The authors of COLLECTED TALES FROM THE RIO GRANDE are current or former residents of the Rio Grande Valley, who know the joys and tribulations of living along a contentious border with Mexico. From this wealth of talent and experience, the Valley Byliners Editorial Committee selected and edited the stories and poems that make up this volume. Don Cliff ord has written for and edited several prize winning military and civilian publications. Jack King once taught English and Art in the Texas State Technical College Upward Bound program. Marianna Nelson helped keep the project on track with pertinent insights from the Byliner membership. But in the long run, this book would not have been possible without the collective eff orts of all the talented writers presented here.

While preparing a book which highlights the people and traditions of the diverse culture found in Albuquerque, a group of seventh-graders discover interesting things about their city and families.

Tradition meets tragedy in the chilling local lore of the Rio Grande Valley. Hidden in the dense brush and around oxbow lakes wait sinister secrets, unnerving vestiges of the past and wraiths of those claimed by the winding river. The spirit of a murdered student in Brownsville paces the locker room where she met her end. Tortured souls of patients lost in the Harlingen Insane Asylum refuse to be forgotten. Guests at the LaBorde Hotel in Rio Grande City report visions of the Red Lady, who was spurned by the soldier she loved and driven to suicide. Author David Bowles explores these and more of the most harrowing ghost stories from Fort Brown to Fort Ringgold and all the haunted hotels, chapels and ruins in between.

“Filled with ghosts, devils, and tricksters . . . This appealing volume will add diversity to folklore collections.” —Library Journal Rich in the folklore of his ancestors, Rudolfo Anaya’s tales will delight young readers from across the globe. In stories both original and passed down, this bestselling and American Book Award–winning author incorporates powerful themes of family, faith, and choosing the right path in life. In “Lupe and la Llorona,” a seventh grader searches for the legendary Llorona; in “The Shepherd Who Knew the Language of Animals,” a shepherd named Abel saves a snake and gains the ability to understand the language of animals; In “Dulcinea,” a fifteen-year-old dances with the Devil. Other tales feature coyotes, ravens, a woodcutter who tries to cheat death, the Virgin Mary, a golden carp, and a young Latino who seeks immortality. Deeply rooted in ancient mythological beliefs and based on the folklore and traditions of Mexican and Native American cuentistas, these accounts of enchantment are as beautiful and mysterious as the Rio Grande itself—and serve as a testament to the lost art of oral storytelling. This ebook features illustrations by Amy Córdova.

This book is a virtual fireside chat with the great storytellers of the delta region of the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It is appropriately named Jackass Flats, paralleling it with the vanished prairie herds of wild horses and jackasses that inhabited a thin range of land in the Lower Nueces Strip. Appropriate, in that just as these mythical beasts are now gone, so stands the feared endangerment of a species of "tellers of yarns" who kept the oral traditions alive, perpetuating a lifestyle that was colorfully filled with customs which were unique to South Texas colonization. Some of the little vignettes gathered their substance from countless conversations that were held in settings such as barbershops, bars, and back porches. Other, more elaborate treatises, take on the form of in-depth research papers that were compiled by reaching out to myriad sources in a manner that paints a perspective that would be difficult indeed, if one had not acquired a couple of centuries of "blood-ties" to this region. The connection relies heavily upon personally known the players who were involved with the writing of the original deeds. Four or five generations of close friendships, inter-marriages, business dealings, and even the occasional fights bring these accounts over the line, into being "personal stories". You know it's personal when you open up your family cedar chests and discover a whole cross-section of photographs of non-family, and recognize them for the impact that each one gave to the community at large.You close your eyes and you can still vividly recall the scenes where the old chats were carried out; the chiseled features of the "old folks", the smell of pipe tobacco, the salt spray of the gulf, mesquitewood campfires. You tried your darnedest to lap up all of the words of these tales. Even though your grandmother sometimes altered the details with each presentation, you wouldn't dare open your mouth to correct her - that was part of the flavor.There will always be something special about reflecting back to what it was like in a bygone era. It's like going to a costume party and dressing out your fantasies. The storytellers are a strong example of reincarnation. They left a verbal, oral legacy that will live for as long as there are those who will light a fire to rekindle the message.

"An indispensable addition to the canon of Texas letters." —Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express News A vast land combining the West, the South, and the Border, small dusty towns and gleaming modern cities, Texas has a history and identity all its own, and a mythology bigger than the Lone Star State itself. In this anthology, selected as a Southwest Book of the Year in 2003, Don Graham has rounded up a comprehensive collection of writings that provides an overview of the diversity and excellence of Texas literature and reveals its vital contribution to America's literary landscape. The result is a sometimes rowdy, always artful panorama of fable and truth, humor and pathos—all growing out of the state that continues to stimulate the collective imagination like no other.