[2] In 1920, Venceslao died, leaving Jaramillo to fight to prove her right to his assets, while raising Angelina (age 4).

[2] In common with other folklorists of the era, Jaramillo wrote in an attempt to preserve the Hispanic culture she believed was under threat.

[2][6] Some critics have viewed Jaramillo's account as one-sided, noting the exclusion of the state's Native American people and culture.

[2] Jaramillo drew on a familial heritage of preservationism, her mother having been a "gifted storyteller", and her brother having contributed traditional stories to the New Mexico Federal Writers' Project.

[2] Feeling that even admirers of the culture often misunderstood the underlying values and traditions, Jaramillo and her fellow New Mexican folklorists sought to authentically preserve and celebrate what they worried was being lost.

Of Jaramillo and her peers, Fabiola Cabeza de Baca and Adelina Otero-Warren, feminist critic Tey Diana Rebolledo has written that they were "remarkable for their concerns and their production at a time when most Hispanas/Mexicans had little education, or if they were educated, little leisure or encouragement to write.

[1] Rose Rodriguez-Rabin, has described Cleofas Jaramillo as leaving an "estimable legacy", and as a folklorist who "in her own fashion reclaimed the lost traditions and customs of her people".