Chicanonautica: Dispatches from the Xicanxfuturism/Ciberbandidx Front

  

by Ernest Hogan

Chicanonaut to Headquarters, do you read?

So ends the first summer in 112 years with no hurricanes. None. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not that hurricanes are necessarily a good thing, but they are part of the natural order. Some serious changes are going on folks. Pay attention.

Have I ever got weird feelings about the rest of 2026. 

Meanwhile, the Palabras del Pueblo class I was going to teach in October has been canceled. Only one person signed up. It’s happened before. This year I understand folks not having the spare cash or time to learn about writing. 

I’ll try again next session. Stay tuned. Hope things get better.

Speaking of better, I was interviewed by a pair of students from the University of New Mexico (they haven’t changed it to New America) for the Ernest Hogan Archive they’re putting together. Academics, even young ones, can ask three or four questions in one sentence. They were also very enthusiastic. It was like being interrogated and psychoanalyzed at the same time.

I thought that they just wanted background on my books and some of my art that will soon be displayed at one of their libraries, but this session was about my life from birth to when I started writing -- and they want more. If anyone ever wants to write my biography, their research is being done.

If I haven’t already mentioned it, Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow / Codex II finally has a release date: December 15, 2026. Watch this space and my social media for updates on how to pre-order, and anything else that develops. 

I keep trying to retire to write my bucket list novels but surviving in this world gone mad keeps getting in the way.

By the way, Codex I has received an honorable mention from the International Latino Book Awards in two categories!

In the meantime, I’m trying to get ahead of my blogging, so I don’t have to worry about it all on the next road trip that will be happening before I know it. Not only will it be Hispanic/Latino/Chicano month (should I make the os into xs? Has there been a pronouncement from Headquarters about that? Who is in charge of all this? That is the question . . .), including Halloween/Dia del los Muertos/Dead Daze, but we’re having the Midterm election from Hell. Colorful folk art clashing and intermingling with corporate appropriation while an abortive (I hope) attempt at a Nazi takeover and assorted factions go after the power like a school of starved piranha . . .  

Whither goes thou, America? Where for art thou? What the chingau are you transmogrifying into? Gonna have to take notes, and photos, maybe even doodle some ideas for cartoons, get ideas for stories, even novels.

As if I didn’t have enough to do.

Ernest Hogan isn’t just a Chicanonaut. He’s also the Father of Chicano Science Fiction and a participant in Xicanxfuturism and Ciberbandidism, because the world needs more of these kinda chingaderas. 

 

THIS JUST IN: His books are once again through Amazon and now Barnes & Noble! 

Chicanonautica: A Whole Lotta Little Apocalypses Going On

  

by Ernest Hogan

There’s a whole lotta little apocalypses going on. Apocalypcitos? Apocalypsettes? Apocalypsoids? Another interlinguistic breakdown?

Not only did I mess up my schedule last week, but there’s smoke from wildfires darkening the skies, ICE is shooting people, the denizen of the White House continuously secretes incoherent stream-of-semiconsciousness, the wars are getting worse . . . keeping up with it all is becoming impossible.

Meanwhile, while the rest of the planet has been following the World Cup, I’ve been checking YouTube for coverage of the running of the bulls at the Fiesta of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. More happens in one encierro than in entire shelves of novels. I’m reminded that modern life is running through crowded streets with dangerous beasts. It always blows my mind, as we said back in the 1900s.

I also get ideas for my sci-fi bullfighting novel–something that the world doesn’t seem to want, but that probably means it’s what it needs. Maybe if I pitch it as being about a woman on a spiritual quest . . .

I’m also getting ideas for a sequel to my unsold novel Zyx; or, Bring Me the Brain of Victor Theremin. Anybody out there interested in publishing a Chicano vs. AI novel? I’m wondering how long the publishing industry as we know it will continue to exist. 

Who knows when my books will go back online on Amazon again . . .

