By
Vanessa Francis
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Author, folklorist Jim Griffith releases book on saints of the
Author and folklorist Jim Griffith said he has "served a life sentence" at the UA.
And today, he will be returning to the place he spent nearly four decades as an instructor of folklore when he comes to the U of A Bookstore to promote and sign two of his latest books, " Saints of the Southwest" and "Hecho a Mano: The Traditional Arts of Tucson's Mexican American Community."
"Most people are not able to come out with two books at the same time," said Griffith, 65. "But we retired people can - lots of time on our hands."
Griffith came to the UA in 1955 as an undergraduate and stayed to earn his doctorate in cultural anthropology. He worked at the now inactive Southwest Folklore Center, a branch of the UA Library, which he retired from in 1998.
"Saints of the Southwest" is a book of writings and photography featuring 31 saints that have been depicted throughout various areas of the Southwest at locales such as churches, missions and even video stores. Griffith wrote all the text for the work and shares the photography credit with W. Ross Humphreys.
The depictions of saints includes the Archangel Michael, who is featured in the main altar of the San Miguel chapel in Sante Fe, N.M., and The Virgin of Guadalupe who is featured in a painting on the side of the Menlo Park video store in Tucson.
The most difficult shot to get, said Griffith, was the Saint Martin of Tours photo taken at the Little Mexico Restaurant in Tucson.
"The light was really bad in the restaurant, and I had to prop open the door to have the light bounce off a car from the outside," he said.
The saint is revered as the saint of businesses, and his custom was to place a cup of water and a thistle of grass in front of his horse, Griffith said.
"It is said that if the horse has water and food, then there will be food in the kitchen," he said.
The inspiration for "Saints of the Southwest" came from Griffith's publisher, Rio Nuevo. He said that the publishing company had the idea of photographing the saints - "they knew that was right up my alley."
Ironically, prior to the company presenting Griffith with the idea, he was traveling to the areas in the Southwest photographing and researching these saints.
The second book recently released, "Hecho a Mano," discusses handmade traditional folklore in the Mexican-American community in Tucson. The book is published by the University of Arizona Press.
Griffith said he defines folklore as, "the process of what we know as a part of the community, and who we are as individuals."
He further elaborated by saying folklore is the set of rules applied to certain situations by a certain area of society - one example he gave is the unwritten rule by UA students, as to the number of minutes to wait if a professor is late to class.
During his final eight years at the UA, Griffith taught a folklore class offered through the English department. He also conducted field work outside the classroom, as well as coordinating community events and art exhibits.
Octa Leigh, general books buyer for the U of A Bookstore, called "Saints of the Southwest" a "beautiful gift book."
Griffith will sign his books today at noon at the Bookstore.
