The Woman Who Lost Her Soul and Other Stories: Collected Tales and Short Stories

Portada
Arte Publico Press, 2000 M01 1 - 190 páginas
The writer Jovita Gonzàlez was a long memeber- and ultimately seved as president- of Texas Folklore Society, which strve to preserve the oral traditions and customs of her native state. Many of the folklore-based stories in this volume were published by Gonzàlez in periodicals such as Southwest Review from the 1920s through the 1940s but have been gathered here for the first time. Sergio Reyna has brought together more than thirty narratives by Gonzàlez and arranged them into Animal Tales (such as "The Mescal-Drinking Horse"); Tales of Humans ("The Bullet-Swallower"); Tales of Popular Customs ("Shelling Corn by Moonlight); Religious Tales ("The Guadalupana Vine); Tales of Mexican Ancestrors ("Ambriosio the Indian); and Tales of Ghosts, Demons, and Buried Treasure ("The Woman Who Lost Her Soul"). Reyna also provides a helpful introduction that succinctly surveys the authors life and work, analyzing her writings within their historical and cultural contexts.

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Contenido

The Mocking Bird
2
The Woodpecker
4
The Paisano
7
The Cicada
9
The Cardinal
11
The MescalDrinking Horse
14
Tales of Humans
21
Tío Patricio
22
El Cardo Santo The Thistle
80
The Guadalupana Vine
82
The Dove
84
El Cenizo
85
Tales of Popular Customs
87
Shelling Corn by Moonlight
88
Border Folklore
91
Tales of Mexican Ancestors
101

Juan el Loco
28
Don José María
30
Don Tomás
34
Pedro The Hunter
38
The Mail Carrier
40
The Perennial Lover
42
Tío Pancho Malo
44
The BulletSwallower
47
The Philosopher of the Brush Country
56
Among My People Border Folklore
64
Among My People
70
Religious Tales
79
The Gift of the Pitahaya
102
Ambrosio the Indian
104
The First Cactus Blossom
105
Shades of the Tenth Muses
108
Tales of Ghosts Demons and Buried Treasures
117
Legends of Ghosts and Treasures
118
The Devil on the Border
126
Without a Soul
135
The Woman Who Lost Her Soul
141
Nana Chita
152
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Página 113 - To MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND If ever two were one, then surely we. If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; If ever wife was happy in a man, Compare with me, ye women, if you can. I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold Or all the riches that the East doth hold. My love is such that rivers cannot quench, Nor ought but love from thee, give recompense.
Página xxvi - I ran to where the pack mules were to get my gun. Like a fool that I was, I kept yelling at the top of my voice, 'You so, so and so gringo cowards, why don't you attack men like men? Why do you wait until they are undressed and unarmed?' I must have said some very insulting things, for one of them shot at me right in the mouth. The bullet knocked all of my front teeth out, grazed my tongue and went right through the back of my neck. Didn't kill me, though. It takes more than bullets to kill Antonio...
Página 113 - Trees, and learn'd to sing; Chief of the Brood then took his flight, To Regions far, and left me quite : My mournful chirps I after send.
Página 113 - Let Greeks be Greeks, and women what they are Men have precedency and still excel, It is but vain unjustly to wage war; Men can do best, and women know it well.
Página xxiii - It was on a night like this that the ranch folk gathered at the Big House to shell corn. All came: Tio Julianito, the pastor, with his brood of black half-starved children ever eager for food; Alejo, the fiddler; Juanito the idiot, called the Innocent, because the Lord was keeping his mind in Heaven; Pedro the hunter, who had seen the world and spoke English; the vaqueros; and on rare occasions, Tio Esteban, the mail carrier. Even the women came, for on such occasions supper was served. A big canvas...
Página 42 - He was not bad looking. He was tall and lanky, and had it not been for his coconut head, pivoted on some eight inches of neck, his triangular ears, and big hands and splay feet, he would have been handsome. His mustache was the barometer for his emotions. When he was not in love it hung limp and unkept, but in the spring, when the world was aglow with prairie flowers and all Nature invited him to love, it was waxed and triumphant. I remember his coming to the ranch one day and calling my uncle aside...
Página 44 - as Tio Pancho Malo did," or "as Tio Pancho Malo said." If he himself was not willing to speak, those who knew him were only too glad to tell you, and always with a laugh, concerning the old man and his idiosyncrasies. As a young married man he had lived near Mier, in Mexico, on his few ancestral acres of worthless alkaline land. "Bitter mesquites and poor folks' children are plentiful,
Página xxix - ... y espiritu de profesionalismo de Maria Cotera y Thomas H. Kreneck por permitirme el acceso a este valioso manuscrito de Jovita Gonzalez. Obras citadas Bruce-Novoa. "The Space of Chicano Literature Update: 1978." Retrospace: Collected Essays on Chicano Literature. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1990. Chase, Cida S. "Jovita Gonzalez de Mireles (1899-1983).
Página 38 - They smelled like buzzards. The odor was so strong he could hear it. No, he was not mistaken; he was sure they were Americans. Did they not speak English? He did not stay in the Sugar Land country long ; the dampness was making him have chills. So he hired himself as a section hand. His auditors should have seen that big black monster, el Tren Volador. It roared and whistled and belched fire and smoke as it flew over the land.
Página 9 - ... the hummingbirds, the tenors of the fields. His wife was jealous and when her erring husband returned home in the evening, satisfied with himself and life, you should have heard her garrulous voice rise above the stillness of night. But he said nothing and merely sat heavy eyed with love and too happy to hear. As summer came on and the July heat made his life unbearable, his romantic adventurous habits were transformed into a langorous lassitude.

Acerca del autor (2000)

JOVITA GONZ LEZ (1904-1983) was born in south Texas to a family of teachers. In the summer of 1925 she had ñthe far-reaching experienceî of meeting folklorist J. Frank Dobie, who became an enduring friend and mentor. At his urging and with his encouragement, she began publishing tales of the Texas-Mexico border such as those she knew from her childhood. With her husband, Edmundo Mireles, she also co-authored two popular series of textbooks for learning Spanish. Two novels written by her were published posthumously: Caballero (Texas A&M University Press, 1996) and Dew on the Thorn (Arte PÏblico Press,1997). SERGIO REYNA is a doctoral candidate in Spanish at the University of Houston and a bilingual teacher with the Alief Independent School District. He previously served as co-editor of the journal DifusiÑn Educativa of the National Pedagogical University in Tamaulipas, Mexico. Counterpoise writes, ñThis collection is recommended for both public and academic libraries.î

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