Tales Our Abuelitas Told: A Hispanic Folktale Collection (review)

This collection of twelve tales opens with an introduction describing their cultural origins and discussing the "cultural crossroads" of Spain, with its strategic geographic position and historical role in intercontinental exploration and colonization, and the intersection of indigenous and colonial Spanish culture in the New World. The stories themselves are a combination of old favorites and tales newly discovered during research for the book, and each entry is followed by a narrative commentary from either Campoy or Ada, in which personal reflections, source notes, and editorial license are detailed. The stories themselves range in length from the six-stanza poem "The Castle of Chuchurumbé" to the thirteen-page "The Little Horse of Seven Colors," and most are set in pastoral mountain landscapes; there's a good mix of animal characters (including the legendary Ratón Pérez) and humans (including popular figures such as Juan Bobo). Unfortunately, the retellings themselves lack polish, with the dialogue often choppy and the pacing slow; the collection is therefore more useful as a resource for selected tales and as a study in folklore and the historical evolution of folklore. Nonetheless, libraries that offer bilingual storytimes and serve populations who may be familiar with the stories may still get extensive use out of this volume. The stories are sprinkled with illustrations from four different artists of Hispanic descent, each of whom brings a distinct style to the collection; final illustrations not seen.