Juan Bobo : A Folkloric Information System SARAI

FROM1916THROUGH 1929,THEJoumalofAmm’can Folklore VAE)published nine volumes containing various forms of Puerto Rican folklore which had been collected during the years of 1914 to 1915 by J. Alden Mason, an American anthropologist working under the supervision of Franz Boas. Notable Puerto Rican scholars (Manrique Cabrera, 1982; Rivera de Alvarez, 1983) have endorsed Mason’s collection as being authentic and consider it today as the most complete example of the island’s folklore. Yet Louise D. Dennis (1922) reviewed the Dicimas, which are ten-line poems, collected by Mason as not being “truly representative of a folk-art” because they were “developed by means of simile and metaphor not characteristic of folk-poetry” (p. 100). This article is about the relationship between a collector, some of the artifacts in the collection, the informants, and elements that construct and authenticate a folkloric information system. SITUATINGTHE PUERTO RICAN CULTURE And they firmly thought that I, with those ships and people, came from heaven and, in that mindset, they received me in every corner, after they lost their fear. And this did not happen because they were ignorant, they are of subtle intelligence, and men which sail all those seas, it is marvelous the way they tell us about everything, except that they had never seen people dressed like us nor ships like ours. -Cristobal C o l h , 1493l Sarai Lastra, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Illinois, 501 E. Daniel, Champaign, IL 61820 LIBRARY TRENDS, Vol. 47, No. 3, Winter 1999, pp. 529-557 01999 The Board of Trustees, University of Illinois 530 LIBRARY TRENDS/WINTER 1999 Taino Indians saw Christopher Columbus as he arrived in Borinquen in 1493. But in 1898, when the U. S. troops arrived, the Tainos were absent from the welcoming celebrations. Spain’s influence lingers, however. One hundred years have passed since the Hispanic-American war, and Spanish is still the island’s main language. A preference toward certain kinds of food such as rice and beans, an ability to feel Latin musical beats, and family lore and political allegiances are considered, by many, as significant cultural identity markers. Unlike other Spanish-American ethnic groups migrating to the United States, Puerto Ricans do not process immigration papers since they are U.S. citizens. Literally speaking, the Atlantic Ocean is all that separates Puerto Rico from “America.” Although Spanish is the people’s dominant language, English has been accepted by the government as one of its official languages. Latin music may reign on Caribbean airwaves, but English radio stations command their place, too. “Who do you feel is your Mother country, Spain or the United States?” is a question asked ofsome children in local schools. Many question the analoLg by replying: “Well, if Spain is my mother, is the U.S.A. my father?” Jose Luis Gonzalez (1980) says the Puerto Rican cultural identity is a complicated matter, since the nation-state has been constructed on “four floors.” Gonzalez’s book, titled ElPais de Cuatro Pisos (The Country of Four Floors), describes the national identity as being composed of four others: Indians and blacks (floor one); European immigrants, specifically Spaniards (floor two); North Americans (floor three); and an urbanized racial mixture (floor four).