Hispanic Balladry Today

First published in 1989. The ballad or romance, as it is commonly called, has played a vital role over the centuries in Hispanic culture as an orally transmitted narrative song. It is characteristically the product of people who have had to look to themselves for entertainment. From the end of the fifteenth to the early seventeenth century, the romancero (balladry) enjoyed a great vogue among learned poets and their audiences, especially in the Spanish and Portuguese courts. The authors' intent in this book is to survey and to assess the state of the romancero, not only in Spain and Portugal, but also in peripheral areas whereit has migrated and taken root.

Ruth H. Webber

The Artisan Poetry of the Romancero, Survival of the Traditional Romancero: Field Work, Migratory Shepherds and Ballad Diffusion, In Defense of Romancero Geography, Hunting for Rare Romances in the Canary Islands, Collecting Portuguese Ballads, The Living Ballad in Brazil: Two Performances, The Traditional Romancero in Mexico: Panorama, The Judeo-Spanish Ballad Tradition, The Structure and Changing Functions of Oral Traditions