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Pasó por Aquí Series on the Nuevomexicano Literary Heritage
Tierra Amarilla: Stories of New Mexico/Cuentos de Nuevo Mexico
A mysterious and majestic white stallion, an angelic but unsophisticated village priest, gossips with scathing tongues, and a blacksmith with awesome strength are among the characters that populate the charming stories of Sabine Ulibarrí.
Ulibarrí, a native of Tierra Amarilla, takes the reader back into his past, inside the church and adobe homes, through the forests and fields, across mountain meadows and canyons, revealing an enduring love of the Spanish American people who come alive in this book.
First published in Spanish in 1964, this classic re-release is a bilingual presentation that offers delightful reading for anyone interested in the hues of Hispanic life in northern New Mexico.
"A unique and important literary landmark--these stories penetrate the soul of a people."--Modern Language Journal
Ulibarrí, a native of Tierra Amarilla, takes the reader back into his past, inside the church and adobe homes, through the forests and fields, across mountain meadows and canyons, revealing an enduring love of the Spanish American people who come alive in this book.
First published in Spanish in 1964, this classic re-release is a bilingual presentation that offers delightful reading for anyone interested in the hues of Hispanic life in northern New Mexico.
"A unique and important literary landmark--these stories penetrate the soul of a people."--Modern Language Journal
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 20, 2025
Colorín colorado, este cuento se ha acabado.
Snip snap snout, this tale is told out.
"Tierra Amarilla" is a real place in New Mexico, something like a village, surrounded by the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation, Carson National Forest and a few tiny towns. It also is the place where Sabine Ulibarri grew up from his birth in 1919. Although now deceased, he has the ability to take me back to a place and time I never knew and turn me into one of the residents of Tierra Amarilla.
The format of this book is ideal for me, a bilingual woman, because many terms in both English and Spanish have changed over more than 50 years. It's organized with facing pages: one in English and the other in Spanish. Therefore, when I run into a phrase that is unknown to me in Spanish either because of distance in time or speaker group, I can turn to the English version and probably get the meaning. (Although, sometimes even the English version is foreign to me because I'm old, but not thaaaat old!)
My favorite kind of book is one that transports me to a different time and place. Furthermore, one of my favorite genres is the short story form. TA combines these two loves completely! I was turned on to these stories by my previous reading of "Chicano Voices," in which one of the stories appears. I decided to follow this thread leading me to TA which includes the story: "The Stuffing of the Lord" in English. (Please see my review of "Chicano Voices" for more information about that story and other Chicano writers of the 1970s.)
Now to get to this particular book "Tierra Amarilla: Stories of New Mexico." There are five short stories: two hilarious and three mysterious or thought-provoking. The last story is really more of a novella with six chapters.
The two funny selections were: "The Stuffing of the Lord" which I wrote about in my last review and "Juan P.", an extended rumination about a rich, socially exemplary family whose fate was altered by a gassy explosion in church. Small town life in TA revolved around the church. Ulibarri is very capable of describing human behavior, conversations, and situations in great detail. And his writing is superb! Flows well and cuts to the essential points. I was not familiar with the term "frater" in English which must have something to do with farting because the title in Spanish is Juan P with the P standing for modern day pedoro (farter). He termed it perrodo.
The mysterious selections belong to the family of magical realism or stories where I'm not sure exactly where it's going or where it will end up. I need to go with the flow, and let the writing and plot wash over me. No Hollywood endings or neat tie-ups here. I really appreciate that. For example, in "Sabelo" or "Get that straight," I'm not sure if a character turns into a bee, is just very knowledgeable about bees, or is exaggerating. What I do know is that he has a strange power over bees and it's fascinating to the young children of the town.
Finally, I really enjoyed the final novella "Hombre sin nombre"/"Man Without a Name" in which there is an epic battle between a son and his dead father other who will take over the son's body. It's remarkable to take the journey with the son who is battling for his life. If he let's the father win, he feels he will die, but he's plunging into madness or amnesia or fusing into one being or or or??? Maybe "enjoy" is not the correct term... I was riveted! There are elements of Gothic horror or fantasy in this novella, so it really kept me engrossed from beginning to end. I can't say there was really an "end" as such and I'm here for that!!! Don't give me a neat, happy ending. That's why I get tired of romance so quickly. Ho-hum. PreDICtable!
