Ranchera (Country Song)
It is accepted that the word ranchera refers to a type of Mexican song, although sometimes it is an adjective that describes a character or a type of person. Ranchera comes from the word rancho, meaning a “cattle ranch, farm, or rural settlement.” A poor unsophisticated person may be called a ranchero or ranchera, implying he or she is from the countryside, the sticks, and a hick. In the context of Mexican folk music la canción ranchera is a love song, sung by the common folk, the peasants of the rural countryside. After the Mexican Revolution rancheras became more agreeable to the upper classes because of the movement toward a Mexican identity and nationalism and a rejection of European cultural values. The modern canción ranchera was made popular in Mexico City in the early 1950s by the songwriter José Alfredo Jimenez. The poetic structure of the ranchera is brief and simple, yet emotionally it is very intense. According to Rubén Campos as quoted by Gradante, “it is a moan and a sigh . . . , the briefest form of composition and, as such, requires a greater intensity of expression than any other compositional form. It must say precisely what it means” (1983, 105). The themes of rancheras are love and unrequited love, but from the point of view of the ordinary common man. Rancheras express the poetry of the masses. The famous ranchera singer Amalia Mendoza states, “the canción ranchera expresses the sensibility of the masses and reaches them: thus, its popularity. . . . One might say that the canción ranchera reflects the personality of the masses because it expresses something vital that we all have in common” (Gradante 1983, 105).
The ranchera originated in Mexico but is very popular in the United States among Mexicans and Chicanos. José Alfredo Jimenez wrote over 500 songs, many becoming classics that continue to be sung today by younger artists, that have a universal sentiment that speaks to the hearts of Chicanos. Because of the style of these romantic songs, sung to Mariachi music and sung in Spanish, untranslatable rancheras express the epitome of Mexicanness. The musical poetics arouse emotional sentiments about lost loves, nostalgia, and by extension about being Mexican. Songs such as “Ella” (Her), “Camino de Guanajuato” (Road to Guanajuato), “La Vida no Vale Nada” (Life Has No Value), and “Llego Borracho el Borracho” (The Drunk Arrived Drunk) all elicit memories of fathers, grandfathers, and stories of Mexico. Many are drinking songs, frequently shown in movies being sung in cantinas (bars), but they are also dancing songs, so they are played at celebrations and family gatherings. Although rancheras are intensely male centered, there are several female singers who became famous singing rancheras, such as Lola Beltran, Lucha Villa, and Amalia Mendoza. The performance of rancheras is always dramatic and emotional, whether performed by men or women, and the audience can always empathize with the situations depicted in the verses. The life experiences portrayed in the songs of José Alfredo Jimenez, who came from a poverty-stricken background himself, are about the struggles of Everyman, the need for social acceptance, personal happiness, and some type of financial security. These are concerns that the average Mexicano and Chicano can identify with. Although most rancheras speak of love, other life situations found in the songs deal with fortune, destiny, and life’s choices. In “Camino de Guanajuato,” these existential words open the song:
No vale nada la vida,
La vida no vale nada,
Comienza siempre llorando,
Y así llorando se acaba.
(Of no value is life
Life is worth nothing
It always begins with weeping
And with weeping it ends.)