I’m seventy years old. I’ve given up on trying to be commercial in a world where the corporate masters of global culture are being taken over by hallucinating AIs. And I keep getting all these ideas! This deranged world is a treasure trove of inspiration!

Guess I should just keep going, work on my bucket list novels, and keep looking for openings in the chaos that will allow me to sneak in, cause a little trouble because it happens to be the right thing to do.

And the really weird thing is I can’t stop. My monstrous imagination never sleeps, it has no off switch. I’m just going to let it go wild, do my best to make what it produces into something that someone will be amused or terminally disturbed by. 

Maybe it’s my real job.

If I need diversion, I’ll read more of Ru Marshall’s American Trickster: The Hidden Lives of Carlos Castaneda. Does Carlos count as a Chicano or a Latino? Is Peru the Mexico of South America? A Chicano does seem to be someone who pushes the limits. Latinos are what show biz thinks they can sell. And Hispanic is what law enforcement calls us.

I knew some Castaneda fans once who were . . .

There goes my brain again.

Ernest Hogan keeps on writing. The Father of Chicano Science Fiction refuses to die!

Chicanonautica: Our Creative Realidades

by Ernest Hogan

And suddenly, I’m published again. This time in Our Creative Realidades, an anthology of creative nonfiction from Somos en escrito.

From the official announcement:

This explorative collection resounds as a first-hand account of experiences and visions that offer powerful responses to such questions, found in the diverse writings of Kathleen Alcalá, Juan Alvarado Valdivia, Carmen Baca, Norma Burgos-Vázquez, Vanessa Caraveo, Robert René Galván, Nisé Guzmán Nekheba, Ernest Hogan, Maria Nieto, Matthew Olivas, Violeta Orozco, Álvaro Ramírez, Edel Romay, Dionisio Salazar, David Vela and Rosa Martha Villarreal. 

Yes, we Latinoids have realidades. Note the plural. And they get creative. Sometimes the lines blur between fiction and nonfiction.

 

Take my contribution:

See? Not only did they call me Ernesto (which I don’t mind, I’ve been answering to it all my life, it’s just that it’s not what’s on my birth certificate, and I get tired of telling about the Irish cabin boy who jumped ship in San Francisco, ended up in New Mexico, and later disappeared in SF in that big earthquake), but they identified “Lost in Trumptopia” as a short story. A lot of it is the truth as I saw it, but I do get imaginative at times, sometimes downright sci-fi.

Here’s an sample:

It’s the Trumpian dream in action: Let the post-modern robber barons run amok. Maybe they can convert the entire planet into liquid assets. Then they can go off in snazzy spaceships to launch a program of galactic liquefaction. We don’t need no stinking aliens. We are the invaders. We are the menace.

It came from pieces I first posted both here at La Bloga, and at Mondo Ernesto. Strung together there is a story arc. Kinda feels like fiction.

Hope it’s not the shape of things to come . . .

Ernest Hogan also wants to you buy Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction Stories.

Chicanonautica: Zoom to Chicxulub

by Ernest Hogan

 

Look out, cyberspace. This Saturday, February 26, 2022, Mountain Standard Time, 4pm to 5:30pm, R. Ch. Garcia is going to be interviewed about his new novel Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub. Here’s the official press release:

So, register now: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rchgarcia-interview-by-annette-leal-mattern-the-stories-behind-the-story-tickets-266169729827

Don’t miss your chance to be part of this historic Chicano literary event.

Ernest Hogan is finishing up his latest novel. Meanwhile, you can read new stories by him in El Porvenir, ¡Ya!: Citlalzazanilli Mexicatl Chicano Science Fiction Anthology and SpeculativeFiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology. Chicanos and Latinxes unite–the hemisphere is ours for the taking!