I'll leave with a passage from "Hombre sin nombre" that really struck me as the son ruminates on the nature of life and death in humans as compared to the Nature of plants. See what I did there? This needs no analysis, just some pondering...
How beautifully nature clothes herself and what a smiling face she assumes when she is going to die! It is probably because she knows that the glories of today will be repeated next year and the year after eternally. It may be because she knows that after the winter comes spring, that death is neither sorrow nor the end, but a rest and a beginning. She can live because she has not the slightest fear of death. I feared it; therefore I could not live. My father had courted death and received its caresses. And today my father, though dead, was living! I, alive, was dying!
Snip snap snout, this tale is told out.
"Tierra Amarilla" is a real place in New Mexico, something like a village, surrounded by the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation, Carson National Forest and a few tiny towns. It also is the place where Sabine Ulibarri grew up from his birth in 1919. Although now deceased, he has the ability to take me back to a place and time I never knew and turn me into one of the residents of Tierra Amarilla.
The format of this book is ideal for me, a bilingual woman, because many terms in both English and Spanish have changed over more than 50 years. It's organized with facing pages: one in English and the other in Spanish. Therefore, when I run into a phrase that is unknown to me in Spanish either because of distance in time or speaker group, I can turn to the English version and probably get the meaning. (Although, sometimes even the English version is foreign to me because I'm old, but not thaaaat old!)
My favorite kind of book is one that transports me to a different time and place. Furthermore, one of my favorite genres is the short story form. TA combines these two loves completely! I was turned on to these stories by my previous reading of "Chicano Voices," in which one of the stories appears. I decided to follow this thread leading me to TA which includes the story: "The Stuffing of the Lord" in English. (Please see my review of "Chicano Voices" for more information about that story and other Chicano writers of the 1970s.)
Now to get to this particular book "Tierra Amarilla: Stories of New Mexico." There are five short stories: two hilarious and three mysterious or thought-provoking. The last story is really more of a novella with six chapters.
The two funny selections were: "The Stuffing of the Lord" which I wrote about in my last review and "Juan P.", an extended rumination about a rich, socially exemplary family whose fate was altered by a gassy explosion in church. Small town life in TA revolved around the church. Ulibarri is very capable of describing human behavior, conversations, and situations in great detail. And his writing is superb! Flows well and cuts to the essential points. I was not familiar with the term "frater" in English which must have something to do with farting because the title in Spanish is Juan P with the P standing for modern day pedoro (farter). He termed it perrodo.
The mysterious selections belong to the family of magical realism or stories where I'm not sure exactly where it's going or where it will end up. I need to go with the flow, and let the writing and plot wash over me. No Hollywood endings or neat tie-ups here. I really appreciate that. For example, in "Sabelo" or "Get that straight," I'm not sure if a character turns into a bee, is just very knowledgeable about bees, or is exaggerating. What I do know is that he has a strange power over bees and it's fascinating to the young children of the town.
Finally, I really enjoyed the final novella "Hombre sin nombre"/"Man Without a Name" in which there is an epic battle between a son and his dead father other who will take over the son's body. It's remarkable to take the journey with the son who is battling for his life. If he let's the father win, he feels he will die, but he's plunging into madness or amnesia or fusing into one being or or or??? Maybe "enjoy" is not the correct term... I was riveted! There are elements of Gothic horror or fantasy in this novella, so it really kept me engrossed from beginning to end. I can't say there was really an "end" as such and I'm here for that!!! Don't give me a neat, happy ending. That's why I get tired of romance so quickly. Ho-hum. PreDICtable!
I'll leave with a passage from "Hombre sin nombre" that really struck me as the son ruminates on the nature of life and death in humans as compared to the Nature of plants. See what I did there? This needs no analysis, just some pondering...
How beautifully nature clothes herself and what a smiling face she assumes when she is going to die! It is probably because she knows that the glories of today will be repeated next year and the year after eternally. It may be because she knows that after the winter comes spring, that death is neither sorrow nor the end, but a rest and a beginning. She can live because she has not the slightest fear of death. I feared it; therefore I could not live. My father had courted death and received its caresses. And today my father, though dead, was living! I, alive, was dying!