References Gradante 1983; Peña 1985a, 1985b
Rascuache (Downtrodden Folk)
Also spelled rascuachi, rasquache, rasquachi, and rasquachismo, this Mexican word characterizes a poor people’s and working-class people’s worldview and defines how engaging and cultural beauty is created by them. It means that in spite of poverty, a pleasurable outlook on life inculcates a perspective that results in the creation of a pleasing cultural environment, composed of whatever elements are available. These elements may be art, home decorating, entertainment, language, the creation of religious objects, altars, anything connected to the creation of a special and spiritual life. For an individual it defines an attitude, a sensibility, or a social condition. It can describe the car, the house, clothes, a whole way of life. The Diccionario de Mejicanismos defines rascuache as pobre, “a miserable person,” poor, lowly, wretched. The rascuaches are the downtrodden, the lowly people, persona que no vale nada (person that is worth nothing). In English it could be interpreted as “funky,” humble, unsophisticated. What is most important about the concept of rascuache is that it captures a propensity or an aesthetic, according to Ybarra-Frausto, to persevere and make whatever one possesses, or has at hand, work well together. All resources are considered riches, and an inventiveness in the use of available resources results in a rascuache lifestyle. Whether one is cooking a meal, dressing for a party, assembling a garden, or decorating a Christmas tree and nativity scene, a rascuache sensibility will ensure that the final outcome will be elaborate, colorful, an unrestrained aggregate of rich resources. This aesthetic can be observed in the creation of yard shrines, graveyard sites, and in home decorating. Ybarra-Frausto has written a wonderful essay about rasquachismo that shows how Chicanos incorporate this spirit in the cultural life of the community. In his words, “Rasquachismo is brash and hybrid, sending shudders through the ranks of the elite who seek solace in less exuberant, more muted, and purer traditions. . . . To be rasquache is to be down, but not out” (1991b, 156).
This underclass aesthetic was vigorously exhibited by El Teatro Campesino (the Farmworkers’ Theater) in the creation of the stock characters that constituted the core of the Teatro’s actos (dramas). In the 1970s the group created and successfully performed a play called La Carpa de los Rasquachis (The Tent of the Rasquachis) about a family named Rasquachi. The figure of el pelado (the clown) distinctly exemplifies the rascuache outlook, the underdog figure, who is both victim and hero at the same time, a Cantinflas archetype. The prototype of the rascuache character was Pito Perez, the protagonist of the novel La Vida Inútil de Perez (The Futile Life of Pito Perez) by Jose Ruben Romero, first published in 1938 and reprinted many times, most recently in 1993; and also Don Chipote of Las Aventuras de Don Chipote written by Daniel Venegas in 1928, a journalist who lived in Los Angeles.
See also Carpas; El Pelado; El Teatro Campesino
References Broyles-Gonzalez 1994; Mesa-Bains 1999; Ybarra-Frausto 1991b
La Raza (The People)
The literal translation of this term is “the race,” but it has come to be used as an in-group name for Mexican and Chicano people. Translated as “the people,” it is recognized as meaning all mixed-race Spanish and Indian people, known as mestizos. The term encompasses all Latinos (Latin Americans) who are descendents of the Spanish and Indian encounter. The Mexican intellectual José Vasconcelos wrote a book in 1925 titled La Raza Cósmica: Misión de la Raza Iberoamericana. Publishing after the Mexican Revolution, Vasconcelos envisioned the successful future of Mexico to lie in the strong bonds of its mixed-race population. Before the Revolution, in the nineteenth century, Mexicans looked toward a European identity, and most of the upper classes considered themselves white Europeans. The indigenous population of Mexico was segregated and not racially mixed, and the mestizos were more closely aligned with the Indians than with the upper classes. Vasconcelos wrote his slim volume in his search for a Mexican identity for himself and for Mexico’s population. La Raza is used by Chicanos because they identify as mestizo people and see themselves as members of a special race, a group of people with a distinct heritage and destiny. Chicano writers, artists, professionals, musicians, and students are invigorated by the proclamation of “La Raza!” and inspired to work toward a creative and political unity. In the words of Jose Angel Gutiérrez, as quoted by Arnoldo Vento, “La Raza is the affirmation of the most basic ingredient of our personality, the brownhood of our Indian ancestors wedded to all the other skin colors of mankind. . . . As children of La Raza, we are heirs of a spiritual and biological miracle” (225). The “Viva la Raza!” chant is a frequent opening and closing statement at festivities, concerts, political meetings, anywhere Chicanos might come together. In the 1970s, the first political party to be formed by Chicanos in the U.S. was called La Raza Unida Party. October 12, known in the United States as Columbus Day, is celebrated throughout Latin America as Día de la Raza, or Day of the People. It is celebrated by New York Puerto Ricans and Cubans and Chicanos throughout the country. It marks the birth of Hispanic heritage and the beginning of Hispanic culture because it is the day Columbus landed in the New World. It is unclear if President Ronald Reagan was aware of this when he declared Hispanic Heritage Month to be celebrated September 16 through October 15.
