The Green Bird and Other Tales / El pájaro verde y otros cuentos brings together, in English translation and in the original castellano, nine works that identify Juan Valera as an authentic fairy-tale/fantasy writer, a fictional chronicler of two legendary Spanish historical personages, and a tongue-in-cheek humorist.
Well before the critical and popular success of his Pepita Jiménez in 1874, Valera was drawn to the oral tradition of Andalusia, his native patria chica, where he found “The Green Bird” being passed orally from generation to generation. Citing Spain’s lack of collections—in his time [siglo]—like those of the brothers Grimm, Andersen, and Perrault, he writes in his Cuentos y chascarrillos andaluces that his aim is to add to the “written treasure of tales popularly told [tesoro escrito de los cuentos que el vulgo refiere].” And they range, in this Juan de la Cuesta collection, from the lyrical and poetic to the comical and earthy.
The historical pieces center on Bernardo del Carpio, of whom don Quijote was so fond, and Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, the Great Captain, who fought so long and so valiantly in the service of the Catholic Monarchs, Isabel of Castile and Fernando of Aragón. Here Valera again shines, weaving fictional accounts in fluid prose, and with a thorough command of Spanish history, as he brings to life two figures of legend and lore. Together the nine tales demonstrate that Juan Valera excels in short, as well as long, prose fiction.