Juan Bautista Rael (August 14 1900 – November 8, 1993) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ethnographerEthnography is a branch of anthropology. It is a methodological strategy used to provide descriptions of human societies, which as a methodology does not prescribe any particular method , but instead prescribes the nature of the study Ethnography (Greek ethnos = folk/people and graphein =...
,
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, and
folkloristFolkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
who studied the people, stories, and language of the
Northern New MexicoNorthern New Mexico may simply mean the northern part of New Mexico, but in cultural terms it usually means the area of heavy Spanish settlement in the north-central part....
and southern
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
areas of the
Southwestern United StatesThe Southwestern United States is defined as the states that lie west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37, 38, 39, or 40 degree north latitude. A 97.33 longitude degree west could qualify as the separation of the American Southwest from the...
. Rael taught and studied at
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
and donated his considerable collection of ethnographic materials to the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
.
Rael was born to a
SpanishA Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States with ethnic origins in the southwestern European nation of Spain.Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565....
colonial family in the northern New Mexico village of
Arroyo Hondo, New MexicoArroyo Hondo is a small unincorporated town in Taos County near Taos, New Mexico, United States.-See also:* Juan Bautista Rael...
, near
TaosTaos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. In New Mexico, a municipality may call itself a village, town, or city . Taos calls itself the "Town of Taos" and was incorporated as such in 1934...
where his father was a merchant and sheep rancher.
Juan Bautista Rael (August 14 1900 – November 8, 1993) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ethnographerEthnography is a branch of anthropology. It is a methodological strategy used to provide descriptions of human societies, which as a methodology does not prescribe any particular method , but instead prescribes the nature of the study Ethnography (Greek ethnos = folk/people and graphein =...
,
linguistLinguistics is the scientific study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of meaning...
, and
folkloristFolkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
who studied the people, stories, and language of the
Northern New MexicoNorthern New Mexico may simply mean the northern part of New Mexico, but in cultural terms it usually means the area of heavy Spanish settlement in the north-central part....
and southern
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
areas of the
Southwestern United StatesThe Southwestern United States is defined as the states that lie west of the Mississippi River, with the qualification of a certain northern limit such as the 37, 38, 39, or 40 degree north latitude. A 97.33 longitude degree west could qualify as the separation of the American Southwest from the...
. Rael taught and studied at
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
and donated his considerable collection of ethnographic materials to the
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
.
Childhood and education
Rael was born to a
SpanishA Spanish American is a citizen or resident of the United States with ethnic origins in the southwestern European nation of Spain.Spanish Americans are the earliest European American group, with a continuous presence since 1565....
colonial family in the northern New Mexico village of
Arroyo Hondo, New MexicoArroyo Hondo is a small unincorporated town in Taos County near Taos, New Mexico, United States.-See also:* Juan Bautista Rael...
, near
TaosTaos is a town in Taos County in the north-central region of New Mexico. In New Mexico, a municipality may call itself a village, town, or city . Taos calls itself the "Town of Taos" and was incorporated as such in 1934...
where his father was a merchant and sheep rancher. Rael was one of five children (four sons and one daughter) of José Ignacio Rael and Soledad Santistevan.
Rael's parents sent him away to school, because of limited educational options in their town, beginning in elementary school with Saint Michael's College in
Santa Fe, New MexicoSanta Fe is the capital of the state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 62,203 at the April 1, 2000 census; the estimate for July 1, 2006, is 72,056...
. He also attended Christian Brothers' College in
St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis is an independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. With an estimated population of 354,361 in 2008, it is the principal municipality of Greater St. Louis, population 2,866,517, the largest urban area in Missouri and sixteenth largest in the United States...
and received a high school diploma.
In 1923, Rael received his
B.A.Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
from
St. Mary's CollegeSaint Mary's College of California is a private, coeducational college located in Moraga, California, United States. It is affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church and administered by the De La Salle Christian Brothers...
in
Oakland, CaliforniaOakland is the eighth-largest city in the U.S. state of California and a major West Coast port city, located on San Francisco Bay about eight miles east of the City of San Francisco. Oakland is a major hub city for the Bay Area subregion collectively called the East Bay, and it is the county seat...
in linguistics and
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
. That year, he married Quirina Espinosa.
In 1927, Rael received his
M.A.A Master of Arts is a postgraduate academic master degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in English, Fine Arts, History, Nursing, Humanities, Geography, Philosophy, Social Sciences or Theology and can be either fully-taught, research-based, or a...
from the
University of California, BerkeleyThe University of California, Berkeley is a public research university located in Berkeley, California, United States. The oldest of the ten major campuses affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley offers some 300 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines...
.
Rael began to focus on
Alabados, or religious songs, of the
HispanoHispanos .Hispanos was a name given to people of colonial Spanish descent in the United States who retained a predominantly Spanish culture. The distinction was made to compensate for flawed U.S. Census practices in the 1930s which used to characterize Hispanic people as non-white...
region of
Northern New MexicoNorthern New Mexico may simply mean the northern part of New Mexico, but in cultural terms it usually means the area of heavy Spanish settlement in the north-central part....
and southern
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
. He was familiar with these from childhood. He also began to study the folk and
nativityA Nativity play or Christmas pageant is a play which recounts the story of the Nativity of Jesus. It is usually performed at Christmas, the feast of the Nativity.-Liturgical:...
plays of Mexico and New Mexico.
In 1933, Rael began his doctoral studies at Stanford University under the supervision of folklorist Aurelio Espinosa. Rael was awarded his
Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated PhD , for the Latin , meaning "teacher of philosophy", or alternatively, DPhil, for the equivalent , is an advanced academic degree awarded by universities...
in linguistics in 1937. His dissertation was on the
phonologyPhonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system...
and
morphologyMorphology is the identification, analysis and description of the structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules...
of
New Mexican SpanishNew Mexican Spanish is a variant or dialect of Spanish spoken in the United States, primarily in the northern part of the state of New Mexico and the southern part of the state of Colorado...
, later published under the title
Cuentos Españoles de Colorado y Nuevo Mexico: Spanish Folk Tales of Colorado and New Mexico.