Spanish speaking peoples in Utah, oral histories: book 13, numbers 135 through 146

Page 249

INTERVIIDv: Romero Page 7 seated, and then the friend or the sweetheart had to come up to her and recite a verse to her, and he would recite a verse to her, and then she would answer. And from there sometimes the sweethearrnwould come out very angry at each other. I remember at one time a young man recited a verse, he was from one of those ranches in Talpa, he recited a verse to this girl and it went something like this: 11Eres Linda entre las Lindas, Linda sin comparacion, Linda tu padre y tu madre, Linda tu generacion .11 And they all began to laugh, and then this girl, who later became my wife, said: si, porque me ves reiend~ crees que te estoy queriendo , si es risita de por si, y burla que estoy haciendo . " JT: In what other form did the people amuse themselves? BR: The people amused themselves with comanches . The comanches were where young men dressed themselves on horseback with the dress of the Indian, pertaining to the Indians of the vicinity of Taos . They were Spanish, but they dressed like Indians, and then other young men dressed as Spaniards on horseback also. All of them, of course, were Spanish. This symbolized what at that time was called the war of Val Verde which concerned the battles with the Spaniards and the Indians . These were represented with dialogue. The beginning of this function was that the Chief of the Indians, for example,