Chicanonautica: Our Myths Recovered

by Ernest Hogan

I meant to read David Bowles' Feathered Serpent/Dark Heart of Sky: Myths of Mexico much sooner, but I'm a writer, so I live under a mound of books that grows larger all the time. Also, the last few years have been hectic—do I really have to catalog the
Trumptopian madness?

It hasn't calmed down. In fact the last few weeks have gotten crazier. All the more reason to dig this book out one of my many, teetering to-be-read stacks. I was glad I did.

I became a mythology fan in grade school, back in the Sixties. The peplum, or sword and sandal genre caught my childish attention. Movies like Hercules in the Haunted World and Jason and the Argonauts left their mark on my sensibilities. And then I would find books.

But then these were usually Greco-Roman, occasionally Norse. Sometimes they were from Egypt, "Arabia," Asia . . . distant lands.

By the time I was in middle school, I found out about the Aztecs and Maya, in the public library; also my dad had books on archaeology. My mind was blown. There was something different about these stories. And the people looked like me.

Hell, the were my ancestors! This mythology was mine.

I wondered why there weren't any movies about them. I had a lot to learn.

This began my life-long obsession with preColumbian cultures. It shaped my world, and made me a Chicano in mind and spirit as well as genetics.

It wasn't easy.

I had to hunt down books in libraries and used book stores. And they were never easy-to-read editions.

These were often adult, scholarly works full of dull academic prose. But the subject matter compelled me. A lost world, shattered by colonialism. Someone had to to gather the fragments, reassemble them, bring them back to life.

I had often watched my dad get interested in something, go to the library, check out a stack of books, and in a few weeks become an expert.

I became a teenage researcher, a scholar. Also an writer and artist.

Today's kids don't realize how easy they have it. They just have to read Feathered Serpent/Dark Heart of the Sky and they have an excellent introduction to preColumbian cultures and mythology, and an entertaining read at the same time.

 

It goes from the creation myths, the hero twins of the Popol Vuh, to the Toltecs and Maya, the Aztecs (others are mentioned, ancient Mexico was multicultural), and the grand tragedy of the Conquest. The stories are separate, but they are presented as a mosaic and bring a shattered world back together again. A miracle or sorts.

I'm sure it will inspire young Chicanos/Latinos/Lantinxs/Latinoids, make them sure of their identity, and send them off to study their mythology.

The book is a remarkable accomplishment. David Bowles should be considered a true Chicano hero. He makes me feel like a slacker.

Ernest Hogan wrote this review at home, while the library where he works was closed due to the Coronavirus.

Maceo Montoya Paints and Writes Chicano Cultura: An Interview

Melinda Palacio

Maceo Montoya

La Bloga: 

Maceo Montoya, professor, painter, and author sits down with La Bloga. Gracias, Maceo for taking time out of your busy schedule.You've published poetry, fiction, and essays. You are well known for your art and murals. Tells us about the writing and publishing of the Chicano Movement for Beginners. What was the writing journey like? Did this book come out of questions that arose in your classes as an assistant professor in Chicano Studies at UC Davis?

Maceo Montoya's new book, Chicano Movement for Beginners

Maceo Montoya 

I received an email out of the blue from the press For Beginners asking if I was interested in writing and illustrating a book on the Chicano Movement. At first I was reluctant because I’m not a historian and I knew that it would require significant research. But at the same time, I was intrigued by the possibilities of combining graphics and text. There was also this other pull, though, which was this idea that if I don’t do it, someone else will, and what if that person doesn’t do it right? I guess you could say that I felt a certain responsibility. I inhabit a unique position. My uncle José Montoya and my father Malaquias Montoya came of age in the Chicano Movement, they found their voices as artists, as activists, as educators. Unlike many people who only encounter the term Chicano when they get to college, I was raised Chicano. I’ve been thinking of the term and its implications my entire life. So for me the Chicano Movement isn’t some distant era; it continues to reverberate. I gave myself over to this project when I decided that rather than approach this history as an objective scholar, I had to be what I was: a son sorting through a complicated family past.

