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La Gran Quibira, a musical mystery, opera historique; a romanza in five acts, with overture, prelude and interlude (1904])

Author: Corbyn, Clara A. B
Publisher: [Los Angeles?
Possible copyright status: NOT_IN_COPYRIGHT
Language: English
Call number: srlf_ucla:LAGE-914316
Digitizing sponsor: MSN
Book contributor: University of California Libraries
Collection: americana; cdl

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Reviewer: Alison E. Rautman - - November 24, 2007
Subject: Review of La Gran Quibira
La Gran Quibira is a highly original romantic historical novel set in the ruins of Gran Quivira pueblo, now Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in central New Mexico.

A Welsh-American woman Clara Corbin (Corbyn) established a homestead claim among the ruins of Gran Quivira in the 1880s, and lived there alone for many years. Her story gets even more amazing, however, when one realizes that she was essentially blind. Apparently she could see some degree of contrast between light and dark, but little else. She found her way about the ruins using a series of ropes and strings that led from her house to other areas such as her outhouse, her laundry area, and the road toward the historic (European-American) town of Gran Quivira about a mile or so from the ruins. She earned a marginal living by typing letters and other documents for people in the area, and also self- published works of fiction to earn additional money.

Some parts of her fictionalized autobiographical writings convey a great deal of (presumably factual) information about the local people who lived around the ruins at that time.

La Gran Quibira: A Musical Mystery is a highly opaque and over-wrought novel that relates a romantic tale of a cosmic war among the ancient Greek gods and the Judeo-Christian God, and its long-term effects on the world of the Aztecs, the Spanish, and the Indians of Gran Quivira Pueblo (who are grouped together grandly with “the Aztecs”).

This historical novel is recounted through Corbyn’s own visions and dream-states and also through the life events of the novel’s several female protagonist(s), each one representing a certain period of time over the hundreds of years represented in the novel. Plowing through the dense religious and mythological imagery and the alarmingly tortured prose of this novel is frankly exhausting, but there are some interesting sections in which Corbyn presents some paragraphs of memoirs regarding her daily life, her knowledge of local history and legend, and the problems presented by her blindness.

The novel’s characters and actions are set within the context of the legend of Spanish period buried treasure. This treasure is dominated by “the golden bell” that was supposedly left by the Franciscan priests as they (fictionally) flee for their lives. In Corbyn’s novel the (fictional) protagonist describes in colorful detail the legendary treasures thought to be left at Gran Quivira pueblo as the Spanish priests decamped:

"….The enormous treasure comprised the great church bell which was declared to weigh two tons and to be one half gold, while to it was attached the chain of solid silver by which it had been swung in the tower of the great church. (This was not altogether improbable for even at this day [the author comments parenthetically] it is the custom among the Mexicans when a bell is to be cast for any of their chapels—or parochias—to throw in their offerings of jewelry and coins to add to its value.)…Then their [sic] was the beautifully wrought golden church service, the seven golden candle sticks, as well as a great number of censors and other vessels used in service, described as being almost beyond belief valuable, besides the riches of the wealthy monastery whose value was incalculable. The remainder of this vast treasure consisted of ingots and nuggets of refined gold and silver in enormous quantities, besides the great bulk of the valuables and jewelry of the people of the vicinity who had brought them here fore safe keeping during the threatened troublous times. These were stored away in certain secret vaults, situated at a certain distance and in a certain direction from a given point, and the precise spot which marked the entrance to these vaults which were covered and hidden entirely from view was indicated by a certain land-mark." (p. 335-336)

In another fictionalized passage, the main character describes how the secret of its hiding place was kept for so many years:

"…the secret of the burial place of the church and monastery relics…had been left to [a Spanish-Indian family] with the proviso that none should touch them under the penalty of a most terrible curse resting upon them and their descendants. This secret was in writing and was handed down from generation to generation as the keeper died. These papers did not descend from father to son as in all other affairs, but was always given in trust to the one most likely to preserve it, or who would give all that might be secured by their meddling fingers to the church, namely the most devout and bigoted [sic] catholic in the family…" (p. 335)

One practical problem that Corbyn encountered while living in the ruins was that the spirits of the dead often kept her awake at night with their singing, wailing, and instrumental music. In the novel, she describes in some detail the sound of the music, variously experienced as the sound of bells, of a mouth-harp, or of heavenly harps, sometimes jointed by trumpets and other instruments of a “spirit band”. At one point she describes:
"… a simple melody played upon the shepherd’s pipes,is plainly heard above, or rather through, the sound of the rising wind, the falling rain, the crash of thunder…but instead of one air played upon one instrument, there were many going on all at once, yet never seeming in the least degree to interfere the one with the other.." (p. 37)

This “mysterious music” forms the “song of the bones,” the spiritual band that accompanied the “choirs of voices, both male and female; the chanting of the priests; the clanging of the bells; and occasionally breaking through all, a wail or shriek as of souls in agony.” The unknown source of the music is the “mystery” that gives the novel its subtitle.

Alison E. Rautman
Department of Anthropology
Michigan State University

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