Brother Bill’s Bait Bites Back and Other Tales from the Raton

Much of the literature about northeastern New Mexico depicts range wars, bandits, labor union strife, and Indian depredations. This collection of twelve modern folktales describes events that never made headlines and people who never had a building named after them, evoking the rich tradition of storytelling that flowed through the coal camps and ranches of the Raton region during the early twentieth century.

The tales in this collection are about everyday life with some fantastic elements. An African American mother and daughter confront a German prisoner of war in one story, while in another a coal miner’s gift for braying leads to a war between coal camps. Here are chronicles of a Mexican barber who extracts a ghoulish revenge for being forced to shave the beard of a killer; of the terrible fate that awaits boys who are lured into a dancehall during the Lenten season by the Devil and his beautiful cowgirls; and of an old coal miner who attempts to control his young wife by pretending to be the voice of the Lord. In other stories a lion who is accidentally caught and caged teaches a coal miner a lesson; two crusty cowboys come to understand the purpose of gnats and tumbleweeds and why rattlesnakes have rattles; and the Angel of Death is told to collect Hispanic souls or else. The account of a rootin’-tootin’ cowboy and his wife who use a pitch-baby to trap a pesky jack rabbit and a fish story round out this multiethnic collection of tales. Recounted in a lively, humorous style, the stories show how ordinary people managed to conduct dignified and happy lives—with occasional help from the spirit world—in a difficult social and physical environment.