"For generations the remote villages of northern New Mexico lay virtually undisturbed, quietly passing through the predictable cycles of an agrarian society and preserving a colonial Hispanic culture unique to the United States Fortunately, many of the old traditions were preserved through the work of Lorin W. Brown who was born and raised in New Mexico. In the late 1930s he was employed by the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project to document the folklife of Hispanic northern New Mexico. Brown produced almost 200 manuscripts, all based on his interviews with many elderly residents of Cordova, Truchas, and other isolated communities., thus preserving an oral history stretching back to the late 18th century"--Amazon.