Priest's Cave	108	(4)
The Magic Stone	112	(4)
El Penitente	116	(4)
The Pinon Tree	120	(4)
Who Am I?	124	(6)
The Wake	130