Cuentos

Within the cuentos- the folk tales- of the old-time Californiano was a thread of wry humor, and often a bit of homely wisdom, the earthy wisdom of down-to-earth people. It seems almost a crime that so many of these yarns, usaually passed on as fireside stories, should have gone unrecorded. Some were for children, tales with some moral designed to set the feet of the little darlings along the road to wisdom and righteousness. Some were of a more adult theme, a parable which as a rule presented its own moral. And some were downright raunchy, for the the telling around the bunkhouse and the branding corrals only.