The Coyote Under the Table/El Coyote Debajo de la Mesa (18 page)

Pronto el alguacil y sus asistentes se pusieron a bailar alrededor del recinto. Chocaron con la cabeza contra las ramas de los árboles y cayeron en las zanjas.

¡Para! —le rogaron—. ¡Para! Te dejamos ir en paz.

—Digan al amo que me pague lo que me debe —el muchacho dijo.

¡Te pago, te pago! —gritó el hombre. Se esforzó para meter la mano en el bolsillo. Sacó todo el dinero que tenía y lo tiró al muchacho—. Llévatelo todo. Para la música nomás.

El muchacho dejó de tocar y tomó el dinero. Se fue, dejando a los hombres jadeando para recobrar el aliento y palpándose los moretones.

El muchacho regresó a su casa y le dio el dinero a su madre. Luego desdobló la tela, y mientras su madre comía la comida rica hasta satisfacerse, le tocaba una melodía tranquila en su violincito.

This tale is extremely common and popular in Hispanic New Mexico. It has frequently been borrowed by Native Americans as well. Variants appear in many collections. A telling similar to mine is in
Spanish Folk-Tales of New Mexico
by José Manuel Espinosa.

This is a very widespread tale, probably best known in the English ballad “Prince John and the Abbot of Canterbury.” A humorous character called El Pelón occurs frequently in Hispanic tales. The corrupt ruler is usually a prince or king, but Adelina Otero made him a governor in her book
Old Spain in Our
Southwest.
The change has a ring of historical accuracy. Each colonial governor was required to make an official visit to every settlement upon arriving in New Mexico, which explains why the governor turned up when he did in the story.

The tradition of carving
santos
(wooden statues of saints) is as old as the first Spanish colonization of New Mexico. Like the statue in this tale, many
santos
are held in great reverence and some boast quite elaborate wardrobes. The statue of
La Conquistadora
(recently renamed Our Lady of Peace) in the Saint Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, for example, is said to have some three hundred dresses. This tale is adapted from “Nuestra Señora del rosario”
(Cuentos Españoles de Colorado
y
Nuevo México
#141)
.

I collected this brief tale in Peñasco, New Mexico, when working as artist-in-residence at the elementary school. In the original, however, as recorded on tape by an uncle of one of the children, the third man was unable to run because he defecated in his pants.
(
¿
Cómo quieres que corra
?
Estoy todo cagado.)
Writers and storytellers often “clean stories up” to meet contemporary standards.

Stories of a poor, unlettered person who demonstrates great wisdom in settling a dispute are popular around the world and probably reflect the distrust common
people often have of legal systems and formal education. The theme is expressed especially well in this tale because Indians were of low social status in Spanish New Mexico. For me the tale also celebrates the value of cultural diversity and the contributions differing groups can make to one another. This tale is adapted from “El indio abogado”
(Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico
#34).

This is a popular tale and one that's been told to me on several occasions, although only in summary. It is an old European story even though the Southwestern version features the coyote. There is a German version in the Grimms' tales, and J. Frank Dobie offers a Tex-Mex telling in
The Voice of the Coyote.

This story is adapted from “Juan Cenizas”
(Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico
# 242). It is obviously related to the “Puss in Boots” tale. The division of a house among children by allocating roof beams was a common practice in Hispanic New Mexico well into the twentieth century. The appearance of an angel or a departed soul in the form of an animal to help a deserving person occurs frequently in traditional tales.

This tale is adapted from “La viborita”
(Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico
# 245). The Hispanic oral tradition in New Mexico contains many tales about a snake, or more often a little worm, which is befriended by a girl, only to grow to enormous size and become her benefactor. Cleofas Jaramillo offered another example in her long out-of-print book
Spanish Fairy Stories.

What struck my fancy in this tale was the potential for trouble caused by a ring that increases the wearer's strength every time he blesses himself. The priest was in the original, but I added the old woman because I wanted to play with the idea some more. Also, in the original the queen has no role and the king is seeking a husband for his daughter, rather than a successor to the crown. This tale is adapted from “El pastor afortunado”
(Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico
# 226).

This tale is common in many lands. Of course, the magic instrument isn't always a violin. Frequently, the owner of the magic instrument is sentenced to hang and as a last request asks to be allowed to play one final song, but I didn't let things go so far in my telling. A New Mexican variant can be found in
Spanish Folk-Tales of New Mexico
by José Manuel Espinosa. There are two versions in
Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico
as well.

 

Adapted with permission of the Museum of New Mexico Press from
Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico.
by Juan B. Rael, copyright 1977.

 

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