Juan Bobo: A Folkloric Information System - how the controversial work of anthropologist J. Alden Mason, who collected Puerto Rican folklore, underscores the problem of authenticating folklore artifacts

Library Trends, Wntr, 1999 by Sarai Lastra

   By means of this [voting] restriction 165,000 citizens who vote at present
   and who have been voting since the Spanish days would be barred from the
   polls.... Here are the facts: There exist at present 250,000 registered
   electors. Seventy percent of the electoral population is illiterate. There
   will remain, then, 75,000 registered electors. Adding 10,000 illiterate
   taxpayers, there will be a total of 85,000 citizens within the electoral
   register and 165,000 outside of it. I can not figure out, hard as I have
   tried, how those 165,000 Porto Ricans are considered incapable of
   participating in elections of their representatives in the legislature and
   municipalities, while on the other hand they are judged perfectly capable
   of possessing with dignity American citizenship. (as cited in Wagenheim &
   Wagenheim, 1996, p. 133)

Among all these educational, political, and social uncertainties, J. Alden Mason arrived in 1914 with his mission to collect the lore of the Puerto Rican folk. The people, following a long-standing tradition of native hospitality coupled with a knack for spontaneous improvisation and a healthy dose of common sense, welcomed him. Mason's personal narratives validate this reception:

   The year I stayed in Puerto Rico, from 1914 to 1915, has been one of the
   most pleasant and memorable of my life. In great measure it was due to the
   kindness of many friends that I made, and to the help they gave me.
   Evidence of this is the large volume of material that I was able to
   collect. Most of my time, I spent in Utuado and Loiza, which are considered
   good centers of the Jibaro's [peasants] and Black's folklore, but I also
   collected small samples of folklore in San German, Coamo and many other
   places. (Translated from the Spanish Preface in Adivinanzas: Folklore
   Puertorriqueno, 1960, pp. 9-11)

THE COLLECTION

Behind nearly every collection lies a tale of adventure and a testimony to the dedication of the collectors. (cited in Seeger & Spear, 1985, p. 3)

Table 1 summarizes the various folkloric genres collected by Mason in Puerto Rico. The material was gathered using three methods, which are listed below in ascending order of sub-collection size:

1. Mason's phonetic transcriptions of folktales, poems, riddles;

2. audio recordings of adult performers of ballads, folktales, poems; and

3. children's writings of folktales, which they collected from their illiterate parents

Table 1.
SUMMARY OF MASON'S COLLECTION ON "PORTO-RICAN" FOLKLORE

Oral Form   Description                 Influences and Comparative
                                        Notes

Folktales   "Most abundant and          "Many of those folk-tales
            best Spanish-American       ar evidently versions of the
            collection" (Espinosa,      old European riddle-tales;
            1916, p. 423); printed      but a large number are new
            in Journal of American      creations with traditional
            Folklore's volumes 34,      elements confused and
            35, 37.                     mingled" (Espinosa, 1916,
                                        p. 424).

Riddles     Second best collection      More similar to the
            of its kind in Spanish      traditions of Spain than the
            America; 800 riddles        Spanish collections from
            and 1,288 variants;         Argentina or Chile
            Argentinean collection      (Espinosa, 1916, p. 424).
            of Lehmann-Nitsche is
            first with 1,033 riddles
            (Espinosa, 1916, p. 423,
            424).

Decimas     "Some of the decimas        May come in octosyllabic or
            and a few of the shorter    hexasyllabic meters,
            aguinaldos show real in-    "Hexasyllabic decimas
            spiration, and many a       dealing with love and
            Spanish poet has not        adventure and especially
            written better poetry"      with biblical traditions,
            (Espinosa, 1918, p. 293);   many being beautiful
            245 decimas,                Christmas carols called
                                        `aguinaldos' all so abundant
                                        in the popular tradition
                                        of Porto Rico, are not well
                                        known in New Mexico"
                                        (Espinosa, 1918, p. 290).

Coplas      "Octosyllabic quatrain      Copla has a rival in the
            in assonance"; 600          decima. "Everywhere [in
            (1918, p. 290)              Spanish America] the copla
                                        holds undisputed sway, with
                                        the single exception of
                                        Porto Rico" (Espinosa, 1918,
                                        p. 290).