Chicanonautica: The Phantom of Colonialism

by Ernest Hogan

Just about everyone has heard of The Phantom of the Opera. Gaston Leroux’s original novel is considered a classic, and then there are all those horror movies, both direct adaptations, and variations on the theme like Ishiro Honda’s Human Vapor, and Brain De Palma’s The Phantom of the Paradise.

And of course, there’s the Andrew Lloyd Weber musical.

Most people don’t know that Leroux wrote other things. These were prototypes for what would later be called pulp fiction.

I ran across one recently, thanks to Gutenberg. It is titled, The Bride of the Sun.

So, why does this deserve the attention of Chicanonautica, here at La Bloga?

Originally published in 1915, it happens to be an early example of and is perhaps the great granddaddy of a plot that not only is found in pulp fiction and horror movies,TV episodes, cartoons, etc., but illustrates the origins of the fears that lead to prejudice against and repressive laws against brown people. 

The bride turns out to be Maria-Teresa de la Torre, daughter of a Spanish marquis. It is pointed out that she is white. These days we could call her a Hispanic. Not a Latina, or Latinx. No native blood. She has come to Peru to marry her fiancé, Dick Montgomery, a white, Anglo dude. 

There is a lot of detail about Peru, almost like a travelogue. If Leroux hadn’t been there, he did a lot of research. Much is made of the "brutish" natives (the Quechua, that is spelled “Quichua” in the translation I read) and their conflicts with the black servant class. There are also guerrillas in the hills, and rumors of a secret society that wants to bring back the good old days before the coming of the white man–including human sacrifice.

 

Maria-Teresa acquires a bracelet, marking her as a target for the Inca revival cult, and the merry chase begins. There’s a lot of rip-snorting excitement, thrills, chills, and Mari-Teresa is rescued in the nick of time. As if there was any doubt.

It’s all based on the fear of the melanin-enhanced people of the world, that also happen to be most of the human race, a good number of which are us, La Raza.

Poor white folks, they can’t go anywhere without being threatened by swarthy savages . . .

According to Google, The Bride of the Sun “has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it.” Which in a way is true. The views shown in the book have been recently expressed by politicians in Arizona, Florida, and Italy.

Note that the cover I used as an illustration is a piece of Mayan, not Incan art. Two cultures, two continents, and denizens of the Western World still get them mixed up.

While reading it, I kept fantasizing about Bride as a Broadway musical. Maybe someone should give a copy to Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Ernest Hogan, author of the Días de los Muertos science fiction novel Smoking Mirror Blues, will be judging the finalists in the 2022 Extra-Fiction Contest, so Raza writers, send your fantastic stories now!