La Bloga:

You've also recently had a novella and story collection published, You Must Fight Them (University of New Mexico Press 2015). Tell us about your time management skills and how is that you manage to produce so much in addition to your teaching schedule?

Montoya's recent novella, You Must Fight Them. He also illustrated this compelling cover.

MM:

I feel immense pressure to produce and the time I have is never enough. The pressure is hardwired in me. I don’t know where else it comes from. I know that quantity doesn’t matter, but unless I’m making something, creating something, I’m miserable. I know that sounds melodramatic, but it’s true. Fortunately, I’m a pleasant miserable, and I still offer to help friends move or help my parents out in the yard. I love being an artist. I come from a family of artists, but I’ve never taken it for granted. It’s a gift, a don. To me, it’s the most wonderful way of existing in the world, and yet the angst – the angst! - I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone.

La Bloga:

Your writing and painting are intimately involved in portraying your community. How do your books compliment your role as Chicano Studies professor?

MM:

I approach my teaching as a practitioner. Whether it’s a course on Chicana/o Culture, the Chicana/o Novel, or my mural workshop, I’m interested in how something is made, how its individual pieces function to create a whole. When I first started, I was very nervous about teaching the Chicana/o Novel because I was coming across all these dense articles steeped in theory. Here I was a novelist and these scholars were writing about novels, and yet I couldn’t recognize what I did in what they were saying. I mentioned this to my colleague Angie Chabram, a legendary cultural theorist, and she said, “To tell you the truth, I wish I could unlearn all my theory.” That was what I needed to hear. She gave me the green light to approach literature in the classroom at its most fundamental. Stories are essential to our lives, they move us, motivate us, and alter our thinking. We’re all storytellers and have the tools to dissect the stories around us. Need it be more complicated?

As far as community, the majority of my students are Chicano/Latino and most of them enter the classroom never having read a Chicano novel, short story, or poem (maybe The House on Mango Street). It shouldn’t be this way, of course, but I realize that I might be the only class on Chicano literature that they take in their educational careers. I try my best to make it count.

La Bloga:

You recently sold the movie rights to The Deportation of Wopper Barraza. Can you tell us more about who will be producing the film? And how this deal came about? Do you think the current debate on immigration helped fuel interest in your book as a movie?

Montoya's the Deportation of Wopper Barraza, recently optioned as a film.

MM:

I think the industry term is “optioned the rights,” so nothing has been sold yet, but it’s very exciting news. Campanario Entertainment is a young company that seeks to produce high-quality Latino content with crossover appeal. We’re actually not sure whether it’ll be a movie or a series, or some other format. As far as the current debate on immigration and its overlap with my novel, I think I would’ve been hesitant if Campanario’s response to the novel was, “This is a great book on immigration, let’s do something with it.” Yes, they were drawn to the unique tale of immigration in reverse, but what most attracted them were the characters. As an artist, you’re always protective of what you create, it’s hard to let go, but when someone else believes that the characters you created are as real as you know them to be, well, then that’s a good base to start from.

La Bloga:

Gracias, Maceo. Is there anything else you'd like to tell La Bloga?

MM:

I know this is a forum for Latino literature, so it’s a good opportunity to reach out. I always like to feature guest artists and writers in my classes. The students love it because it gives them a break from me, but also because it’s such a rare opportunity to get to meet (even via Skype) the creator of a work they’re studying. In past classes, I’ve featured you, Melinda, as well as Daniel A. Olivas, Daniel Chacón, Tim Z. Hernandez, Barbara Renaud González, Norma Cantú, Richard Yañez, Rigoberto González, Stephen D. Gutierrez, Manuel Paul Lopez, Isabel Quintero, Javier O. Huerta, Joseph Rios, Laurie Ann Guerrero, David Dominguez, David Campos, Juan Carillo, Lucha Corpi, and Xochiquetzal Candelaria amongst others. It’s a class so the funding is rarely there, but I can promise book buyers and a receptive audience hungry for literature that resonates. If anyone is interested, send me an email at mbmontoya@ucdavis.edu.