February 22, 2021
I don't know very much Chicano literature; my Spanish is just a little bit better than absolute beginner. However, upon learning that I had lived in, and loved, Santa Fe, my cousin sent me this anthology, which is published in both of the official languages of New Mexico, English and Spanish. One page contains the English translation and the opposite page the original Spanish.
I tried to read the Spanish as I read each page in English but finally gave up and kept to the English translation, only referring to the Spanish for one story, "John F.”/“Juan P.", because I couldn't understand the gist of the story in English and hoped the Spanish would help. It did somewhat.
Tierra Amarilla is a town in northern New Mexico and Ulibarri's stories revolve around the people in the town. He is the narrator who, in the first few stories is a young boy and, in the last, which is almost a novella, is a man grappling with the spirit of his father whom he conjured up by writing the father's biography. I struggled to understand that story, "The Man With No Name"/"El hombre sin nombre": what was it really about? The book’s Introduction, written by Erlinda Gonzalez-Berry of the University of New Mexico, was of great help not only in that story but also in the others. The Introduction helped me see beyond the simple stories of small town life to the broader implications of a patriarchal, sometimes condemnatory, society that itself had struggled to maintain its Chicano identity.
The writing, in both languages, is quite beautiful. As I said, the stories are deceptively simple, leading the reader to stop at the end and think "Wait, I think I missed something here." In fact, in one story, "Get That Straight'/"Sabelo," the story ended so suddenly, leaving me wondering what happened to the boys who accidentally killed the bees in the middle of the story. Were they punished? Did Don Jose resurrect them with his magic powers? I am still searching for that answer....
If you like short stories and if you like short stories that evoke a time and a place, these are wonderful. And if you are lucky enough to be bilingual English/Spanish, I think you will truly enjoy this.
I tried to read the Spanish as I read each page in English but finally gave up and kept to the English translation, only referring to the Spanish for one story, "John F.”/“Juan P.", because I couldn't understand the gist of the story in English and hoped the Spanish would help. It did somewhat.
Tierra Amarilla is a town in northern New Mexico and Ulibarri's stories revolve around the people in the town. He is the narrator who, in the first few stories is a young boy and, in the last, which is almost a novella, is a man grappling with the spirit of his father whom he conjured up by writing the father's biography. I struggled to understand that story, "The Man With No Name"/"El hombre sin nombre": what was it really about? The book’s Introduction, written by Erlinda Gonzalez-Berry of the University of New Mexico, was of great help not only in that story but also in the others. The Introduction helped me see beyond the simple stories of small town life to the broader implications of a patriarchal, sometimes condemnatory, society that itself had struggled to maintain its Chicano identity.
The writing, in both languages, is quite beautiful. As I said, the stories are deceptively simple, leading the reader to stop at the end and think "Wait, I think I missed something here." In fact, in one story, "Get That Straight'/"Sabelo," the story ended so suddenly, leaving me wondering what happened to the boys who accidentally killed the bees in the middle of the story. Were they punished? Did Don Jose resurrect them with his magic powers? I am still searching for that answer....
If you like short stories and if you like short stories that evoke a time and a place, these are wonderful. And if you are lucky enough to be bilingual English/Spanish, I think you will truly enjoy this.
July 18, 2014
I've had this slim volume of bilingual (English/Spanish) stories on my shelves for years, having met the author when he was doing a tour in the late 1970s, and picked it up to reread when I wasn't in the mood to start a novel. These stories are based on memories on his childhood in a rural, mountainous area of northern New Mexico populated by the descendants of the original Spanish settlers. Some are humorous, while others reveal the darker side of life, the small cruelties that, deliberately or accidentally, cause others to suffer and can have lasting consequences.
I did a search on the author (a revered poet and university professor in New Mexico) and found that he had died in 2003. I would have liked to contact him to let him know I had rediscovered his work and that it brought back many memories.
I did a search on the author (a revered poet and university professor in New Mexico) and found that he had died in 2003. I would have liked to contact him to let him know I had rediscovered his work and that it brought back many memories.
August 26, 2014
Author offers insight into the mystical and magical world of life in Northern New Mexico. I read the book to gain an insight into that world. I learned about those who live there, their beliefs and their social life. I will not opine the truth of the author's tales as the mystery adds to the story. The book also Spanish, which would have made it a richer read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews