Juan Bautista Rael

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Juan B. Rael interviewing Manuela "Mela" Martínez, Taos, New Mexico, circa 1930. Courtesy of the Rael Family. Published online at Library of Congress Website.

Juan Bautista Rael (August 14, 1900 – November 8, 1993) was an American ethnographer, linguist, and folklorist who studied the people, stories, and language of the Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado areas of the Southwestern United States. Rael taught and studied at Stanford University and donated his considerable collection of ethnographic materials to the Library of Congress.

[edit] Childhood and education

Rael was one of five children (four sons and one daughter) of José Ignacio Rael and Soledad Santistevan. He was raised in the small town of Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, near Taos.

Map of area investigated by Juan B. Rael

Rael's parents sent him away to school, because of limited educational options in their town, beginning in elementary school with Saint Michael's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He also attended Christian Brothers' College in St. Louis, Missouri and received a high school diploma.

In 1923, Rael received his B.A. from St. Mary's College in Oakland, California in linguistics and folklore. That year, he married Quirina Espinosa.

In 1927, Rael received his M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley.

Rael began to focus on Alabados, or religious songs, of the Hispano region of Northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. He was familiar with these from childhood. He also began to study the folk and nativity plays of Mexico and New Mexico.

In 1933, Rael began his doctoral studies at Stanford University under the supervision of folklorist Aurelio Espinosa. Rael was awarded his Ph.D. in linguistics in 1937. His dissertation was on the phonology and morphology of New Mexican Spanish, later published under the title Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico: Spanish Folk Tales of Colorado and New Mexico.

[edit] Bibliography

• A Study of the Phonology and Morphology of New Mexican Spanish, Based on a Collection of 410 Folk-tales (main text (Parts I and II) in English and tale volumes (Part III) in Spanish, 1937) Online text
• An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Folklore in New Mexico and Southern Colorado (with Marjorie Tully). University of New Mexico Press, 1950.
• The New Mexican ‘Alabado’. Stanford University Press, 1951.
• The Sources and Diffusion of the Mexican Shepherds' Plays. Guadalajara: Librería La Joyita, 1965.
• "New Mexican Wedding Songs", published in Southern Folklore Quarterly, June 1940.
• "New Mexican Spanish Feasts", published in California Folklore Quarterly, 1942.
• "Introducción a los Cuentos Populares Nuevomejicanos", published in Boletín de la Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, New York, 1976.

[edit] See also

• Chicano English

[edit] References

• Library of Congress Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection
• LaMadrid Bautista Rael, 1900-1993: Pioneer Hispano Folklorist
• LaMadrid Nuevo Mexicanos of the Upper Rio Grande: Culture, History, and Society
• Memorial Resolution, Stanford Juan Bautista Rael
• Stanford News Service Juan B. Rael, professor emeritus of Spanish, dies at 93 November 15, 2003
• Stanford University Special Collections. Manuscripts Division Latin American and Iberian Studies

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