References Schmidt 1978; Vento 1998
Relajo (Joking Behavior)
A form of joking behavior visible among Mexicans and Chicanos, with close friends and family, that creates solidarity within the group, but that also allows humorous or satirical discussion of taboo topics that are of importance to the group. Jorge Portilla’s essay on relajo is often cited as the fundamental study of this comic conduct found among the Mexican working class. His analysis focuses on the dynamics of this joking behavior, relajando, and how the working poor utilize it to disrupt values imposed on them by the social classes in power or the dominant culture. Mexicanos living in urban poor communities experience almost daily a breakdown in social relations. In brief, Portilla’s definition states, “In summary, relajo can be defined as the suspension of seriousness that rejects a value maintained by a group of people” (25). This suspension of seriousness in the face of officially serious issues, such as life and death, permits an individual to feel free and detached. Through verbal performances, joking, and narrating humorous anecdotes, an individual can suspend elements of gravity, snobbery, or socially imposed acceptable conduct.
In Mexican social thought the role of relajo behavior is shown to be a criticism of the political corruption of the government, but also a burlesque of the divisions of the social classes. Cantinflas, the Mexican actor, was the great relajero of all time. As a comic actor, he was the premier artist of the relajo, whereby in a single ludicrous, narrative monologue he could inadvertently chastise the urban poor, and champion the social needs of the upper classes, thus highlighting the obvious disparities. But his relajando behavior, the social situations and entanglements he got into, were also subversively configured to emphasize the extreme illegitimacy of the social structure. His personality not only entertained but also fulfilled a seditious function, taunting the excesses of the wealthy and the absurdities of a structured social system.
Relajo can also describe a joking relationship, a bantering back and forth, which through the laughter relieves tension and disintegrates the cause of the tension of the moment. But it is the breakdown of decorum, the rejection of a social value that everyone knows is necessary, yet proscribed, that the relajo subverts. The cultural consequence is that through this type of behavior one can become temporarily free from social constraints that in daily life cannot be rejected. If one could find a phrase in English that encompasses the relajo concept, it would be “to put one over on” a system or a situation. Relajando, or echando relajo (joking), can be lighthearted joking around or can be heavy in a serious way about a grave topic.
Farr has studied the joking behavior of Mexican women in Chicago and found that through echando relajo, married and young single women find relief from their gender roles and the social propriety imposed by their husbands, parents, and the Mexican culture. Laughter created by farcical comportment, or by satire, creates an opposition to the prescribed value and to the seriousness of it. Portilla calls the shared laughing una burla colectiva (a collective joke), and states that collective laughter facilitates the collective “negación a la conducta requerida” (negation of required conduct). Relajo can overturn values or what is assumed to be valued. El Teatro Campesino (the Farmworkers’ Theater) practiced the art of el relajo in the execution of its actos (dramas) and in the social protest messages propagated through satire and laughter.
See also El Teatro Campesino
References Barriga 1997; Broyles-Gonzalez 1994; Farr 1994; Fregoso 1993; Portilla 1966
Religious Folk Art
The creation of folk art is an unconscious aesthetic expression of community social and cultural values, and religious folk art is the aesthetic reproduction of images and symbols for a religious or spiritual purpose. The most obvious examples of religious folk art in Chicano culture are religious statues, the santos (saints), retablos (religious paintings), ex-votos, and paintings of La Virgen de Guadalupe. But there are many other shared religious experiences among Chicanos that result in the creation of religious folk art objects. The descansos, erected alongside rural roads where someone has died, become works of art that convey spiritual sentiments. Yard shrines that gradually swell with multicolored paper or plastic flowers, plants, statues of saints, and rosaries are also religious art when lovingly tended by family members. The same can be said for altars, nacimientos (nativity scenes), and camposanto (cemetery) graves, which are assembled with artistic care, while always communicating a devout religious sentiment. Bright coronas (wreaths) for cemetery grave markers with built-in nichos (niches) for saints and photos result in glorious displays of decorative art. During the celebrations of Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), galleries exhibit beautiful altars and ofrendas (offerings) assembled by artists for community viewing but also for the spiritual sharing that results. Religious icons carry great meaning in Chicano culture and always find their way into many folk art displays. La Virgen de Guadalupe is tattooed on the backs or chests of hundreds of Chicanos, and this too can be considered religious folk art.
