Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions

This is a great collection of Latin American myths and fairy tales. The stories are simply wonderful, very skillfully related and full of humour. My only disappointment was in the too modern translation, which can really break the spell once in awhile. Other than that, a very satisfying read. (The whole Pantheon Fairy Tale Library series is a treat, and for anyone who loves stories, I highly recommend the Norwegian Fairy Tales, probably the most wonderful piece of world folklore you'll ever encounter.)

Bierhorst, a distinguished (elderly, to boot) scholar of the American Indian--both north and south of the Rio Grande--does not disappoint with this stunning addition to the Pantheon folklore series. The stories, which represent a comprehensive swath through Spanish-speaking Latin America (Brazil, Haiti, and such are conspicuously absent), exhibit the expected intermixture of Christian and autochthonous motifs, as well as a strong dose of European provenance (get out your Aarne-Thompson type catalogue!). The stories do not fall neatly into the taxonomy of etiologic/trickster/love, etc., as one sees in, e.g., the Erdoes & Ortiz collection under the Pantheon colophon: indeed, structuring the stories within a wake (!) seems quite artificial. But the material is quite entertaining for the armchair reader looking for something light and not objecting the casual uptake of an anthropologic lesson or two.