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Spanish Folklore in the Southwest: The Pioneer Studies of Aurelio M. Espinosa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 December 2015
Extract
The centuries-old Spanish folk heritage of our Southwest, and its many faceted and enduring influence on the cultural life of the region, has been written about from various rims of observation. This article describes the pioneer studies of Aurelio M. Espinosa on Spanish folklore in the Southwest, with special emphasis on northern New Mexico. Although he made important contributions to the study of Spanish folklore of southern Colorado, Arizona, and California, and to that of Spain, Mexico, and other parts of Spanish America as well, he devoted most of his research and field work to the upper half of New Mexico which is the richest field of Spanish folklore in the Southwest.
In viewing the cultural history of New Mexico, Espinosa reminded his readers that its first century as a Spanish colony, the 17th, was the second great century of Spain's Golden Age of arts and letters. With the vigor of Spain's sense of mission in those centuries, her Golden Age radiated to all parts of Spanish America via Mexico City, Lima, and the other principal colonial capitals. At the same time, from the bookshelf and the store of knowledge of the humble missionary, and the folklore of the Spanish settlers, passed down from generation to generation, the spirit of the Golden Age was reflected on the most remote settled frontiers.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1978
References
1 A shorter version of this article, without the accompanying bibliography, was read by the author at the Symposium “Celebration of Southwestern Civilization,” Flagstaff, Arizona, June 10, 1976, sponsored by The American Revolution Bicentennial Administration, The Arizona Council on the Humanities and Public Policy, the Arizona Historical Society, the Conference of Intermountain Archivists, The Historical Society of New Mexico, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Northern Arizona Society of Science and Art, Northern Arizona University, The University of Arizona.
2 See Tully, Marjorie F. and Rael, Juan B., An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Folklore in New Mexico and Southern Colorado (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Publications in Language and Literature, Number Three, the University of New Mexico Press, 1950).Google Scholar
3 Letter from H. L. Mencken to Alfred A. Knopf, June 1934. Copy in the files of the author, courtesy of Mr. Knopf.
4 Boas, Franz, “Romance Folk-Lore Among American Indians,” The Romanie Review, 16 (1925), 199–207,Google Scholar reprinted in idem, Race, Language and Culture (New York: The Free Press, 1940), 518,519, 524.
5 Bolton, Herbert E., “Defensive Spanish Expansion and the Significance of the Borderlands,” reprinted in idem, Wider Horizons of American History (New York: D. Appleton—Century Company, 1939), 102.Google Scholar