See also Altars; Camposanto; Descansos; Día de los Muertos; Nacimiento; Retablos; -Santos
References Awalt 1998; Boyd 1974; Espinosa 1967; Griffith 1985, 1988; Vidaurri 1991; Wilder 1943
Religious Folk Practices
Folk rituals, customs, and traditions based on religious or spiritual beliefs and on the ceremonial disciplines of the Catholic Church. In Mexico and in small southwestern communities the church was often located in the center of town, and the soul and rhythm of the people were synchronized with the liturgical seasons of the Church. Processions, fiestas, blessings, home prayers, velorios (wakes), and religious societies were integrated into daily life. The rural nature of many Mexicano communities meant that often a priest or official church clergy was absent, so popular religiosity or folk religious practices developed among the strong spiritual people. Some neighborhoods had rezadores or rezadoras, spiritual leaders who led the community in prayer for funerals, saints’ day celebrations and whenever the priest was unavailable. The home shrine or altarcito (little altar) in many homes took the place of a house of worship. Margaret Clark’s study of the Mexican community in San Jose, California, in the 1950s found that over 50 percent of the homes had altarcitos.
The American Roman Catholic Church was not always receptive to Mexican or Hispanic Catholicism. In many communities the church clergy openly discriminated against Mexicans. In Emporia, Kansas, “the basement of the Sacred Heart Church was renovated and Mass was said for Mexicans two Sundays of each month” (Beeson, Adams, and King, xix). The lack of hospitality and the shortage of priests who spoke Spanish kept many Mexicanos from participating in the American Catholic Church.
This situation served to reinforce religious folk practices and rituals brought from Mexico, many based on a syncretism of Indian religious beliefs and medieval Catholicism from the sixteenth century. The strong spiritual faith in the power of particular saints was frowned upon by the American church and considered to be an “exaggerated superstitious” belief (Dolan and Hinojosa, 57). Recent histories of Chicanos and the Catholic Church suggest that Mexicans were not dependent on a priest-centered religion and developed their own popular devotions performed without a priest. “Mexican American spirituality developed both private and public expressions. Private spirituality, which was practiced individually or within the family, stressed sacramental and personal devotions, while the public religious stressed processions, fiestas, symbols, and symbolic action that displayed the beliefs of the Mexican Catholic to the rest of the community” (Dolan and Hinojosa, 177).
Eventually every Chicano community had its own parish, due usually to the commitment and work of one individual priest in the diocese. There is probably a Virgen de Guadalupe parish in every single Mexican community in the United States. In spite of the fact that in some regions there was hostility by church officials, the importance of the Catholic Church in creating Chicano communities cannot be overemphasized. It was the church that created an environment where people could speak Spanish; celebrate religious, social, and political ceremonies; cook the special foods of the holy days and holidays; and of course pray together. The experience of Chicanos in Kansas, as described by Beeson, Adams, and King, was repeated throughout the Southwest and Midwest. “The church remained the most powerful center and cohesive force in the Mexican American colony. It was a religious and social haven in an alien, often hostile, environment. In the church the immigrant could use his Spanish language, wear traditional costume, celebrate Mexican Independence Day with a fiesta, and eat traditional food. The church also perpetuated the separateness of the Mexican Americans and their Anglo neighbors” (Beeson, Adams, and King, xx).
