In the summer of 1931, folklorist J. Manuel Espinosa traveled throughout northern New Mexico asking Spanish-speaking residents for cuentos de cuanto hay: tales of olden times. Espinosa’s transcriptions were published in Spanish in 1937. Now storyteller Joe Hayes makes them available once again in the original Spanish and, for the first time, in English translation. This marvelous book is a true labor of love. The translation alone, done by Joe Hayes, makes this new edition of the book important. This is the first large and representative collection of New Mexican Spanish folktales to be published in English.

To read these stories is to enter a world where the devil may come knocking on your door and ask you to marry him, and where your mule can warn you not to accept the devil’s offer! As old as any Old World fairy tales, these cuentos are also thoroughly New Mexican. Anyone, child or adult, who loves a good tale will relish this collection, but the student of folklore will find it especially satisfying.