Two weeks ago, La Bloga interviewed Reyna Grande. Meet Reyna and Maceo this month in Sacramento at the Mosaic of Voices Reading Series, September 25 from 3-4 at the Avid Reader. Also, Reyna has a fundraiser in Los Angeles for Hola tomorrow, September 10. 

Also in Los Angeles tomorrow, La Plaza de Cultura y Artes is hosting a poetry reading inspired by Ernesto Yerena's work, September 10 at 7pm, featuring Gloria E. Alvarez, Olivia Chumacero, and Yosimar Reyes. For more information about this free event, see lapca.org. 

Chicanonautica: ¡Viva Arroyo Grande!

by Ernest Hogan

Why aren't we dancing in the streets? Why is the media obsessing over the stupid election instead of interviewing Jesús Salvador Treviño? Don't they know that his latest book Return to Arroyo Grande is out? Maybe I should crank up Flaco Jimenez, and open my windows . . .

It's a sequel to his other books, The Fabulous Sinkhole and Other Stories and The Skyscraper that Flew and Other Stories. Not just collections, these stories interconnect to form a Great Chicano Novel. I highly recommend getting all three and binge reading them. I did. You should see the smile on my face.

For those of you who haven't discovered these treasures yet, they're stories of Arroyo Grande, Texas, “an ordinary town were unusual things sometimes happen,” as resident Choo Choo Torres, aspiring writer and filmmaker, puts it. And that's understating things. What goes on there transcends genre. There's the usual stuff of magic realism, plus ghosts, zombies, reincarnation, possible wormholes, time travel, alternate universes, futuristic visions, and the trappings of science fiction used to defend against cruel realities.

Choo Choo and his neighbors don't just struggle with life in their barrio. Some of them go out, avoiding the usual clichés of “minority” literature, and pursue their dreams, to Arizona, California, New York, and even to the Moon! And the magic of Arroyo Grande goes with them.

Yeah, I'm deliberately not going into much detail here, as a favor to those of you who haven't read these books. They are that wonderful. And they stay wonderful upon rereading.

In this latest volume, characters are called back – and not by cellphone, Internet, or even snailmail – to help save the town. Once again, we have many stories, and the viewpoints of characters we met in the other books. They fit together, and if I can get away with overusing the word, are wonderful.

Really. This is not hyperbole. I'm fighting to keep my cool here.

And the “ending” suggests that there will be more . . . I certainly hope so.

You can keep Game of Thrones, make mine Arroyo Grande!

Ernest Hogan is the author of High Aztech, Cortez on Jupiter, and Smoking Mirror Blues, and many short stories. His memories of early childhood in East L.A. look like Arroyo Grande.

Under construction vs. work in progress?

If you saw photos of my den or workshop, you'd contribute to a Kickstarter to get me counseling and/or medication. Given my turmoiled hoarding, I amaze myself by completing stories, getting them published, reviewed and other work of being a writer. And they don't resemble the den, most reviewers say.

WIP, work in progress, is used to described unfinished literature. Under construction, not so much. Do you ever wonder which applies to you, your work and life? I waver between which to use in describing elements of mine. So, that decision is still in progress.

Cool cover?

Under construction, but my part, complete

My recent drought of published stories will end with the release of

Lost Trails: Forgotten Tales of the Weird West, Vol. 1, Cynthia Ward, editor.

My contribution of How Five-Gashes-Tumbling Chaneco Earned the Nickname will debut there. Kathleen Alcalá and Ernesto Hogan also contributed stories. Here's the editor on Five-Gashes: "In my American history lessons, the Anglo orientation left little room for the history of Nueva España, not much more for the founders of colonial Santa Fe, and none for the natives' experiences. In How Five-Gashes-Tumbling Chaneco earned the nickname, novelist and short story author Rudy Ch. Garcia weaves the three perspectives into a zany tale of Aztec nagual spirits, Supai villagers and a shaman of dubious repute and powers."

