Enchanted Legends and Lore of New Mexico

by De Aragon, Ray John

• ISBN13: 9781609495725
• ISBN10: 1609495721
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-04-08
• Publisher: History Pr

Summary

Beginning in the seventeenth century, townsfolk and rural dwellers in the remote Spanish colonial city of Santa Fe maintained a provocative interest in mysterious and miraculous visions. This preoccupation with the afterlife, occult forces and. unearthly beings existing outside the natural world led to early witch trials, stories about saintly apparitions and strange encounters with spirits and haunted places. New Mexican author Ray John de Aragón explores the time-honored tradition of frightening folklore in the Land of Enchantment in this intriguing collection of tales that crosses cultures in the dark corners of the southwestern night. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

The Dedication	p. 7
"The Book"	p. 9
Forward into the Unknown	p. 11
Historical Overview: Witches	p. 15
The Bruja's Curse	p. 19
Los Voladeros/The Flyers	p. 23
The Headless Horseman of Santa Fé	p. 28
Fearless John/Juan Sin Miedo	p. 35
Crisscrossed Witches	p. 39
Historical Overview: Culture and Tradition	p. 43
The Merry Ghost	p. 47
Night Specter	p. 55
Juan Goche	p. 61
Gold Teeth	p. 65
The Legend of La Pavura Blanca	p. 71
Juana Marchanta	p. 75
The Sheepherder and the Chupacabra	p. 86
Half Past Twelve	p. 92
A Dark, Misty Night	p. 95
Angelina Chávez	p. 102
About the Author	p. 109
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

Author Ray John de Aragon has collected various folkloric stories from all regions of New Mexico throughout its changing history, most of them foreboding or cautionary tales of witches and specters. Stories rooted in the folklore of Native American culture, the Spanish colonial era, Mexican period, and the Wild West and epic-ranching years of New Mexico's past have been gathered by the author from all corners of the state. He frames them with historical context, old traditions, and other information to explain how they were promulgated among the peoples of specific times and places.