Before even reading these short stories, I assumed that they were going to be exotic and weird. I’m not sure why but every time I think about Latin culture, I think of a culture that is wild and fun. So, I naturally assumed that this wildness would be demonstrated in their works of writing. Furthermore, “Don Quixote” was the only novel I read that was somewhat “Latin” and Don Quixote was a weird and crazy book. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it though.
So, when I began to read the two stories, it really struck out to me how normal they seemed. I would have thought that it was an English writer who wrote them if I hadn’t known prior. There was no exotic features, crazy storyline, and belligerent characters. They were normal folk short stories. Of the two short stories, I found “The Pongo’s Dream” by Jose Maria Arguedas the most interesting. It was short, simple, and powerful. What I find in old folk tales is that they always address a moral. When I was young, my mom would always tell me Chinese folk tales on how the most righteous person in this life will be reborn into someone great in the next. Which, is somewhat similar to “The Pongo’s Dream”.
What I found different about “Legend of the Singing Tablets” “Legend of the Crystal Mask” “Legend of the Silent Bell” and “Legend of the Dancing Butchers” by Miguel Angel Asturias from “The Pongo’s Dream” was how religious it was. It seemed to me that there was also a large focus on nature. I found this surprisingly consistent with most of Asian folk stories that I read. It really is interesting on how while these cultures were created thousands of kilometers apart, their stories are strikingly similar. Religion, nature and duty is a theme in a lot of them.