Chicanonautica: Latinx Rising Paco Preview

by Ernest Hogan

Finally, it's here, Latinx Rising: An Anthology of Latinx ScienceFiction and Fantasy, edited by Matthew David Goodwin. It's available in trade paperback, and ebook. Order now!

One reason you will want to is that has a story by me, “Flying Under the Texas Radar with Paco and Los Freetails.” It tells how my character Paco Cohen, Mariachis of Mars, (who appeared stories in Analog, one of which, “The Rise and Fall of Paco Cohen and the Mariachis of Mars” will be reprinted in The 2020 Look at Mars Fiction Book in August!) got from the Lone Star State to the Red Planet.

Here's a preview:

Why did I leave Texas, and come to Mars? Why does everybody ask me that? Haven’t you ever been there? Or heard anything about it? 

Especially way-the-chingada back then when they were worried about who was Texan, and the whole Great Texas Identity Crisis broke out.

In case you don’t remember (nobody seems to to remember anything these days, history becomes myth before you know it) I have a hard time convincing my daughter that I wasn’t born on Mars-- he whole Texas secession thing was largely the work of a billionaire/politician/entrepreneur named Billy-Bob Paolozzi who, quasi-legally, in the name of the Second Amendment, acquired some nuclear weapons.“If nukes were outlawed, only outlaws would have nukes, besides, I’m just a concerned citizen looking out for the security of my property and/or country!” Billy-Bob forced what used to be the United States of America to let Texas go, and declared himself interim President/CEO.

It was a hell of a time to be young man full of talent and hormones and urge to fuck and fight, scream and shout, and do something that would shake the world, or at least make for an exciting weekend.

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Ernest Hogan's career is running wild in the quarantine. Looks like Chicano science fiction writers are essential workers