Chicanonautica: Sheriffs Amok

by Ernest Hogan

I was sure that, by now, Arizona would be ablaze with weird politics of concern to the La Bloga audience, but I was wrong. It’s kinda quiet. A certain ex-president seems to be losing his mojo. A certain election denier keeps losing court cases and blaming bizarro conspiracies.

Then I found out about the constitutional sheriffs movement, where Arizona is ground zero.

NPR did a good job of explaining the movement. In short, it consists of sheriffs across the country who believe that a county sheriff’s authority should supersede that of the federal government, including the president. They have an organization, the Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association (CSPOA). Eight Arizona sheriffs are members, along with 300 of the nation’s 3,000 sheriffs. Resistance to mandates to stop the spread of Covid-19 gave them a boost, and they side with the election deniers and have white supremacist connections.

Their name is misleading. There is nothing in the constitution saying that sheriffs have such powers. They also are required by law to take an oath to support the constitution, like the one I had to take–the words include “preserve, protect, and defend”--to become a school janitor and work for the public library.

Yeah, the upcoming election is gonna be messy.

A problem I see is that sheriffs are go-to heroes in pop culture, not just westerns both period and contemporary, but horror, and science fiction. 

Yeah, reality is often quite different, here in Maricopa County, Az, we had Sheriff Joe Arpaio “America’s Toughest Sheriff” who ran on talking like John Wayne, and bragged about defending the border, even though it’s 30 miles away as the crow flies, and 79 to 48 depending on the route you take. 

These “constitutionals” are following his example.

To be fair, the likes of Oscar Zeta Acosta, and Hunter S. Thompson ran for sheriff with left/radical political ambitions. I also remember a guy named Tank Barbera, in L.A. County, who said he’d abolish the Sheriff's Department if elected. None of them won. Probably didn’t fit the stereotype.

This was in the Watergate years, when one of my college teachers said, “I keep expecting to see people wearing crossed ammunition belts.”

In open-carryArizona, I wouldn’t be surprised if ammo belts became fashionable.

Meanwhile, other elected officials are using unenforced, unconstitutional English Only laws to get rid of bilingual education.  

There is also a reversal of the pop culture trope, where the sheriff is a bad guy, usually backed by corrupt, rich landowners. Hmm . . .

Is the country becoming a spaghetti western? In real life you don’t get the entertaining shootout where, by the grace of the writer, the right people get killed. 

And now, the writers are on strike.

Ernest Hogan, the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, author of High Aztech, Smoking Mirror Blues, and Cortez on Jupiter has written a lot of stories this year. Stay tuned for news of where and when you will be able to read them.

Chicanonautica: Trumptopia Update 2018

by Ernest Hogan

Awk! 2018 A.D. is here. Has been for a few weeks. I’m still not used to it. I seem to remember publishing a few things in 2017, but it’s mostly a weird blur.

And we’re almost the end of Year One of Trumptopia. Or should it be the Year Zero? I’m not sure of anything these days. Or should that be daze?

Emily and I took our nephew Miles on another Arizona outback used-bookstore hunt amid a broken-winged Archangel St. Michael, domesticated giant ants, the Mogollon Monster, and a shrine to Pancho Villa, Emiliano Zapata, and Mexican beer. Buñueloid? Felliniesque? Jodrowskyian? 

I used to think it was just me, but lately the whole world is like that. Like that folk/rocker who won the Nobel prize said, “The times, the times are a-changing." By 2020, it’ll seem like a different world.

Meanwhile, back in Trumptopia (is it the entire planet now? Or just a state of mind? He is in a hurry to get to Mars . . .), El Presidente is holding the dreamers hostage for wall-building bucks. What ever happened to charging Mexico? Why was his son wearing a sombrero at a Mexican restaurant?

And Trump is comparing nuclear buttons with Kim Jong-Un even though there is no such a thing. People can’t tell fact from fiction, or metaphors from reality. How many people can you kill with your metaphor?

The good thing is I don’t see any fascist state being built. The alt-right likes to do politically incorrect trash talk from the safety of the social media, but they balk when it comes to putting on the jackboots and creating a new world order, which is another good thing. We should all keep laughing at their tiki torches.

And Steve Bannon quit Breitbart. I keep having to update this as I write . . . 

Another good thing is that America is a-changing in some pretty damn Anti-Trumptopian ways.

