Juan B. Rael Collection
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004695185
General International Standard for Archival Description
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center Library of Congress Washington, D.C. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home
Encoded by Nora Yeh, 2000 ; Revised by Nora Yeh
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Juan B. Rael Collection 1939-1999 1940
3 boxes: 21 folders of manuscripts, 36 sound recordings, graphic images, published materials, and computer disks.
Rael, Juan Bautista
Biographical History for: Juan B. Rael Collection 1939-1999 1940
The Collector Linguist and folklorist Juan Bautista Rael, highly regarded for his pioneering work in collecting and documenting the Hispano folk stories, plays, and religious traditions of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, was born on August 14, 1900, in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. His bachelor's degree, from St. Mary's College in Oakland in 1923, led to a master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 1927. After deciding on a university career of teaching and research, Rael relinquished his family inheritance in land, cattle, and sheep to his three brothers and his sister. He had realized that the wealth in northern New Mexico that most interested him was the vast repertory of folk narrative, song, and custom that had scarcely been documented. While teaching at the University of Oregon, Rael returned to Arroyo Hondo in the summer of 1930 to begin compiling his famous collection of over five hundred New Mexican folk tales. By then his work had attracted the attention of pioneer Hispano folklorist and mentor Aurelio Espinosa, who invited Rael to Stanford in 1933. Rael completed his doctoral studies in 1937 with a dissertation on the phonology and morphology of New Mexico Spanish that amplified the dialectological work of Espinosa with the huge corpus of folk tales, later published as Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico: Spanish Folk Tales of Colorado and New Mexico. Well-versed in the historic-geographic theory of transmission and diffusion of motifs, tale types, and genres, Rael set out on the formidable, almost quixotic task of gathering all the possible versions and texts of the tales, hymns, and plays he was studying. The vast majority of tales are of European provenance, with only minimal local references. He meticulously traced the shepherds' plays to several root sources in Mexico, and his study The Sources and Diffusion of the Mexican Shepherds' Plays is a standard reference on the subject. His ground-breaking study of the alabado hymn, The New Mexican Alabado, is also a prime resource. Inevitably the text-centered historic-geographic approach led more to collection building than to analysis. It has been left to later generations of scholars to develop performance-centered studies, but the collections of Juan B. Rael continue to be an indispensable landmark in the field. Note: This biography was excerpted from an essay by Enrique R. Lamadrid. For further information on the collector and the collection, see the framing essays written by Lamadrid to accompany the online presentation Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection. See Folder 16 below.
Scope and Content Note Juan B. Rael Collection comprises multi-format ethnographic field documentation of religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. It contains correspondence, administrative materials, recording logs, song transcriptions and translations, and materials generated in the process of creating the online presentation. In 1940, Juan Bautista Rael of Stanford University, a native of Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, used disc recording equipment supplied by the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center) to document alabados (hymns), folk drama, wedding songs, and dance tunes in Alamosa, Manassa, and Antonito, Colorado, and in Cerro and Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. These efforts resulted in approximately 650 pages of print material including correspondence, recording logs, song text transcriptions, excerpts from publications, and 8 hours of audio recordings on 36 12-inch acetate-on-aluminum recording discs. A later effort added one graphic image: Rael interviewing Manuela "Mela" Martínez of Taos, New Mexico, circa 1930, and a corresponding negative. In the process of digitizing the collection for online presentation, materials including six computer diskettes containing digitized LP liner notes, book excerpts, journal articles, as well as digitized framing text, and one CD-ROM with digitized images were generated.
series
SERIES I: MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS
subseries
Administrative Materials
file
Collection guide
Correspondence. Between Rael and library officials (particularly Alan Lomax and Harold Spivacke) about the collection, written from November 27, 1939, through December 1, 1941
Recording log for AFS 3905-3940
Log of recordings made in Antonito, Colorado, with equipment borrowed from Adams State Teachers College, Alamosa, Colorado
Song Transcriptions and Texts
Song transcriptions/translations by Enrique R. Lamadrid for the online presentation. In numerical order by AFS number
Alabado texts from The New Mexican Alabado, by Juan B. Rael, published by Stanford University Press, 1951. In alphabetical order by title
Rael's works resulting from the field project
"New Mexican Wedding Songs," by Juan B. Rael, originally published in Southern Folklore Quarterly, Vol. IV, No. 2, June 1940.
"New Mexican Spanish Feasts," by Juan B. Rael, originally published in the California Folklore Quarterly, Vol. I, No. 1, January 1942.
Introduction to The New Mexican Alabado, by Juan B. Rael, published by Stanford University Press, 1951. (Includes map of the region)
Library of Congress publications
Excerpts from Lomax, Alan, ed. Liner notes to Ethnic Music of French Louisiana, the Spanish Southwest, and the Bahamas from the Archive of Folk Song. From the series "Folk Music of the United States." Library of Congress Recording Laboratory AFS L5 (Contains excerpts pertaining to songs in the Juan B. Rael Collection only.)
"Juan Bautista Rael, 1900-1993: Pioneer Hispano Folklorist" and "Nuevo Mexicanos of the Upper Rio Grande: Culture, History, and Society," by Enrique R. Lamadrid, Folklife Center News, Winter 1999, Volume XXI, Number 1.
Online presentation of the collection Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
Consultant: Enrique R. Lamadrid curriculum vitae; correspondence; audiography
Copyright/permissions Information. Letters of permission to reproduce materials online; consultant's opinion regarding material; memo from National Digital Library Program legal advisor regarding online dissemination.
Documents pertaining to work done by Systems Integration Group, Inc. Correspondence regarding scanning and SGML conversion of collection manuscripts; file directories; parser report.
Publicity/press releases. Official LC press release; The Library of Congress Information Bulletin, Vol. 57, No. 2 (February 1998).
Biographical information provided by Rael Family for online framing text
Correspondence with Enrique R. Lamadrid regarding biographical details of Juan B. Rael Stanford University resolution on the occasion of Rael's death "Literary Life of Juan B. Rael," unpublished paper written by Althea N. Oakeley, the great granddaughter of Rael's eldest brother for a college course
Framing text documents
Homepage Text About the Collection Text Essays in English Juan Bautista Rael, 1900-1993: Pioneer Hispano Folklorist Nuevo Mexicanos of the Upper Rio Grande: Culture, History, and Society La Música Nuevo Mexicana: Religious and Secular Music from the Juan B. Rael Collection Hispano Folk Theater in New Mexico Essays in Spanish Juan Bautista Rael, 1900-1993: Folklorista Hispano Los Nuevo Mexicanos del Río Grande del Norte: Cultura, Historia y Sociedad La Música Nuevo Mexicana: Tradiciones Religiosas y Seculares de la Colección de Juan B. Rael El Teatro Popular Hispano de Nuevo México Glossary Bibliography Acknowledgments How to order audio and photographic reproductions Copyright and other restrictions
Manuscript material database report, hard copy
Audio database report, hard copy
Related collections at other institutions
Collection guide for Rael manuscript materials at Stanford
Bibliographic records for Rael material at New Mexico State Library
SERIES II: GRAPHIC IMAGES
One b/w photographic print and one negative made from the print (AFC 1940/002:P1 and AFC 1940/002:P1-p1). Image depicts Rael interviewing Manuela "Mela" Martínez, Taos, New Mexico, circa 1930.
SERIES III: SOUND RECORDINGS
Four DAT tapes created in the digital conversion process
SERIES IV: ELECTRONIC MEDIA
Six computer diskettes: Contain documents generated during collection processing as well as documents/files used to build the online presentation (plus backup copies)
One CD-ROM: Contains scanned images of manuscript items used in the online presentation.