Chicano Folklore: An A-Z of Beliefs, Rituals, Folktales, and More

by Rafaela G. Castro

From cultural icons like Americo Paredes to the traditional Mexican birthday song, Las Mañanitas, this book provides an A–Z guide to Chicano folklore, including cultural icons, foodways, music, and much more. Chicano folklore reflects a syncretism of indigenous and Spanish culture. Despite countless Spanish terms or titles, native beliefs also serve as the backbone of Chicano culture. This book covers a wide range of areas on Chicano folklore, such as historical topics, contemporary beliefs, and secular concepts, as well as religious beliefs and iconography. It covers such a wide range of concepts that readers may learn about cultural beliefs, such as children's fears of La Llorona or El Cucuy, alongside religious beliefs, such as the centrality of the Virgen de Guadalupe and folk saints like Juan Soldado.

398 pages, Hardcover

Published April 30, 2020

About the author

Rafaela G. Castro was born in Bakersfield, California, but grew up in Arvin, a small agricultural town near Weedpatch Camp, the labor camp in John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. When she was ten years old her family moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where she has lived most of her life. She spent two years in Brazil with the Peace Corps before receiving degrees in English Literature, Library Science, and Folklore from the University of California, Berkeley. She has lectured in Ethnic Bibliography and Chicano Studies at UC Berkeley, and recently retired from the Humanities/Social Sciences department of Shields Library at the University of California, Davis.

She is the author of:
* Dictionary of Chicago Folklore (ABC-Clio, Inc., 2000), illustrated.
* Chicano Folklore: A Guide to the Folktales, Traditions, Rituals and Religious Practices of Mexican Americans (Oxford University Press, 2001)
* Provocaciones: Letters from the Prettiest Girl in Arvin (Chusma House Publications, 2006)

She is one of four authors of:

* What Do I Read Next?: Multicultural Literature (Gale, 1997) contributing the Latino Literature section.

Her current work-in-progress is a novel about a woman's search, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, for her dead mother's lover.