Little Gold Star: A Spanish-American Cinderella Tale
Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Sergio Martinez
ISBN: 9780688147808
Re-read September 19 for storytelling development.
I think I'll be adding this one to my collection of titles - I love the way the story flows, and the way that the Virgin Mary and the Holy Family seamlessly (mostly) fall into place as the beneficial "godmother" or "dead mother's spirit" of the basic Cinderella that most Americans are familiar with.
Teresa is a good daughter, but her stepmother and stepsisters are hateful to her. When her father gives her a little white lamb, they slaughter it and force her to wash the fleece. A fish steals it away (oddly enough) and a beautiful lady dressed in blue appears to offer help for a price. Teresa does her tasks as requested with a good attitude, and the Virgin blesses her, evidenced by a gold star appearing where she was touched by the Mother of God.
Stepmom and sisters are jealous, and the two sisters are sent out to get the same blessing (shades of Mother Hulda/Diamonds and Toads) but they of course are useless and bad, so they get cursed with horns and donkey ears respectively - stepmother is too wise to even try.
After the local plantation owner sees Teresa and her star at church, he decides to host a festival, and the family attends - he dances with Teresa, but custom dictates that they dance looking at the floor. Teresa's stepmom, seething with jealousy, pounces and shames her into running away while he's busy dancing.
He stops by the family's house the next day, the family cat alerts him to where Teresa has been hidden away, and he asks for Teresa's hand. Stepmother can't say no to the landowner, but does set 3 impossible tasks for Teresa - here the tasks are a barrier for marriage where in usual Cinderella the tasks are for denying permission to attend the initial party. Teresa tries all day to achieve them, then relies on a miracle from the Holy Mother to save the day.
An interesting coda has the stepmother and daughters becoming less hateful as they are influenced by Teresa and her noble husband, and slowly losing the horns and donkey ears as they become kind and selfless themselves.
As always for actual published books, I'll need to find other examples of this particular variation, so that the story I tell doesn't rely too much on one author's language and cadence. There are several reasons for this, but the most important is that the printed and published version here is subject to copyright, and as a performer and an author and an artist, I want to be respectful of intellectual ownership and rights. Other reasons are less prosaic: the more examples I have, the more rich the story becomes, the more language options I have available, and the more I can add to or synthesize in to make it a powerful tale that stands alone as an oral tradition, not requiring illustrations to enhance the story. (Although I have to say, these illustrations enhance so beautifully!)
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