Sandbox for wife and our first nieto

I avoid buying new wood and stick to reuse-recyle-repurpose, found in alleys, and leftover-from-other-projects wood. The sandbox walls used up years of cedar and redwood cutoffs too long to throw away or burn, and too short for other things.

Yard-long steel rods hold the walls together and connect at the corners. I'll build a frame for a burlap-sack roof. After I finish other projects. Oh, and fill it with sand. Completion date: this month. Hopefully.

Combo-metal-wood shelf for my daughter.

She specified height, width, shelf features, and I don't know where her meticulous attention to detail comes from, certainly not from me. The upper metal was purchased, but only half as tall as she required.

The challenge was to create this without any dowels showing. A couple can be seen from behind, but nowhere from the front or sides. If you could count them, you'd find I used all 16 of my clamps and could've used four more.

Clamps off this afternoon. Sand and stain with tung oil and cut two sheets of whiteboard for shelves below. Anticipated completion: by Monday. 

6x3 raised bed for front gardens

Denver's changed climate appears to be "too much spring rain leading to root rot." Anticipating that plant on ground level has become fruitless, I'll be building these around the house so we have organic veggies, even when the supermarkets are empty. Next spring I'll add tent structures to limit the rain falling on the beds, which would complete them. I hope twenty inches is tall enough; this bed took half a yard of soil.

Soon-to-be-famous nieto

He's a work in progress and still under construction. Like my Cradle for Abuelo story that's casi, casi ready to impress an agent or publisher. The story doesn't mention Nieto by name, bit it revolves around the cradle I built for him. There's no completion date for him but it will be past my own expiration date.

Opening lines of the Cradle story, hecho

I believe these words are set in stone, until an editor says otherwise. Eleven thousand words in total that are meant to be heavily illustrated. For 10-12-year olds. Completion date for sending it out: Next week. Friday. Or the following Monday. Swear. But it begins with:

Dawn's sunrays flowed across the Southwest until they touched an inner-city neighborhood, where they somehow lingered over a home painted sky-blue and trimmed in coral-brown.

High above, on the front ridge of an approaching storm, a nagual spirit sat wondering if he should encourage the clouds to avoid the home and go somewhere else.

"I've thought about it enough," he told the clouds. "You've got hail the size of baseball-clumps and might damage Abuelo's new awnings. Plus, you'd wreck his wife's garden. It's time for this Aztec guardian to do his duty."

With that, the nagual swept his hands over the storm front, and a heat-blast from his palms nudged it eastward around the neighborhood. Smiling with pride, he raised his arms and dropped like an elevator at top-crazy speed.

The tidy-looking house cuddled amidst bunches of black and pale rosebushes all around, and a small adobe workshop out back blazed from a skylight's reflection.

Swallowtails, bees and red-headed woodpeckers danced about, smelling plenty to satisfy their appetites.

Nua slowed when he passed through the roof as if it were made of dreams. Coming to rest by the kitchen table, the invisible boy-spirit made himself a seat out of air….

Flowering

Hibiscus are about a month or more late. But they'll be done in a week or so.

Not pictured

I've got cedar boards from old pallets piled in back. They're for bat houses yet to be started. Three at least, maybe more for other people. Bat sightings this week out front nearly hit 70, more than double what I've ever counted in decades. Our monsoony climate has provided insects to sustain an increase in bats. They know it and must've bred to meet that. Some will be searching for new homes. And yards to drop their guano. I need to make these now. Mañana or at least quickly.

Es todo, hoy, which means this piece is completed.

RudyG, a.k.a. spec-lit author Rudy Ch. Garcia, holding off on new tales to finish what's on his screen