Religious celebrations for a saint’s day brought a community together and reinforced religious conviction and ethnic solidarity. Throughout the Southwest, fiestas for San Juan, San Isidro, San Francisco, La Virgen de Guadalupe, and many other favorite saints incorporated religious rituals and secular revelry. When paying homage to a saint, the church held Masses and processions early in the day; picnics, horse races, corridas de gallos (rooster games), and dances were held later in the day and evening. A community’s social calendar was based on the Catholic liturgical calendar, which provided frequent occasions for religious and cultural celebrations. Lent started with Ash Wednesday, and the belief was that, if one received ashes, one would live to see the end of the year. La Cuaresma, Lent, was and still is a time of sacrifice, prayers, Vía Cruces (stations of the cross) every Friday, special meatless foods, and spiritual preparation for Semana Santa (Holy Week). Palm Sunday with the distribution of holy palms resulted in the palms being made into crosses and tacked over doorways to protect the family from illness or harm. Good Friday included processions and in some communities the burning of Judas. Sábado de Gloria (Holy Saturday) and the end of Lent was often celebrated with jubilation and a dance. Easter Sunday celebrations and the customs of new clothes and Easter egg hunts were adopted by Mexican American communities later, probably after World War II.
One of the most important religious celebrations is the fiesta for La Virgen de Guadalupe, held on December 12. It often includes a Mañanitas (dawn) Mass and serenade with Mariachi music, a procession through the streets, and a dinner and dance. During the Christmas season there are usually Las Posadas for nine nights and performances of Los Pastores (Shepherds’ Play).
Many religious practices and beliefs have survived in some families without anyone knowing the source of the custom. For example, there is a custom of kissing a parent’s hand after receiving Holy Communion. Before this act is performed the communicant drinks exactly three swallows of water. There are many beliefs, creencias, connected to Holy Week observances, such as not working on Holy Thursday and not taking baths on Good Friday. On el Día de San Juan, St. John’s Day, on June 24, there are also traditions about swimming and taking baths. In some regions this day is referred to as el día de bañar, meaning the day to take a bath of some kind. It could be jumping in a river, lake, or waterway, or just being splashed with water. The tradition is connected to the baptism of St. John, and throughout Mexico, it is common to see water fights on this day, with buckets of water thrown on friends and family. The maintenance of a family altar and reciting the rosary every day, lighting votive candles, blessing the children every night, the blessing of homes and yards, and making promises, mandas, to particular saints are all folk practices passed on from generation to generation. Believing in the benevolent power of the saints and developing a special relationship with one particular saint is still a common habit. Mary Helen Ponce, in her book Hoyt Street, has some wonderful descriptions about the religious practices in her family, from First Communion celebrations to Holy Week rituals.
See also Altars; Camposanto; Descansos; Hábito; Mandas; Religious Folk Art; Santos
References Arnold 1928; Beeson, Adams, and King 1983; Clark 1959; Dolan and Deck 1994; Dolan and Hinojosa 1994; Griffith 1985, 1988, 1992; Ponce 1993
Remedios (Remedies)
Folk remedies often involving the use of homeopathic methods, herbs, and medicinal plants. Remedios are also known as remedios caseros (home remedies). Herbal remedies have been used for generations by the people living in Mexico and the Southwest, and many of these are now of interest to general health care practitioners. Curanderas (healers) use herbs to heal, but many families rely on their own traditional remedios passed down from generation to generation. Family knowledge and use of remedios may involve the preparation of teas, salves, ointments, and the use of herbs for basic health maintenance. A person who specializes in the application of herbs for healing purposes is called a yerbero, and a person considered to be a healer is called a curandera or curandero. Some remedios are simple and basic, such as drinking yerba buena (mint) tea for an upset stomach, to very complicated ritual procedures only known to a trained curandera. Many of the herbal remedies used in Chicano and Mexican homes today were introduced to New Spain by the Europeans, and were ancient herbs used by the Greeks, Egyptians, and Arabs. They brought many herbs not native to Mexico and the Southwest, such as chamomile, anise, cinnamon, coriander, mint, oregano, rosemary, garlic, and orange blossoms.
