Southwest Folklore small manuscripts collection

The collection consists of a wide variety of material concerning topics on folklore and folkways in Arizona and the Sonoran region of the United States and Mexico. Materials include course papers submitted by students in University classes taught by James S. Griffith and Byrd H. Granger. These materials document local folkloric beliefs and traditions, such as La Llorona, international horse races along the United States-Mexican border, and other aspects of Sonoran culture.

The collection includes materials documenting the lives and activities of Mexican American and Anglo American singers and folk artists, and cowboy poets.

Transcriptions of folk songs and files of folk song lyrics used by Committee members in their teaching are also included. The collection includes significant ] information and photographs concerning the Mexican American artist Lalo Guerrero, born in Tucson, Arizona in 1916. Examples of Guerrero’s recorded music are available in other Southwest Folklore Center collections. The collection includes information relating to cowboy poetry gatherings, and examples of cowboy poetry and stories.

The collection also includes transcripts of some field recordings present in MS 617, a collection of field recordings on tape reels.

This collection is part of the Southwest Folklore Center collection. The Southwest Folklore Center was founded in 1979 after the dissolution of the University of Arizona Folklore Committee and collected information about folk communities, arts, music, and other humanities-related materials. This collection was previously SWF 013. The materials were transferred to Special Collections in 2017.