First, there’s the emergence of that black and brown middle class--a story that nobody is reporting. That’s why Disney/Marvel/DC keep throwing Afrofuturistic riffs into their corporate mix. And a humble Chicano sci-fi writer stands a chance in the modern market. I see it throughout Aztlán: clean-cut black and brown millennials behind the computers, tapping away to get your business taken care of--our society can’t function without them. It’s especially apparent in California.

Speaking of which, California has taken a giant leap into a brave new world, by following Colorado’s lead and legalizing recreational marijuana. Even in backassward Arizona there are medical marijuana businesses everywhere--seeing them makes me feel like I’ve slid into New Wave spec fic from the Sixties. It’s like the Acapulco Gold commercials in Norman Spinrad’s Bug Jack Barron.

And it looks like Trump may be taken down by a book. Yes, kids, books have power. Has a sitting president ever filed a cease-and-desist order against a number one bestseller before? Are writers going to be safe?

I remember back during the George W. Bush administration, I was working at Borders (another relic from a bygone era) and the bestseller books--and shelves-- were full of anti-Bush books. He didn’t try to stop them. But his supporters could come in and scream at us that we were being biased against him. Then there was the woman who needed me to tell her how to tell a satirical book from a serious one . . .

Uh-oh, gotta update again. Trump-pardoned, ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio is running for the Arizona Senate! And saying that Obama’s birth certificate is “a phony document.”

And what? People want Oprah to run for president?

I just had a flashforward to being in a voting booth, having to choose between Joe and Oprah . . .

Stop me before I have to update again!

It’s all so . . . I need a new word. “Surrealistic” just isn’t strong enough.

What kind of hole was that again?

Ernest Hogan is wondering if someday his satirical science fiction will be considered documentaries.

Chicanonautica: A Chicano Writer in Arizona, 2013 A.D.

by Ernest Hogan

Here we are, the year 2013. Are we futuristic yet? What’s a Chicano writer to do in this new spacetime configuration?

I began and ended Chicanonautica last year with the whole Mayanoid apocalypse bruhaha. Glad it’s over. Unfortunately, part of the fallout is that a lot ignorant pendjos are dismissing the Maya as stupid people who predicted the end of the world when it didn’t happen. Actually, the Maya never predicted the end of the world . . . I’ve said it before. Why do I have this feeling that we’re going to need some genuine ancient Mayan wisdom to get through Baktún 14?

I reviewed a lot of books that were of interest to La Bloga readers. I will keep doing that. Despite Junot Díaz getting a MacArthur Foundation genius grant, the traditional, New York-based publishing world is not presenting a lot of Latino writers to the world. Who knows what they’ll be hawking in this post-Harry Potter, post-Twilight, 50 Shades world? And their days as the center of the publishing universe are numbered.

What would global culture be like without the Hollywood/New York axis?

Then there was the Spic vs Spec thing that Rudy Ch. Garcia started. I still say that Chicano is a sci-fi state of being. That goes for various forms of Latino and Hispanic. Did you know that according to U.S. Marshals, “Hispanic” is a skin tone? Welcome to dystopia. Se habla Spanglish.

Funky aspects of La Cultura continue to be my obsession. I will write about Mexican comic books, luchadores, narcocorridos, spaghetti westerns, Spanish-language UFO literature, and other glorious manifestations of Latin creativity. I probably should do more about music and food, which will probably conquer the world eventually.

2012 was another nonstop political firestorm with a lot of flaming caca aimed at La Gente. 2013 promises more of the same. Here in Arizona, Joe Arpaio is still the Sheriff of Maricopa County (where I live!), and we have a lot folks who are hysterical over Barack Obama’s re-election. Just going about my business here is going to present me with a lot material for fiction and nonfiction, and it’s going to be so strange that it’ll be hard to sort out the science fiction from the journalism.

Someday I may have to dedicate a book to the politicians of my home state.

One thing I’d like to do more of are Aztlán travelogues. If I can find any excuse for my wife and me to go off wandering these deserts and mountains, and to report back about the weirdness we find, I’m going to take it. It would be nice to be able to retire and do that kind of stuff full time . . .

And of course that will require funding, so expect more shameless self-promotion. Buy Cortez on Jupiter and Smoking Mirror Blues! High Aztech is coming! Support the Ernest Hogan Defense Fund!

And of course, I’m starting the year with a stack of unfinished business, and new projects that all are stark, raving Chicanoid, because I am who I am. I’m working on novels, a collection of my short stories, new short stories -- and no doubt the unexpected will come crashing in, sending me off in some new direction. 

The Maya considered 13 to be a lucky number. We’ll see . . .