There are literally hundreds of medicinal herbs used by the people of northern Mexico and the U.S. Southwest. Several collections of herbs have been catalogued and are located at the University of Michigan’s Ethno-botanical Laboratory. These have been described by Karen Cowlan Ford and are listed by both the Spanish name and the botanical name. In addition many Internet web sites have been established by health organizations, individual folklorists, and other entities for the purpose of collecting and disseminating information about homeopathic and herbal healing.
See also Curanderismo
References Ford 1975; Kay 1977; Moore 1990; Roeder 1988; Sandoval 1998; Spicer 1977; Torres 1983a, 1983b
Resting Places
See Descansos
Retablos (Religious Paintings)
A retablo is a painting of a religious scene with a saint, santo, in a two--dimensional format. Found throughout Mexico, retablos date from the middle of the eighteenth century in New Mexico. The retablo paintings were painted on either hide or wooden boards, sometimes also on tin, but usually pine wood smoothed over on one side. The surface of the board was covered with gesso before the design was painted on it. Most were painted with tempera, using a gesso ground with bright colors, but contemporary retablos are often painted on tin. Some dyes and pigments were made from plants and earth, whereas others were probably imported from Mexico. Since the early twentieth century, retablos have been produced in the same form as they are to the present day.
These retablos may be painted for a specific saint in gratitude for a favor granted, or in praise of the powers of the saint. For example, Durand and Massey have compiled and written about the many retablos to the Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos in Mexico. The paintings usually depict an event survived or celebrated, an illness, an operation, imprisonment, or having received a passport to the United States, or they may depict a person praying to the saint. A few sentences written on the retablo express the favor granted, starting with the words “Doy gracias” or “Doy infinitas gracias a la Santisima Virgen de San Juan de los Lagos” (I give thanks, I give infinite thanks to the most holy Virgin of San Juan of the Lakes) and the reason for the retablo is written out, with the location and date added at the end.
Another expression for this religious art is retablo ex-voto, a votive painting created in payment to a saint according to a vow. The Latin term ex voto means “from a vow,” so the ex-voto is specifically created to complete a vow made to a particular saint. Other retablos may be painted in gratitude for something gained or accomplished but not because a vow was made. A retablo ex-voto is a work of art, a religious painting, and also a historical document. The painting depicts the favor or miracle that occurred, the holy image or saint responsible for the miracle, and a short text that describes what occurred, including the location and date of the event. The text describing the event may begin with “Doy Gracias” (I give thanks) and express a need to state the miraculous event and tell how at the moment of crisis “me encomendó a la Virgen” (I entrusted myself to the Virgin). The text usually ends “por eso dedico este retablo” (this is why I dedicate this retablo). The retablo is then placed in a church or a shrine devoted to that particular saint. The tradition of creating votive paintings goes back hundreds of years in Mexico, and can be found along the U.S.-Mexican border region and in the cities of the Southwest. Many people immigrating from Mexico, for instance, have painted or commissioned a retablo in gratitude for surviving a disaster or an illness. Art exhibits in the United States have shown retablos ex-votos that depict the treacherous experience of immigrating to the United States.
See also Mandas
References Awalt 1998; Boyd 1959, 1974; Durand and Massey 1990, 1995; Mills 1967; Toor 1973
Riddles
See Adivinanzas
Los Rinches (The Texas Rangers)
The Texas Rangers, known by Tejanos as Los Rinches, probably a Spanish pronunciation of “ranger,” became notorious within Chicano communities because of their brutality. Established in 1835, right before Texas’s independence from Mexico in 1836, the Texas Rangers were viewed as a state militia. They were actually organized by Stephen F. Austin, who hired the first ten in 1823 to wage war against Indians. Often portrayed as heroic figures, protectors of law and order, by Hollywood and in literature, Los Rinches were greatly feared and hated by Texas Mexicans. During the U.S.-Mexican War they led the way for General Zachary Taylor’s march to Monterrey, Mexico.
