The first panoramic anthology of Hispano-American folk narratives, this core collection gathers one hundred tales arranged in the form of a "velorio," or wake. The tales are preceded by a selection of early Colonial legends foreshadowing the themes of Latino folklore, followed by modern Indian myths, riddles, chain riddles, and folk prayers.

Prologue: early colonial legends -- Montezuma -- The talking stone -- Montezuma's wound -- Eight omens -- The return of Quetzalcoatl -- Is it you? -- Legends of the Inca Kings -- Mayta Capac -- The storm -- The vanishing bride -- A messenger in black -- The oracle at Huamachuco -- Bringing out the Holy word -- Folktales: a twentieth-century wake -- In the city of Benjamin -- Antuco's luck -- Don Dinero and Doña Fortuna -- Mistress Lucía -- St. Peter's wishes -- The coyote Teodora -- Buried alive -- The three gowns -- The horse of seven colors -- The cow -- Death and the doctor -- What the owls said -- Aunt Misery -- Palm-tree story -- Pedro de Urdemalas -- The letter carrier from the other world -- The King's pigs -- The sack -- Pedro goes to heaven -- A voyage to eternity -- Mother and daughter -- The bird sweet magic -- Death comes as a rooster -- The twelve truths of the world -- Folk prayers -- The mouse and the dung beetle -- The canon and the King's false friend -- The story that became a dream -- St. Theresa and the lord -- Rice from ashes -- Juan María and Juana María -- The witch wife -- O wicked world -- The three sisters -- The count and the Queen -- Crystal the Wise -- Love like salt -- The Pongo's dream -- The fox and the monkey -- The Miser's jar -- Tup and the ants -- A master and his pupil -- The Louse-drum -- The three dreams -- The clump of basil -- Riddles -- The charcoal peddler's chicken -- The three counsels -- Seven blind Queens -- The mad King -- A mother's curse -- The hermit and the drunkard -- The noblewoman's daughter and the charcoal woman's son -- The enchanted cow -- Judas's ear -- Good is repaid with evil -- The fisherman's daughter -- In the beginning -- How the first people were made -- Adam's rib -- Adam and Eve and their children -- God's letter to Noéh -- God chooses Noah -- The flood -- A prophetic dream -- The white lily -- The night in the stable -- When morning came -- Why did it dawn? -- That was the principal day -- Three kings -- The Christ child as trickster -- Christ saved by the firefly -- Christ betrayed by snails -- Christ betrayed by the magpie-jay -- The blind man at the cross -- The cricket, the mole, and the mouse -- As if with wings -- Slowpoke slaughtered four -- The price of heaven and the rain of Caramels -- Pine cone the astrologer -- The dragon slayer -- Johnny-boy / Nicaragua -- The rarest thing -- Prince Simpleheart -- The flower of Lily-Lo -- My garden is better than ever -- Juan Bobo and the pig -- The parrot prince -- Chain riddles -- A dead man speaks -- The bear's son -- Charity -- Riches without working -- Let somebody buy you who doesn't know you -- The mouse king -- Mariquita Grim and Mariquita Fair -- The compadre's dinner -- The hog -- Two sisters -- The ghosts' reales -- The bad compadre -- Black chickens -- Doublehead -- Littlebit -- Rosalie -- A day laborer goes to work -- The moth -- The earth ate them -- Why tobacco grows close to houses -- The buzzard husband -- The dead wife -- Romi Kumu makes the world -- She was thought and memory -- Was it not an illusion? -- The beginning life of the hummingbird -- Ibis story -- The condor seeks a wife -- The priest's son becomes an eagle -- The revolt of the utensils -- The origin of permanent death.