Ernest Hogan lives in Arizona. He is a Chicano with an Irish name. His writing is considered science fiction even when he is describing the world around him.

Chicanonautica: Arizona Election Fallout

by Ernest Hogan

Last time I signed off by telling of how after Obama won the election -- on a day when there were a lot of rainbows over Phoenix -- it got eerily quiet in Arizona. I had expected folks to go berserk, but instead those who would have preferred that Romney won held it in. Though in colder climates you could have seen steam coming out of their ears.

The Phoenix New Times reported that, at the Arizona Republican election-viewing party, Governor Jan Brewer went from being cheered for saying she wanted “Buh-rack Obama out of the White House” to saying “I love all of the smiles on your faces . . . Love it.” 

In Arizona, there were no spontaneous racist demonstrations like at Ole Miss, or anything like Pat Buchanan’s declaration that “White American died last night,” but the mood among the Republican party muckety-mucks was depressed, suicidal, and apocalyptic. Maybe they were “shellshocked” like Romney.

Joe Arpaio was reelected Sheriff of Maricopa County, but he felt the need to announce that he wants peace with Latinos; "I would hope to get together with the Latino community, if I could ever have them talk to me without screaming and threatening me." 

A curious event in downtown Phoenix first appeared to be the Ku Klux Klan celebrating Apraio’s victory. Univision gave it a misleading headline and Examiner.com reported it that way. But it turns out the demonstrators under the sheets were Latino activists -- just the sort that “Amercia’s toughest sheriff” is afraid of.

And in Charlotte, North Carolina, real Klansmen were drowned out by counterdemonstrators dressed as clowns.

A lot of copies of Ann Coulter’s book Mugged: Racial Demagoguery from the Seventies to Obama were circulating at the library where I work. This was about the same time that she declared, “It’s over. There is no hope.”

Tom Miller informed me that in Baja Arizona they went 51% for Obama, and his neighborhood near the Univerisity of Arizona had bilingual anti-SB1070 signs.

There has been talk of Baja Arizona seceding from Arizona, just as Arizona seceding from the United States over SB1070 was threatened. Soon Arizona was caught up in the secession petition fever that eventually included all fifty states. If all the states want to secede, just what do they secede  from? 

Meanwhile the smell of marijuana hovered over the library parking lot. This is Phoenix, not Denver or Seattle. There is a lot of disorientation going on.

A few days later, a police car flashed its lights in the parking lot next door. That lot was taped off. Police tape also blocked one of the streets I usually take to get home.

Then there's the story of a woman running over her husband because he didn’t vote for Romney. “She believes her family would suffer under a second term of Pres. Barack Obama.” 

A gun store in Pinetop, Arizona put up signs saying, “If you voted for Barack Obama your business is NOT WELCOME at Southwest Shooting Authority. You have proven you are not responsible enough to own a Firearm.” So much for free enterprise.

The bizarre thing is, this story isn’t over. In Arizona, some votes remain to be counted. Who knows what will break loose when that finally happens. 

Lately, I’ve seen a pickup flying full-sized American and Arizonan flags patrolling the area. I’m not sure what it means.

Ernest Hogan is trying to convince people that his novel Smoking Mirror Blues is the book to prepare them to deal with the brave new post-election reality. 

Guest columnist: Film Review by Jeanette Iskat de Aldana

Note: Daniel Olivas returns next week from travels into the southeast.

Under Arpaio
Pan Left Productions. Directed by J.M. Aragón.

by Jeanette Iskat de Aldana

Directed by J.M. Aragón, the feature length documentary, Under Arpaio, captures the day to day struggles faced by undocumented people in Maricopa county, Arizona. The film tells us the strong and justifiably angry stories about the ongoing fight to maintain safe spaces for people in the Arizona communities that are under a full scale attack by police and border authorities.

Tewa Women United and the Student Senate of Northern New Mexico College recently screened the Pan Left production of Under Arpaio. New film footage about the recent ethnic studies book ban was also shown. A panel discussion with the film's director and activists from organizations from Arizona and New Mexico followed.

Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio imagines himself as a tough sheriff dealing with problems in his own strong way, a reborn John Wayne who believes that pink handcuffs and tent city concentration camps in brutal Arizona heat are actually a solution to the complicated issues of borders and immigration.

The film expertly reveals him to be an uneducated bully who doesn't write or read the books that bear his name, fully in the pocket of privatized prison corporations and banks like Wells Fargo that finance them.