The Rangers have evolved over the years and have had periods of low activity and other periods of important law enforcement work. Today they are under the Texas Department of Public Safety and have become a kind of detective agency. As they have become better trained, better educated, with high-tech equipment and higher salaries, they are looked upon as the elite law enforcement of Texas.
But there were many bloody periods when the Rangers were extremely violent and cruel along the Texas-Mexican border. Between 1914 and 1919 they killed about 5,000 Mexicans. It is believed that many of the folk narratives and superhero legends known about the Texas Rangers were created at the expense of the Mexican population. Among the Mexicanos of the border they were known as Los Diablos Tejanos, “the Texas devils.” The Rangers’ battles with Texas border Mexicans helped create the image of the fearless fighters. The word rinches as used in the border area is almost equivalent to the word pig, when used in relation to their law enforcement responsibilities. According to Richard Flores, “The term ‘rinche’ not only signifies mistrust or deceit, but also the violence and exploitation inflicted upon the Mexicano community by the Texas Rangers” (1992,171). Corridos (ballads) from the Texas-Mexican border originating from the late 1800s until the turn of the century narrate episodes of border conflict in which the antagonist is often a member of the dreaded rinches. Several Tejano folk heroes, such as Gregorio Cortez, Juan Cortina, and Catarino Garza became memorialized because of their confrontations with the Texas Rangers.
See also “El Corrido de Gregorio Cortez”
References Flores 1992; Meed 1992; New Handbook of Texas 1996; Paredes 1958; Samora 1979
Rio Grande Blankets
A Rio Grande blanket was a blanket woven in New Mexico during the nineteenth century that was meant to be worn during the day and used as bedding at night. Blankets were woven before this period, actually since the seventeenth century, but not many survived from the period of 1600 to 1800. The Rio Grande blanket has particular characteristics, with designs that include wide bands and various zones of narrow stripes. During the early 1800s the wool was not dyed and was left in colors of brown and white. It was called churro (a kind of sheep) wool, because it came from the common sheep introduced by the Spaniards. Later, the wool was combined with natural dyed yarns of indigo. This wool was woven on a narrow treadle loom. The designs for the Rio Grande blankets are very distinct, with indigo-dyed stripes, and later were influenced by Saltillo sarape motifs that were introduced in the late 1800s. There was much borrowing and exchange of materials, fibers, and dyes between the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish in the textile weaves of New Mexico. The Saltillo sarape motif has a large complex diamond in the central layout of the blanket, and sometimes is surrounded by a scalloped border. Rio Grande blankets from the late nineteenth century incorporated many of the Saltillo sarape motifs. Today, reproductions of the Rio Grande blankets can be found on stationery, cards, and other types of artwork.
See also Sarape
References Fisher 1994; Museum of International Folk Art 1979; Siporin 1992; Spanish Colonial Arts Society 1996
Rodeos
See Charreadas
Romance (Sixteenth-Century Spanish Ballad)
The romance is a very old ballad form introduced by the Spaniards to the New World. It was the main ballad tradition in New Spain until the corrido evolved from it, around the period of Mexico’s independence. Research into the literary folklore of New Mexico reveals a great love of traditional poetry, and the romance is a form that flourished for over 300 years. Written in a sixteen-syllable verse, it is usually printed in eight-syllable lines. Lea classifies the romance into three types: those of a religious nature, those that were sung to children or are of a nursery rhyme nature, and those about universal and emotional adult topics. The subjects of the romance were not the doings of the common folk, but rather of those in the higher classes or in military office. Two very old romances still sung in the Southwest are “La Delgadina,” which deals with incest, and “La Aparición,” which dates from the fifteenth century in Spain. J. D. Robb lists eleven variants of “La Delgadina” in his 1980 collection. Espinosa collected many romances from Californios in the 1920s. The romance is actually an old form of lyrical poetry that dates from medieval Spain.
See also Corridos; Folk Songs
References Campa 1930; Espinosa, A. M. 1924; Lea 1953; Rivera 1989; Robb 1954, 1980
Rooster Game
See Corrida de Gallos
