Cuento

Cuento is a Spanish word meaning literally "story" or "tale". Cuento may specifically refer to folk tales, a category of folklore that includes stories passed down through oral tradition. The word cuento may also be used as a verb to say "tell", as if you are "telling" a story ("Cuento").

Varieties

Idioms using this word, translated into English, include:

contar un cuento – to tell a story
cuento de hadas – fairy tale
cuento de fantasmas – ghost story
cuento de viejas – old wives' tale
va de cuento – the story goes, or it is said
cuento folklórico – folk tale

According to Spanish folklorist Julio Camarena (es), among the Magic Tales of the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, the following types are some of the most popular found in Spain, in the following order:[1]

AaTh 313, La Muchacha como ayudante del héroe (Blancaflor);
AaTh 408, Las Tres Naranjas (La negra y la paloma);
AaTh 480, Las muchachas amable y antipática;
AaTh 707, Los tres hijos de oro (El pájaro que habla, el árbol que canta y el agua amarilla);
AaTh 300, El matador del dragón (El dragón de siete cabezas);
AaTh 510B, Los vestidos de oro, de plata y de estrellas (Piel de Asno);
AaTh 301B, El fortachón y sus compañeros (Juanillo el Oso o Juanillo la Burra);
AaTh 302, El corazón del ogro en un huevo;
AaTh 425A and variants, El Animal como esposo (Cupido y Psique);
AaTh 700, Ganbarcito;
AaTh 706, La muchacha sin manos;
AaTh 510A, Cenicienta.

Scholar James M. Taggart stated that tale type 425, "Search for the Lost Husband", was more popular in Spanish tradition than type 400, "Quest for the Lost Wife", which he noted to be more rarely collected.[2]

In Spain

Ralph S. Boggs, a folklorist who studied Spanish and other European folktales, also compiled an index of tales across ten nations, one of these nations Spain.[3] Hansen notes that in Boggs' A Comparative Survey of the Folktales of Ten Peoples, Spain also had a large number of animal tales, pointing out the "marked interest in such tales in Spain and in Spanish America"; however, he indicates that Boggs' study showed Spain with a much lower percent of magic tales. After several such comparisons showing very close similarities as well as almost-opposite differences, he concluded that the index-analysis should be conducted for the other Spanish-speaking parts of the Americas before any explicit conclusions can be made about folktales in Latin America. Whether or not Latin American folktales should be compared to Spanish folktales as if they were a subcategory was not mentioned in the article; however, with differences in religion, tradition, history and other such elements that can turn a story into an entirely new direction, it is possible that folklorists will regard Latin American tales unique to Spanish tales in the future.

In Latin America

Latin American tales are unique in that they may represent a time before European invasion, and they may combine those traditions with the history and culture that arrived post-conquest. When the Spaniards came to Latin America in the 16th century, the indigenous people were forced to assimilate their culture with the Europeans'. Likewise, the content of the stories differed between the ages. However, there are few resources on cuentos for pre-conquest indigenous peoples in South America. A folklorist specializing in Spain and Spanish-originated folklore, Aurelio M. Espinosa discovered that "most of the Spanish folklore which is found today in the Spanish-speaking countries of America is of traditional Spanish origin".[4] Pre-conquest information can only be found in what is left; this includes archaeological artifacts, sculpture and pottery, stories engraved in bone, shell, and stones, and codices. Only seventeen codices are intact, "fifteen of which are known to predate the Colonial era, and two of which originated either before the Conquest or very soon after".[5]

With the knowledge that the natives in Latin America were made to blend culturally with the Spaniards when they arrived, the similarity of Latin American stories to Spanish stories must be considered. Terrence L. Hansen, a Latin American folklorist, attempted to index 1,747 folktales into 659 indexes such as "animal tales," "magic tales," "religious tales," and "jokes and anecdotes." The purpose of the study was to make "accessible to folklorists both the individual types and the broad picture of the folktale in a large part of Spanish America".[6]

References

Camarena, Julio. "Conte Oral, Conte Escrit". In: Revista d’etnologia De Catalunya, Núm. 4, enero de 1994, p. 76.
Taggart, James M. Enchanted Maidens: Gender Relations in Spanish Folktales of Courtship and Marriage. Princeton University Press, 2021. p. 164. ISBN 9780691226927.
Boggs, Ralph Steele. Index of Spanish folktales, classified according to Antti Aarne's "Types of the folktale". Chicago: University of Chicago. 1930.
Espinosa, Aurelio M., A Folk-Lore Expedition to Spain, The Journal of American Folklore 34 (Apr 1921): 127-142
Read, Kay Almere, and Jason J. Gonzalez, Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America, Oxford University Press, 2000
Hansen, Terrence L., The Distribution and Relative Frequency of Folktale Types in Spanish South America, The Journal of American Folklore 68 (Jan 1955): 90-93

External links

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[1] Camarena, Julio. "Conte Oral, Conte Escrit". In: Revista d’etnologia De Catalunya, Núm. 4, enero de 1994, p. 76.

[2] Taggart, James M. Enchanted Maidens: Gender Relations in Spanish Folktales of Courtship and Marriage. Princeton University Press, 2021. p. 164. ISBN 9780691226927.

[3] Boggs, Ralph Steele. Index of Spanish folktales, classified according to Antti Aarne's "Types of the folktale". Chicago: University of Chicago. 1930.

[4] Espinosa, Aurelio M., A Folk-Lore Expedition to Spain, The Journal of American Folklore 34 (Apr 1921): 127-142

[5] Read, Kay Almere, and Jason J. Gonzalez, Mesoamerican Mythology: A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs of Mexico and Central America, Oxford University Press, 2000

[6] Hansen, Terrence L., The Distribution and Relative Frequency of Folktale Types in Spanish South America, The Journal of American Folklore 68 (Jan 1955): 90-93

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