"SciFi", Latinos, Chicanos & Aztecs in outer space

Había una vez, back in '04 when Ramos was getting me drunk in a bar, as he was wont to do, I vaguely remember discussing the idea that eventually resulted in creating La Bloga. We were already in communication with Michael Sedano in Califas, via Teresa Marquez's CHICLE listserv at UNM.

That brings back more vague memories. One of them was my vision of my role in La Bloga. My cabrón father had raised me on what was then called SciFi, and I wanted to focus on Chicanos in that genre, as well as fantasy.

I wanted the blogworld to learn about characters like Pablo Cortez from Cortez on Jupiter (written by Ernest Hogan, whose mom's maiden name's Garcia), still one of my favorite Chicano characters--the "wild young Mexican-American artist who covers Greater Los Angeles with fantastic graffiti. . . founds the Guerrilla Muralists of L.A., and goes on to make mankind's first contact with the sentient life-forms of Jupiter, and ends as the Solar System's most revered--and least reverent--artist." (from the back cover)

Or Hogan's character Beto Orozco, from High Aztech, "a VR games designer with too much time on his hands, who decides to create an AI version of Tezcatlipoca using some illegal software he finds. The result is a digital resurrection of a god that would have been best left sleeping away the centuries."

Like too many of my plans, I never became the SciFi/Fantasy voice of La Bloga, nor of anywhere else for that matter, which is neither good nor bad, just a fact.

Recently though, I learned of someone who took up a similar mission, at least regarding Latinos in film. Since Sept 2009, if not earlier, una boriqua has been reviewing SciFi, as she calls it, over at SciFiLatino.com.

Her reviews read well, like this: "The film Cirque du Freak is based on the first three books of a young adult series called The Saga of Darren Shan or alternately, Cirque du Freak. It is unfortunate that this film comes after several vampire movies and TV series because I am sure vampire fatigue will make some people dismiss it. That would be a mistake because Cirque du Freak isn’t annoyingly angsty and any love story is secondary to the plot. It is grittier, darker, and surprisingly fun."

Here's her description of her mission: "SCIFI LATINO came about because of my love for science fiction and fantasy. Why focus on Latinos and Latinas? Because it gives me a thrill to see people like me in my favorite genre, and I want to celebrate each and every one of them. The blog will review current television series, cancelled shows, movies, books and anything else that I consider genre-worthy and where we see a Latino participating in a significant capacity."

You can find other gems there, like her preview of Al final del espectro (At the End of the Spectra)--"a 2006 Colombian thriller set to be remade in the U.S. in 2010." Or the Latina actress playing a Latina in the Avatar flick: "Our non-blue warrior chica Michelle Rodríguez (playing Trudy Chacón) kicked ass and was a favorite (at least in my theater) judging by the applause she got."

She's also up at Twitter: @scifilatino
www.facebook.com/scifilatino

So, if you're into this genre or want to check out the Latino connections, click here.

Ramos also claims he can remember well that bar back in '04 and that I was wont to nix ideas, like calling this site El Blogo instead of La Bloga. Would we have fared better, become more world-renown had we adopted El Blogo, instead? If you want to cast a very late vote, do so in the comments below. Which one would have better described what this site's become?

RudyChG