Mano Tiburcio was walking por el centro del camino un día. He just trudged straight ahead, neither looking to la derecha ni to la izquierda. Any carros that might happen to be coming down the road para la plaza tenían que ir around him. Canutito looked at this viejo who was so full of confianza and apparently not afraid de nada.

"¿Quién es ese hombre who walks like he owns all of God's creation, grampo?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, ese hombre es Mano Tiburcio," Grampo Caralampio replied. "Muchas personas say que he is the strongest man who ever lived."

"What makes him so fuerte, grampo?" the little boy asked.

"Pues, the rumor around town es que he had an argument con el mismo Diablo y que he won out over him."

"Really, grampo?" Canutito asked. "Es verdad que he beat out the Devil himself?"

"Sí señor," Grampo Caralampio replied. "Izque it all started una noche que Mano Tiburcio was coming back de la cantina zigzagging up el caminito del Salto. It was una noche de luna llena with the full moon making todos estos weird shadows por el valle. Just as Mano Tiburcio rounded un curve en el camino el Diablo appeared in front of him big as life y twice as mean."

"¡Ave María Purísima!" Canutito exclaimed as he thought of the Devil standing in front of Mano Tiburcio. "What did he do, grampo?" he asked. "¿Le tenía miedo?"

"Nope!" Grampo Caralampio replied.

"He wasn't afraid. He just looked at him sin interés and took otro swig of the cerveza que tenía en la mano. El Diablo approached him con su pitchfork ready to strike and stuck out his lengua and grinned."

"Was Mano Tiburcio afraid to be poked con la horquilla del diablo, grampo?" Canutito asked.

"Not at all, m'hijo," Grampo Caralampio said. "El Diablo came up to him and asked: '¿Sabes quién soy yo?' as he leaned close to him. 'Sí' said Mano Tiburcio, 'tú eres el Diablo' and he took otro drink de su cerveza. Then el Diablo asked him: '¿Sabes tú que I can take you down to Hell conmigo and you will never see God ni a los ángeles en el Cielo'? 'Sí," said Mano Tiburcio, still sin mucho interés."

"I myself would have been very afraid," Canutito mumbled.

Grampo Carlampio paused in his narrative to roll out un cigarrito.

Canutito waited con paciencia until he continued. "Entonces," Grampo Caralampio went on after he had finished rolling out the cigarette, "el Diablo came much closer to Mano Tiburcio and said: '¿Sabes tú que I can make your life miserable por toda la eternidad by poking you con mi horquilla and tossing you into the ever-lasting lumbres of Hell?' 'Sí,' said Mano Tiburcio, still uninterested in this Espíritu Malo who was trying to threaten him. Then el Diablo grabbed him by the throat."

"What did Mano Tiburcio do then, grampo?" Canutito asked as he fingered his own garganta.

"Nothing, m'hijo," Grampo Caralampio replied.

"El Diablo was todo frustrado and so he asked Mano Tiburcio: '¿Por qué is it que you are not afraid of me?' Mano Tiburcio just burped in the face of el Diablo and said, 'Oye señor Diablo' he said with mock respecto, 'I am not afraid of you ni de anybody else tampoco. The truth of the matter es que I have been married to your sister por 30 years y nothing can scare me después de eso!' With that, he turned and walked away from el Diablo."

"And was he really married to the Devil's sister, grampo?" Canutito asked innocently.

"Many men feel that they are," Grampo Caralampio replied. "Muchos piensan que sí ..."

¿Le gustaría compartir sus propias anécdotas o comentar con Torres sobre esta columna? Envíele un correo electrónico a lartor@unm.edu.