Arpaio is revealed as a modern day "Bull" O'Connor, whose flagrant violations of civil and human rights grow more and more blatant as the film unfolds. Smear tactics, illegal searches and arrests, intimidation and human rights violations are all captured on film in images that bring the pain fully into the viewer's heart and mind.

The film footage is exceptional, captured over the space of several years. Aragón and his crew are regularly in the right place at the right time to get the shots that establish the truth. Lawyers, city council members and journalists outline extraordinary examples of violence, fear mongering and the pain being inflicted on all levels of the community.

The body of an undocumented man, tortured to death, is carried out, recorded only on a jail's CCTV camera, to be buried in a pauper's grave, unknown until activists found his family in Mexico. The lawyers recount tragic cases and speak of the tens of millions of dollars paid out in wrongful death settlements with grieving families. A Pulitzer Prize winning journalist speaks of repeated violations of ethical and legal standards, blatantly occurring in front of him without apparent fear of repercussion.

The film brings us along into the front lines of this war on communities of color. We see the face of one virulently racist man spewing nonsense into the camera at a day laborer job site, so close that you can feel the hate oozing from his pores, contrasted with the activist who holds down a daily vigil to keep people safe. We see two tiny children left on a curb, sobbing into cheap stuffed animals that police officers handed them as their mother was put into a car for questioning. We see activist after activist targeted, unlawfully detained and threatened.

It becomes fairly apparent that the presence of the film makers and their allies often serves a dual purpose, to document and to keep even more egregious actions in check. Pan Left, whose excellent slogan is "We give a darn", has empowered everyone in the affected communities the film unfolds in by putting cameras and 24-hour hot lines with their "Yo Soy Testigo" (I am A Witness) fully into place.

The truth outlined in this film is ultimately seen in the Department of Justice's belated investigation of Arpaio. The marches, filmed visits to the D.O.J., the documentation of repeated violations of the law and the subsequent revelation of hundreds of ignored cases of sexual abuse may produce indictments against Arpaio and his brute squads.

The full D.O.J. report can be read here: http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/mcso.php

The film is currently showing in screenings around the country. Pan Left is looking to show it in communities that are again under siege, like New Mexico and that old stalwart of institutionalized racism, Alabama, and in places where new incursions into this undeclared war are occurring.

New Mexico's governor Susana Martinez, herself the granddaughter of undocumented immigrants, has again been attempting to ram through a bill that would deny driver licenses to undocumented workers in New Mexico.

If that doesn't sound too bad, remember the first step Arizona took was taking away the ability for undocumented people in Arizona to get the licenses that allowed them to drive as safe and insured motorists.

Laws often start as small incursions, the removal of tiny freedoms, much in the way that Nazis banned books, then "degenerate" art and then, ultimately, people. Incursions are continuing into the rights of the undocumented and documented alike, as with the recent cancellation of ethnic studies in Arizona, a move that bans legal books from being studied by students.

Under Arpaio shows us that this country is under attack, not by immigrants, but by people who seek scapegoats for their fear. Instead of looking for solutions to immigration issues, like the "Dream Act", we are told to hate and fear "the other". Organizations like Pan Left, Puente Arizona and Somos Un Pueblo Unido continue to fight the good fight, on all fronts. It is up to all of us to support them, with our bodies and our actions, and to stand firmly for what is right.




For more information on Pan Left: http://www.panleft.net/

For more information on Under Arpaio: underarpaio.com

For more information on Puente Arizona: puenteaz.org

For more information on Somos Un Pueblo Unido: somosunpueblounido.org/

For more information on the Dream Act: http://dreamact.info/

Abouth La Bloga's Guest:

Jeanette Iskat de Aladana is a painter, poet and activist who recently moved from Los Angeles to rural New Mexico.

She was last in La Bloga as one of the Poets Against S1070.

She believes in clean water for everyone and that she cannot be human by herself.

Chicanonautica: Sheriff Joe Arpaio -- Performance Artist

by Ernest Hogan

With all respect to my personal favorite performance artists, Guillermo Gómez-Peńa, and La Pocha Nostra, I’ve got got to admit that the greatest performance artist of our times is Joe Arpiao, Sheriff of Maricopa County, Arizona. Sheriff Joe doesn’t have to go begging to fund his art -- local taxpayers and the federal government, until recently, have lavished the bucks on him. And he doesn’t need to worry about finding “art space” -- the media brings his performances to the world.

When he was first elected he promised to have his volunteer posse -- on horseback -- chase the prostitutes out of downtown Phoenix. Soon our local commercial sex workers and clients were conducting transactions in the bushes of my quiet neighborhood.

