CUENTOS | STORIES
Cuentos de la comunidad nuevomexicana:
Stories from the Community of Northern New Mexico
When collecting sociolinguistic interviews, we often find ourselves surrounded with not only the linguistic traits of a community, but also its history and culture. People open up and delve into the stories of themselves, their friends, and their family. By presenting some examples of these tales from the New-Mexico Spanish-English Bilingual corpus, we hope to share with you this eye-opening aspect of sociolinguistic research.
How to Read These Stories
- Each line in the stories below represents a single Intonation Unit, which refers to a continuous prosodic segment. By keeping this in mind, you’ll read these stories at the cadence with which they were originally spoken.
- You’ll also notice unique punctuation marks. These marks represent the various pauses, filled pauses, and vocal noises that people make when speaking in everyday conversation.
How to Read These Stories
- Each line in the stories below represents a single Intonation Unit, which refers to a continuous prosodic segment. By keeping this in mind, you’ll read these stories at the cadence with which they were originally spoken.
- You’ll also notice unique punctuation marks. These marks represent the various pauses, filled pauses, and vocal noises that people make when speaking in everyday conversation.
Carrying the Firewood to Heat the School House
A man describes his experience with the school system of Río Arriba, New Mexico in the mid 20th century.
…(0.9) they had wood heaters.
…(1.1) so entrabábanos,
.. pa’ entrar a la escuela.
(YAWN) .. después de,
… después de la,
.. después de recess,
… pues you had to,
.. you had to g- —
.. haul a load of wood in,
… y las muchachas jalaban leña,
…(1.6) cargaban leña y nosotros cargábanos uh,
…(0.7) uh,
.. carbón.
…(1.0) so uh=,
…(0.9) % % otherwise,
you wouldn’t get back in the school.
.. and it was cold outside.
…(1.1) andábanos muy apurados pa’,
… para cargar la leña o la,
.. o el carbón,
you know?
… but they had these huge big pot bellied stoves,
…(0.9) and that’s what they kept everything going with.
((282 intervening lines))
…(1.4) pero me acuerdo que,
when we were in elementary,
…(1.0) if you got caught uh=,
.. s- —
uh speaking anything but English,
…(1.1) uh=,
you had to pay a price.
… yeah=.
… usaban el jarit- —
.. la jarita.
… usaban la jarita or you had to go out and get a load of wood.
[NMSEB 10, 4:44-11:10]
Hunting a Bear in His Cave
An experienced hunter in New Mexico describes his experience chasing a bear into a cave.
…(1.7) hallé un lugar donde estaba un oso s- —
.. metiéndose pa’ una cueva.
…(0.8) y=–
y había= —
.. caído una,
.. nievecita,
.. como de unas cinco o seis pulgadas.
…(1.0) y lo huellé,
… dos veces,
…(0.7) dos m- —
.. mañanas,
… enseguida,
… donde salía del,
.. la cueva y se iba —
.. por el monte,
.. y so le dije a mi amigo ~David que,
.. let’s go over there and wait on that,
… for him to go back in the cave.
((10 intervening IUs))
y luego comencé a huellar yo al oso.
.. no=,
no= —
.. no lo huellé en —
XX de mucho como una milla,
… adentro de una milla yo creo.
…(0.8) y pronto pronto aquí va delante de mí de entre el monte lo vide,
.. áhi iba entre la nieve.
((11 Intervening IUs))
.. áhi a donde iba rumbiando a la cueva,
.. llegando a la cueva?
… mi amigo ~David le tiró,
…(0.9) un eh=,
.. balazo.
…(1.0) un cañonazo con un eh,
… un rifle muy bueno,
y él era muy buen tirador.
((31 intervening IUs))
… se metió pa’ adentro de la cueva pero,
.. (THUD) … la cueva estaba mu=y mu=y,
…(1.0) muy fija,
… estaba el agujero donde entraban muy,
…(0.7) uh=,
.. chiquito pa’ poder entrar atrás de él.
((58 intervening IUs)
I finally convinced him that I could go down there and take a look so=,
…. I squeezed through a crevice,
and then,
.. turned into a little bit bigger,
…(0.7) cave.
.. a=nd I had my two flashlights,
… and I had carried a pistol with me.
… and he said it wasn’t big enough.
((33 intervening IUs))
.. áhi cuando me iba metiendo a la .. cueva,
… me dijo,
.. cuida,
.. cuidado —
.. corre con cuidado dijo,
porque,
…(0.7) quién sabe si esté vivo.
.((90 intervening IUs))
… so= I was,
… crawling and,
… kind of like,
uh doing like a duck walk.
((47 intervening IUs))
… so fui=,
.. áhi cuando iba a chequear,
…(1.3) a mirar,
… ahí donde estaba=,
el agujero ese?
… estaba .. el oso sentado,
… adentro del agujero,
.. mirando pa’ afuera.
((16 intervening IUs))
.. y le dejé ir .. !tres,
…(0.7) buenos,
… bien medidos,
…(1.1) eh dispare en mi —
con mi .. pistola.
… and I think I hit him,
I thought I had hit him real well but,
…(0.7) my light,
.. when I —
.. when I —
.. on the third shot,
when I shot my light,
… my .. pistol recoil,
…(0.7) hit my flashlight,
… and it turned off.
.. and it got … instantly pitch dark.
.. within,
a split second or two,
…(0.9) the bear jumped toward me,
… pushed me out of the way,
…(0.7) and uh=,
… ran by me,
…(1.1) (TSK) uh at this point,
.. I was so=,
.. excited and —
.. and —
… I was uh=,
…(0.7) I couldn’t hear myself,
…(0.9) because of my heart was beating so,
… so f- —
.. loud.
((15 intervening IUs))
…(0.7) and I looked behind me and,
.. the bear had,
… ran,
… into some .. crevice,
… and he had wedged himself,
… and he was uh,
… he was dying.
[NMSEB 16, 16:59-26:25]
Big Blown Story: Salir en el Rio Grande Sun
Two women describe the teen-age shame of getting caught and a parent’s threat of exposing them in the local newspaper.
Clara:
we would !steal the cigarettes.
… and,
we’d smoke them.
and one time they —
.. my mom caught us.
.. @ @=
.. and so=,
.. sh=e,
… she uh= —
she told my cousin,
.. she’s like,
.. <Q and you guys Q>,
salieron en el Rio Grande Sun,
and,
.. you guys made front page,
they have a picture of you guys smoking,
by grandma’s car,
((22 intervening lines))
Dolores:
[ye]ah I had seen them,
and,
no,
no dije nada,
I go,
… hm=,
… y nomás las dejé,
and then I came up with this big old —
blown story,
del Sun because,
.. e- —
everybody in northern New Mexico lee The Sun cause,
they even nicknamed it El Mitote,
because there you find out,
like,
way too much stuff.
<@ an- @> —
so I told them,
que van a salir en El <@ Sun @> @.
[NMSEB 22, 16:07-17:08]