Realidad y fantasía. Acercamientos a un catálogo de serpientes extraordinarias en la tradición oral novohispana

Abstract

The reptile is one of the animals that has a constant, and almost obsessive, presence in oral tradition of all cultures. In New Spain, the snake, the lizard and other forms of these animals, were represented under a vision that incorporated Western, indigenous,
African, and other beliefs from the cultures that lived in colonial Mexico. This article seeks to expose the project to make a Catalogue of some of these species, and above all, to highlight some stories about them, which were transmitted in the orality. This study that will allow us to locate these characters in different genres of oral literature, so that it is possible to trace these appearances in the current oral tradition.