Chicanonautica: Reveling in Mayasploitation

by Ernest Hogan

Things have been apocalyptic for a long time. How long can it go on? Forever? Maybe there’s something to the idea of cyclical time after all. What goes around . . .

So, what do I read to take my mind off the newsfeed of doom? I keep a bloodshot eye for demented stuff like Mayan Calendar Girls: The Great Meso-American Novel by Linton Robinson, Grayson Moran, Cammy May Hunnicutt, and “Team 2012”.

Yes, it’s an oldie, from an earlier part of the 21st century when 2012 was still the future. Barack Obama, Dubya Bush, and Francis Ford Coppola do cameos. Ghosts of apocalypses past, riding again

Those suburban mystics who wonder what ever happened to the “Mayans,” while not recognizing who’s mowing their lawns and vacuuming their floors, will be seriously disturbed by this one. It's not just a Great Meso-American Novel, but a masterpiece of Mayasploitation, with plenty of sex (more than violence that should be preferable in a civilized world), drugs, and spirituality of a kind you can't find neatly packaged at Barnes & Noble. 

And it's not just the result of intense navel-staring on the parts of authors. Having been to the Yucatan, I can attest that the stranger than sci-fi stuff (yes, human/dolphin sex is a thing) that brims over on every action-packed page, in places where James Bond and Indiana Jones would fear to tread is, yeah, actually real. And just how will Mayan culture affect 21st century civilization? Probably like this, only more so . . .

To quote one of the many, crazy characters: “It’s multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-sexual. It’s . . . you know . . . The Yucatan Lives.”

I unashamedly enjoyed it, and by the way, I don’t believe there’s such thing as a guilty pleasure. Damn the pretensions, just enjoy stuff.

My visit to Mayalandia, back before it was upgraded to the Mayan Riviera, blew my mind. My dad telling me about how when you go down south enough, the Mexican deserts give way to jungles didn’t prepare me for it. Suddenly, the tamales are wrapped in banana leaves instead of corn husks, the street names are all Mayan, and the little brown people half my size made me feel like I wasn’t in Aztlán anymore . . .

The same feeling comes back when I read this dizzying tsunami of weird details so dense it gets difficult to tell who’s doing what to whom, but then that just may be the point.

Strangely enough, it was originally an internet serial, like my own Brainpan Fallout. The cliffhanger style fits when things are fluxed up.

And it holds up amid the current global madness. Another decade, another apocalypse. New possibilities emerge in a shattered world.

Again, it gets me wondering about the Mayan influence on the future. Are they really the new Egyptians? Who will be appropriated? Who will consume? And who will be consumed? Are we products yet? Maybe I’ll finally get to use my idea about one day all the interwebs spontaneously translating into Mayan hieroglyphics . . .

Ernest Hogan is the Father of Chicano Science Fiction, and is just now learning what that means.

Chicanonautica: Beyond the SFF Latinx Bundle

by Ernest Hogan

The SFF Latinx Bundle, one of the great deals of the year is over, sorry.

But if you’re a chronic procrastinator, or just scalp-deep in the craziness of our times, don’t dive into the pit of despair just yet. The bundle may have been archived, but the books are all still available, as they were before.

To remind you about them, I will be reviewing them (with the exception of the one I wrote, because you have probably been hearing enough about it lately).

I have already read and reviewed some of these books, and my thoughts on Signal to Noise and The Closet of Discarded Dreams are just a click away.

(Note: I know the link to the Closet review is to a blurb, not a review. I could have sworn that I wrote a review of Closet, but I can’t find it. Maybe I misremembered the blurb as a review. Awk, this is getting more gonzo than I intended . . .)

Unfortunately, the website where I reviewed Soulsaver is no more, and my file of it was lost in one of my many computer crashes of the new millennium. I’ll review it again; it’s been a while.

Meanwhile, I’ve read Lords of the Earth, and Ink, and am going through The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria. This will give me plenty of material for Chicanonautica in the next few months.

Something earthshaking and on subject could also come along that I just have to write about.

It probably will happen. 2019 promises to be a year of political madness, and a lot of it is aimed at us Chicano/Latino/Latinx/Latinoids.

We seem to be what’s happening.

Meanwhile, it's great to have a lot of Latinx science fiction and fantasy (with us, the line blurs, because magic realism from a sufficiently advanced technological culture tends to be indistinguishable from science fiction) to read while dodging the pendejadas.

Ernest Hogan runs around trying to survive in our desmadreized world. Sometimes the results look like art, literature, entertainment, or some other pretense of culture. The imagination is a weapon, or at least his is.

Chicanonautica: Live From the SFF Latinx Bundle

by Ernest Hogan

When I first started doing this column, I seemed to be the only Chicano science fiction writer around, maybe even the first. That scared me. It was also lonely. But then I think about my days as a teenage science fan, and how often mine was the only brown face in the room.

Was I a lone Chicanonaut, floating at the end of long life-line?

After a decade of connection to the interwebs, I’ve found that it’s not true. There are others out there, Chicanos, Latinos, Latinx, Latinoids.

We don’t just seek out new life and new civilizations, we create them. We are them.

And now, Silvia Moreno-Garcia has curated the SFF Latinx Bundle, and I’m truly feeling part of a community of imaginative writers who come from the array of cultures that were affected by the influence of the Spanish Armada. Not just a new world, but new worlds.

It’s also a great deal.

For $15 you get eleven SFF Latinx ebooks. You can go to a book store, spend that much, and come home with only one paperback.

High Aztech is part of the bundle.

Even if you already have read High Aztech, the other books are worth getting.