Then the mounted posse took to patrolling malls during the holidays. These were the malls on the West side where I live. The side where a lot of fair-skinned citizens are afraid to come after dark.

He also brought back the American tradition of the chain gang -- and even struck a blow for women’s rights by forming the first female chain gang. Often I would see young black and brown women, wearing orange jumpsuits and chained together, picking up roadside litter on my daily commute. Reminded me of what kind of society I was living in.

And we can’t forget Tent City -- an outdoor jail where those who haven’t yet undergone a trial sweat it out in pink underwear as they eat green baloney.

A favorite performance event of mine was from April 1999, when a mysterious object appeared in front of Sheriff Joe’s house. A police robot and the media were called in. Soon the Metro Phoenix area was treated to live TV coverage -- which must have eaten up some serious dinero -- of the robot facing off with a metal thing that looked like prop from old-fashioned sci-fi flick while Arpaio speculated about it being a bomb. The object looked more like stylized metal spider to me. After it was blown up, the object was found to be a piece of sculpture!

Was that performance or what?

Of course, Sheriff Joe’s most infamous performances are his immigration sweeps. They are popular with the sort of folks who have told me that the way to keep their neighborhoods safe is to keep the “Mexicans” out. Unfortunately, it’s hard to tell who is “Mexican” or “illegal.” Which has landed the Sheriff in the trouble with the Justice Department that he’s in today, and inspired Melinda Palacio’s novel Ocotillo Dreams, and my story “Burrito Meltdown.”

It’s nice when art inspires more art.

Lately, Sheriff Joe has been doing the kind of performance he does best -- the press conference where he comes on like a comedian doing a John Wayne imitation, warning the voters that if he’s stopped, a tsumani of criminals will rush across the border, bringing an end to civilization as we know it in Arizona.

I’ve often wondered, do the people who vote for Joe Arpiao, and his media fans, know the difference between law enforcement and performance art? Is there a difference in the Information Age? Is reality in Arizona a just a spaghetti western?

Ernest Hogan lives under the jurisdiction of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, and will be reviewing Melinda Palacio’s Ocotillo Dreams soon.

Ocotillo Dreams Déjà Vu: Sheriff Arpaio At It Again

Road Notes: Ocotillo Dreams Tour with friend Donna, Phoenix and a new round of Migrant Sweeps, Ruben Quesada to Read in New Orleans and Book Reviews for Ocotillo Dreams

Sandra Rodriguez Barron, Melinda Palacio, Kathy Cano-Murillo (bottom row)

Nora Comstock (top) with three attendees of the National Hispanic Women's Conference in Phoenix

The Southwest portion of the Ocotillo Dreams Tour was splendid. I arrived in New Orleans last Wednesday. I wouldn’t have been able to make the tightly clustered road tour without my friend from New Orleans who shared the driving with me, made sure I arrived to places on time, and cheered me with her pleasant demeanor. Donna flew to LAX from New Orleans, where I picked her up for our road trip East. She was even put to work in Mesilla, arranging cheese and cracker platters and later in San Antonio, when the two clerks at the Twig bookstore asked if “my representative” would introduce me. Donna, having listened to my spiel and introduction for the past week, was able to list most of my accolades and my biography with no problem. I’m very grateful for my friends. Donna enjoyed meeting Las Comadres in Phoenix. We attended our first Comadrazo at the home of Maria Montenegro in, of all places, Chandler, Arizona, the setting of Ocotillo Dreams. La mera comadre and moderator of the literature panel, Nora Comstock attended as well as Laura Lopez Cano, painter and creator of the beautiful Las Comadres logo, who gave a crafting workshop.

After the fun panel at the National Hispanic Women’s Conference in Phoenix with fellow authors Kathy Cano-Murillo and Sandra Rodriguez Barron, we all sat together at the event’s fashion show and watched incredibly thin girls strut in equally thin clothes while we devoured the banquet fare of churros, mini chimis, chips and salsa.

Downtown Phoenix and Chandler, Arizona were much changed since I lived there in 1997 with much more sprawl and development. The Hyatt, the conference’s hotel, had a rotating compass room at the top of the 24^th floor. Anyone would be impressed at city’s offerings. There’s bound to be something for everyone on each developed square inch. Too bad there was no one seated at the outside downtown tables of the ghost town city. In October, Phoenix is as tolerable and balmy as it gets. But who could feel at ease in the city where nonsense rules?

