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Archive entry · Signed by deceased author

Rubén Cobos — A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish, signed copy

The standard scholarly reference for New Mexico Spanish, signed and personally inscribed by Rubén Cobos. Cobos died in 2013; his signature pool is now closed and authenticatable.

The blue dust jacket of A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish by Rubén Cobos, with stylized alphabet motif on the cover, Revised & Expanded Edition.
The actual donated copy — Revised & Expanded Edition, Museum of New Mexico Press, 2003.

Catalog

Title
A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish
Author
Rubén Cobos (1911–2013)
Publisher
Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe
Edition
Second Edition, Revised and Expanded, 2003
ISBN
0-89013-452-9 (cloth) / 0-89013-453-7 (paper)
LCCN
2003114603 / PC4829.N4C6 2003
Provenance
Inscribed "For Susan, one of Helen's dear friends — Rubén Cobos"
Donated
May 2026, Albuquerque-area donor

What this book is

Rubén Cobos's A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish is the standard scholarly reference for the regional Spanish spoken in northern New Mexico and the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado. The book documents what linguists call el español del Nuevo México tradicional — a variant of Spanish that preserved many archaic sixteenth-century forms because the region was isolated from Mexico City and Madrid for centuries, that absorbed Pueblo and Mexican-Indian loanwords, and that today is spoken by a shrinking but real community of speakers across northern NM villages from Truchas to Tierra Amarilla and into southern Colorado.

This is the 2003 Second Edition, Revised and Expanded — published by the Museum of New Mexico Press in Santa Fe, hardcover with a blue dust jacket featuring a stylized alphabet motif. It builds on the original 1983 first edition (also published by the Museum of NM Press) and adds substantial new entries, etymological notes, and bibliographic apparatus.

Why this copy matters

It's signed and personally inscribed by Cobos himself.

Inscription on the half-title page "For Susan, one of Helen's dear friends, — Rubén Cobos"

Rubén Cobos died on November 2, 2013, at the age of 102. He had taught Spanish at the University of New Mexico for decades, founded the UNM Spanish folklore archive, and produced the dictionary that scholars and graduate students still cite as the authoritative source on regional NM Spanish. His signature pool is now closed — meaning every signed copy that exists, exists. There will be no more.

NMLP maintains a closed-signature-pool reference page for exactly this reason: when a NM author dies, their authenticatable signature corpus becomes a finite collectibility category. Cobos belongs on that page, alongside N. Scott Momaday, Tony Hillerman, Rudolfo Anaya, John Nichols, Cormac McCarthy (in his NM-residency context), and others.

Multi-part bibliographic record

The archive standard for signed scholarly works includes the cover, the signature page, the title page, and the copyright page. Below: each, photographed from the actual donated copy.

Front cover of the Cobos dictionary, blue with alphabet motif and the title in white serif type
Front cover. Blue dust jacket with stylized alphabet motif and gilt detail.
The signature page reading 'For Susan, one of Helen's dear friends' in cursive ink, signed Rubén Cobos
Signed and inscribed. Cobos's hand, "For Susan, one of Helen's dear friends." This is the kind of inscription that closes a book to one specific person and one specific occasion.
The title page reading A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Revised and Expanded Edition, by Rubén Cobos, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe
Title page. Confirms Revised & Expanded Edition; Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe.

How it came in

This copy arrived in May 2026 through a recent NMLP donation. The named recipient on the inscription, "Susan," is otherwise unidentified; the donor scenario is anonymized per archive policy. The book is in clean condition with the dust jacket intact.

Where it's going

This copy is being held aside while I identify the proper next-home destination. Plausible candidates: the UNM Spanish & Portuguese department library (where Cobos's professional papers reside in part), a NM-Spanish-language scholar or graduate student, or a private collector specializing in Museum of New Mexico Press hardcovers and NM scholarly reference works. I'll update this entry once the placement is confirmed.

External references & authoritative sources

Citation (Chicago): Eldred, Josh. "Signed Rubén Cobos — A Dictionary of New Mexico & Southern Colorado Spanish (2003)." NMLP Donation Archive. Albuquerque: New Mexico Literacy Project, May 1, 2026. https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/archive/dictionary-nm-spanish-cobos-2003.

Books by deceased NM authors deserve careful next-homes.

If you're sitting on a NM library that includes signed copies of Cobos, Momaday, Hillerman, Anaya, or other NM authors, the books may be more significant than the cover suggests. Free in-home pickup in metro Albuquerque. I’ll handle the sorting and the signature authentication.

Schedule a free pickup Call 702-496-4214

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