Spanish / Mexico
Cuentos populares mexicanos
(Mexican folktales)
Morábito, Fabio
(ed./adapt.)
Various artists
(illus.)
México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2014. – 595 p.
ISBN 978-607-16-2389-8
Fairy tale | Folk tale | Anthology
Reading age: 8+
White Ravens issue: 2015
This volume, heavy as a brick, is an astounding treasure trove. With meticulous attention to detail and great stamina, author Fabio Morábito, who is Italian by birth but has been living in Mexico for the last fifteen years, has collected 125 folktales from all regions of the very culturally diverse country and tells them anew for readers and listeners of all ages. For this remarkable project he had to leaf through many written sources, including the pioneer works of notable ethnologists of the early twentieth century. This research has resulted in an exemplary collection whose vast riches are breath-taking. Morábito, who takes himself to be in the first instance a translator and collector of folktales originally transmitted orally, adapts the found material with great respect and a fine sense for the tradition giving it a new literary form. Colourful pictures by eight Mexican illustrators round out this folktale treasure trove.