The day after the National Hispanic Women’s Conference ended, Sheriff Joe Arpaio was at it again, conducting sweeps and arrests of 87 people on Friday, October 7. According to the Associated Press, 19 out of the 87 people were undocumented and the US Justice is conducting a civil rights investigation of Arpaio’s office.

With Ocotillo Dreams set during the 1997 INS Sweeps of Chandler, Governor Jan Brewer’s passing of SB1070 in 2010, and last weeks renewed efforts to target Latinos, I doubt the investigation will prevent further violations of constitutional rights.

Since I’m short for time, and continue on a tight schedule, I will save writing about New Mexico and Texas for another blog post. Mesilla, Albuquerque’s balloon fiesta, San Antonio, and a beach break in Galveston are all coming up.

Melinda and Donna on Tour in Texas

For the next three weeks, I will be in New Orleans. This week I have three events. Thursday, October 13, at Octavia Books at 6pm. On Saturday, October 15, I will be at the Garden District Book Shop from 2pm to 4pm, and Sunday at the National Women’s Book Association at the Newcomb Center for Research on Women at 10:30 am.

Later, I will head over to the Maple Leaf Bar on Oak Street to listen to Ruben Quesada read from his new book of poems, Next Extinct Mammal at 3pm.

Ocotillo Dreams in the News…

Book Review: El Paso Times: ‘Dreams’ gives us another at troubled borderlands by Rigoberto González

Book Review: NewsTaco: Ocotillo Dreams a Poetic, Political, Riveting Novel by Yago Cura

NPR Radio Interview with WWNO’s Susan Larson: The Reading Life

National Book Critics Circle: Small Press Spotlight

Albuquerque Journal: A Daughter's Emotions Add Texture to Immigration Tale by David Steinberg

Chicanonautica: After the Election in Dystopian Arizona

Believe it or not – I try not to be political. But when politics comes after me, I have to fire back . . .

In Arizona, the SB 1070 gang now run the state. If they're policies are as ugly as their campaign promises, we can look forward to dystopian times. Kafkazona may become a running theme for me . . . How long before the new laws make us all into cockroaches?

SB 1070 – and HB 2281, that outlaws teachers mentioning ideas I express all the time (thank Tezcatlipoca, I'm an undocumented intellectual) – weren't really anything new. Laws and other political actions to de-Hispanize Aztlán have been happening as long as I can remember. They say all they want is everybody within the borders to be registered with the bureaucracy. But then they talk about what they hope will happen . . . it sounds like ethnic cleansing.

My feelings about these dystopian developments can be read in my story, “Doctora Xilbalba's Datura Enema” in Rudy Rucker's Flurb. Turns out I was right about the “security-based economy” – maybe we'll be seeing manifestations of the Centipede God soon . . .

It gets my blood and imagination boiling. When Sheriff Joe Arpaio raided church ceremonies to check IDs well over a decade ago, it inspired a story called “Burrito Meltdown” that was finally published in the British anthology Angel Body and Other Magic for the Soul. This month “Radiation is Groovy, Kill the Pigs” – a Dr. Strangelove Meets Cheech & Chong sort of take on the border wars, will appear in a new science fiction anthology, 2020 Visions, edited by Rick Novy.

Maybe I should collect these stories into a book . . .

Another book you may want to check out is the dystopian novel Contraband by Charlie Vázquez. A good dystopia tends to cheer me up – I can look at the world and see that we haven't gotten there yet, and realize that 1984 was a long time ago. Vázquez's world is one torn apart by political and religious polarization and extremism – uh-oh! Technological and social progress have regressed, people who don't fit in are forced underground, literally, living in a fantastic system of tunnels – like those under the border fences in recent news. Rather than being a predictable variation on Huxley, Orwell, Bradbury, and Dick, we get a new vision that is fantastic, disturbing, and richly textured. Volfgango Sanzo is sent on an odyssey that is full of strange beauty and lush imagery that enhance the tragedy of a world being destroyed. Repression and rebellion are locked in a dance of death. The extremes of this society are tearing it apart. I hope we aren't there yet.

Also, to put things in perspective, and demonstrate that none of this is new, I recommend the books of Guillermo Gómez-Peña, especially Warrior for Gringostroika, and Dangerous Border Crossers, and the stuff he and La Pocha Nostra do:

And rereading of the works of Oscar Zeta Acosta may be in order. Let's hope that the Brown Buffaloes and Cockroach People don't become extinct.

Ernest Hogan's Irish name clashes with his Mexican face on his Arizona driver's license.