The Emerald Lizard: Fifteen Latin American Tales to Tell/ La lagartija esmeralda: Quince cuentos tradicionales Latinoamericanos (review)

Pleasant DeSpain has been telling stories professionally for about 30 years, performing on his own television program based in Seattle as well as before "live" audiences throughout the country and internationally. In this attractively designed volume, he retells myths, legends, and folktales culled from his travels in South and Central America and the Caribbean and his research in published collections of pre-Columbian literature and folktales. The cultural history of the region is summarized in a single paragraph in the two-page introduction, while DeSpain uses the rest of the introduction to tell the story of his becoming a storyteller. About the stories themselves, he says that "each contains original imagery, pacing, and most significantly, a narrative voice that can only be achieved through years of telling aloud. Most importantly . . . [these stories] have proven successful with audiences of all ages" (p. 10). Thus, readers are alerted that the reteller has exercised the storyteller's prerogative to alter tales significantly to fit personal taste and audience preferences. Additionally, there appears to be a double message here. Although the subtitle indicates that the stories were chosen for the use of other storytellers (who presumably have their own narrative voices), DeSpain clearly conveys his sense of having created the specific forms of these narratives as published, implying ownership of them. Perhaps DeSpain is gently reminding storytellers that they should acknowledge their sources during performances; it is the ethical and courteous thing to do. The irony is, of course, that DeSpain has borrowed these tales from cultures other than his own, a practice as old as storytelling itself that shows no sign of stopping to tip its hat in recognition of individual tellers.

Fortunately, DeSpain acknowledges his own sources, both oral and written, in the brief notes collected at the end of the tales. For each story, he provides the motif number from Margaret Read MacDonald's Storyteller's Sourcebook(Gale Research, 1982) and identifies up to three printed sources for other versions. This information is extremely helpful for storytellers and may be of some interest for scholars. Many, though by no means all, of the sources mentioned are commonly found in larger libraries that have been developing their children's folklore collections over a period of decades. The notes offer limited cultural context for individual stories, but readers should not expect a perspective on storytelling or folk narrative traditions in Latin America.

The stories are presented in no stated or discernible order, the legend of the emerald lizard appearing first. Myths of native peoples (Inca, Huichol, and Pemón) mingle with legends and folktales of European and mixed ancestry. A single black-and-white illustration faces the first page of each tale's English version, which is followed by Lamo-Jiménez's Spanish translation. DeSpain's retellings are simple enough for a competent fifth grader to read. They retain the directness of oral telling, with the barest description of scenes; simple, action-focused plots; and the use of dialogue to advance both plot and characterization. And what fine tales they are. No wonder DeSpain confidently assures us that people of all ages have enjoyed hearing these stories.

While readers will meet up again with characters known well beyond the borders of their native lands, such as Juan Bobo and Bouki, they will encounter fresh views on such phenomena as husband-wife rivalry, saintly compassion, roosters outsmarting wily foxes, and justice rewarded. In other words, the usual stuff of folk narrative.

However, the retellings illustrate the perils of attempting to set an essentially oral literature in a written text. In the process of writing and retelling, DeSpain seems to have smoothed out some of the cultural distinctiveness and emotional tone of the stories, so that the Huichol myth of the Flood and the Haitian tale "Renting a Horse" strike...