Told in both Spanish and English, the stories in this collection celebrate the strength of women as found in the Hispanic folklore of northern New Mexico. The book is beautifully illustrated by Vicki Trego Hill and includes Joe’s most famous story, ”The Day It Snowed Tortillas.”

Table of Contents

In the Days of King Adobe / En los días del Rey Adobín

That Will Teach You / Ya aprenderás

The Day It Snowed Tortillas / El día que nevó tortillas

Just Say Baaaa / Di nomás baaaa

Watch Out! / ¡Cuidado!

A Note for Readers and Storytellers from Joe Hayes
According to an old saying, Una mujer piensa más en un solo minuto que un hombre en un mes entero—A woman thinks more in a minute than a man does in a whole month. For me, the saying refers to the rich inner life many women developed in Western cultures when so much of the external, active life was denied them. While men were doing business and fighting wars, women were caring for families and thinking deep thoughts. This little collection of Hispanic stories celebrates the quiet strength of women that comes from this thinking.

Like all the stories I tell, these tales are a combination of traditional lore and my own imagination. The traditional part is based on things people tell me and on what I learn from reading the work of folklorists and anthropologists. Most of this material was collected fifty or more years ago, before radio, television and movies began to replace the old stories. My own contribution is based on my instincts as a storyteller and what my experience tells me listeners need in order to feel satisfied with a story. The stories reflect something of my values and sense of humor, as well as the values and humor of Hispanic culture, but not too many conclusions about either one can be drawn from this small selection.

Hispanic tales in the Southwest are almost all of European origin, coming first from Spain to Mexico hundreds of years ago, and then north as Spanish colonists settled in what we now call Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and California. Readers who are familiar with world folklore will recognize all the tales in this collection. For example, some may know an Ethiopian variant of “That Will Teach You” from Harold Courlander’s Fire On the Mountain. Many will relate “The Day It Snowed Tortillas,” which has been something of a signature story for me for over a decade, to a well-known Russian folktale. In both of these other versions, however, the resourceful character is a man rather than a woman. That a woman is the clever one in the Hispanic variants reveals something about the attitude toward women and a great deal about the sense of humor. People the world over tell stories of a humble individual tricking an overbearing person of higher status, but the idea is especially cherished in Hispanic storylore. Making the trickster a woman, who would traditionally be thought of as less powerful than a man, adds spice to the trick.

My hope is that readers will find these stories spicy enough that they’ll begin to tell them themselves. And if they do, I invite them to add something from their own imaginations to make the stories even richer.
—Joe Hayes