by
Ernest Hogan
I
was recently interviewed by Diego Juaregui as part of an oral history
project on space history and Latinofuturism for the Smithsonian's
National Air and Space Museum. It will be available for scholars and
kept for generations to come to hear. Amazing, along with astronauts,
scientists, engineers, there's me, stuttering, and talking too fast.
People
who I’ve met will be able to testify that it really was me.
Diego
mostly asked me about my bizarre and unlikely writing career, which
should cause some amusement and confusion. But the end he brought up
the subject of Latinofuturism.
Latinxfuturism?
Chicanxfuturism? Xicanxfuturism? There ain't no official name. Maybe
we don't need no stinking name, to misquote Alfonso Bedoya in his
performance as the bandido Gold Hat in the Humphrey Bogart/John
Houston/B.Traven classic
Treasure
of Sierra Madre.
I
said a few things, but then, after it was over, I started thinking of
things . . .
It’s
a good thing I do this column!
Is
there such a thing as Latinofuturism? (Let's use that word here for
clarity's sake. Besides, like I told Diego, it don’t care about
what it's called. Leave that to the a academics.) Yeah. An ethnic
group, or more accurately, system of related ethnic groups, that
often finds itself under the gun from more powerful groups needs
visions of the future, or the will be wiped out.
Do
I have to explain this? Just tap into your favorite news source.
How's that wall coming? Has the war started yet?
Looking
back at Latinoid (I keep throwing that out, hoping for a reaction)
history, that often blends into myth and legend, because that’s the
kind of imaginative peoples we are, we’ve always been about
creating a future for ourselves. Since the Chichimecs listened to
that talking statue and went on a search for the place to build
Tenochtitlán/Mexico City, and became the Mexica in the process. What
did the original pachucos think of the vatos locos? And what about
the whole Latino/a, a/o, @, x pendejada?
Once
again, the changes outrun the language. New words, new languages are
in order, and are being created.
We
travel to new lands, absorb other races. With all the
interconnectedness of the information age, it’s just going to get
more so.
And
I don’t see it all becoming the same, dull global monoculture. The
mix is too volatile. Especially among us Latinoids in there, stirring things up.
I’ve
always been a futurist, but I tended to disagree with Anglo/white
futurists about a lot of things, mostly, I don’t see people of
color, and "other" clutures as a problem. I think we are a
resource. We are the future.
Everyone
should have their own kind of futurism. Afrofuturism is just the
beginning.
I
need to talk about this more, after all, that is a main theme of
Chicanonautica.
When
Diego asked me about other Latinofuturists, I had a hard time coming
up with a list (then, I always have a hard time coming up with
lists--I just don’t think that way). The Afrofuturists have Sun Ra,
and we have Santo. The Mexican Muralist movement came up with a lot
of futurist imagery, and writers I’ve covered here look beyond the
troubled present.
There
is no Latinofuturist community.
Yet.
As
the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, I guess it’s up to me. I
have to start talking, writing about it more.
Hey,
La Bloga readers, do you know off any Latinofuturists? Are you one?
Do you have any futuristic ideas? Let me know.
I’ve
said that one person’s utopia is someone else’s dystopia. If you
end up in utopia or a dystopia depends on what your doing to make the
future. So we better get to work.
Ernest Hogan has always read futurist nonfiction along with his lifelong
obsession with science fiction, his work reflects this. And his story
“PeaceCon” will be in Unfit Magazine
Vol.
3.
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