Juan B. Rael collection
Contributors: Lamadrid, Enrique R.; Archive of Folk Song (U.S.); American Folklife Center; Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program
Published: 1940
Language: spa
Number of pages: 36
Subjects: Spanish Hymns; Hispanic American Catholics; Dance music; Ethnomusicological collections; Wedding music; New Year music; Recitations; Religion; Spanish Folk songs; Alabados; Music; Folk music; Spanish American Decimas; Folk drama, Hispanic American (Spanish); Correspondence; Social life and customs; Waltz; Marches; Coplas; Posadas (Social custom); Field recordings; Hispanic Americans; Fiddle tunes; Spanish Americans; Spanish Christmas plays
Other titles: Hispano music and culture of the Northern Rio Grande.
Description: This ethnographic field collection documents the musical heritage and Catholic religious and cultural traditions of the Hispano residents of the portion of the northern Rio Grande region spanning northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. It contains sound recordings of alabados (hymns), folk drama, wedding songs, and dance tunes performed by various artists singing a cappella and performing on fiddle, guitar, and harmonica, collected by Juan B. Rael in 1940. The collection includes correspondence with Alan Lomax and others at the Library of Congress (1939-1941), administrative materials, and recording logs.  It also includes song transcriptions and translations and materials generated in the process of creating an American Memory online presentation in 1999, with essays and a glossary by Enrique R. Lamadrid.
Notes: In 1940, Juan Bautista Rael of Stanford University used disc recording equipment supplied by the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center) to document religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of the rural northern Rio Grande region.

The collection is open for research; access copies are available in the Folklife Reading Room, Library of Congress.

Field recordings on aluminum-based lacquer discs were made in Alamosa, Manassa, and Antonito, Colorado, and in Cerro and Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico by Juan B. Rael in July-August,1940.

Juan B. Rael Collection (AFC 1940/002), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

An online version of this collection, including essays in English and in Spanish and a bibliography and glossary, titled "Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection" is available as an American Memory online resource compiled by the American Folklife Center and the National Digital Library Program of the Library of Congress.

Duplication of the recorded materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions. Publication of the recorded materials requires permission of the performers or their next-of-kin.

Collection guide for Rael manuscript materials; Stanford University.

Bibliographic records for Rael material; New Mexico State Library.

Linguist and folklorist Juan Bautista Rael was born on Aug. 14, 1900 in Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico. He earned a doctoral degree from Stanford University in 1937 and is highly regarded for his pioneering work in collecting and documenting Hispano cultural and religious traditions in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado, which resulted in a number of publications.

in English and Spanish.

in Spanish.

Finding aid available in the Folklife Reading Room, Library of Congress, and online via the American Folklife Center World Wide Web Home Page.

Publications: The New Mexican alabado / by Juan B. Rael. Stanford : Stanford University Press, 1951.