I have already read and reviewed Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s tale of witchcraft and analog technology in Mexico City, Signal to Noise, James Steves-Arces’ speculation on future of religious conflicts, Soulsaver, and Rudy Ch. Garcia’s magic realistic phantasmagoria The Closet of Discarded Dreams.

I blasted through David Bowles’ Lords of the Earth, a reinvention of the kaiju (Japanese giant monster) genre by setting it in contemporary Mexico, and using preColumbian mythology. I’m glad to report that it is satisfying to both my inner child who loved watching Strange Tales of Science Fiction on Channel 9 in L.A. back in the Sixties, and to the old vato who became the Father of Chicano Science Fiction. 

Now I'm reading Sabrina Vourvoulias' immigrant dystopia, Ink, that is providing an interesting counterpoint to the current news coming out of Washington.

I look forward to writing some rave reviews.

I’m also looking forward reading to Carlos Hernandez’s  The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria, Lisa M. Bradley’s The Haunted Girl, Rosalie Morales Kearns’ Virgins & Tricksters, Daniel José Older’s Salsa Nocturna, , Kathleen Alcalá’s Mrs. Vargas and the Dead Naturalists. Diverse works from diverse cultures. 

What’s makes it even more exciting is, thanks to the wonderful, brave new world of digital publishing and the internet, it's not just a product, it’s an event! It’s a limited-time-only deal. There’s a countdown clock on the website, clicking away the seconds before . . .

You better go there and buy it now!

Ernest Hogan is working on a new short story, trying to finish a novel, and doing some cartooning. Not to mention navigating his personal life, and trying channel his reactions to the current political turmoil into creative energy.

Better Late than Never: Eleven Ebooks for Bilingual Press

Melinda Palacio

Photo by Nell Campbell

Last month, I received news that my 2011 novel, Ocotillo Dreams, was now available as an ebook. I pestered Bilingual Press to make my title available at the time of publication. Four years ago, it wasn't standard for University Presses to automatically publish an electronic version in addition to a hardcover and paperback. My first experience with Arizona State University's Bilingual Press was with a short story in Latinos in Lotusland: an Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature in 2008. In 2008, editor and fellow Bloguero, Daniel Olivas, did not anticipate having an electronic version of the Latino literary anthology. As a contributor to Latinos in Lotusland, I'm happy to see that there is an ebook now available. Also, Lucrecia Guerrero's Tree of Sighs was on the list, as well as Stella Pope Duarte's Fragile Night, published in 1997. However, the winner for longest wait goes to Ron Arias, whose book, Road to Tamazunchale, was published in 1987 and predates electronic media technology. While I'm glad for these electronic titles, I'm still clinging to paper bound books and do not own a special device for reading electronic books. I have a few books on my cell phone, but I can't say I've read a title cover to cover. Before receiving the following email and announcement of the new 11 ebook titles, I stumbled on the electronic version of Ocotillo Dreams by accident. 

Ocotillo Dreams

Eleven Bilingual Press titles now available as ebooks

The Bilingual Press is pleased to announce that it has released 11 of its titles as ebooks. The titles are Stars Always Shine by Rick Rivera; Latinos in Lotusland: An Anthology of Contemporary Southern California Literature, edited by Daniel A. Olivas; Tree of Sighs by Lucrecia Guerrero; Barefoot Heart and Corazón Descalzo by Elva Treviño Hart; Road to Tamazunchale by Ron Arias; Memories of Development by Edmundo Desnoes; Fragile Night by Stella Duarte Pope; Heart-Shaped Cookies by David Rice; Ocotillo Dreams by Melinda Palacio; and The Scoundrel and the Optimist by Maceo Montoya.

They are available through Amazon, Apple iTunes Store, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and Overdrive.

The project to convert the titles to ebook formats was supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

***Here's An Early Announcement. Save the Date.***

April 18, 7pm

Because April is the ever busy National Poetry Month, I thought I'd give everyone a preview of this event, curated by Marisela Norte:

Cut Along The Line: An evening of readings in conjunction with The Big Read
Saturday, April 18 | 7:00pm (doors open at 6:30) at Craft and Folk Art Museum
A small reception with the poets will follow the evening's reading
Free
In celebration of Luis Alberto Urrea's novel Into The Beautiful North, writer Marisela Norte brings together authors Luis Alfaro, Melinda Palacio and Kenji Liu for a reading of poetry and prose on the immigrant imagination, erasing borders and the great divide. The Big Read is a program of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. More information can be found at www.NEABigRead.org.
RSVP requested to rsvp@cafam.org

Chicanonautica: A Chicanonaut in 2013, A.D.

by Ernest Hogan

The year 2013 was eventful for your humble Chicanonaut. It feels like I went way out there, was weightless, but now have reentered, splashed down, and am adjusting  to Earth-normal gravity again. And, ay! When I check through my log/blog/whatever, it reads like out-of-control sci-fi.

Somehow, I became known as the father of Chicano sci-fi/science fiction/speculative fiction/whatever. I never really set out to do any such thing. Being who I am, I was stuck with it. Nothing else to do but tilt with the windmills that come charging at me and make the most of it.

I accomplished some serious writer stuff. All three of my novels are now available as ebooks. I learned a lot in the process.

As Tahir Shah says, “a life not filled with severe learning curves is no life at all.”

Now, if I can just learn how to get hordes of people to buy those books . . .

I’ve also got stories in anthologies about superheroes, postcolonialism, and Afrofuturism. There’s a theme running through them all, even the superhero one (where I contributed a story about a cyberpunk masked luchador) -- the caucasian, anglophone corner of this planet is no longer the center of civilization. Stories, and cultures, can be from any part of the whole human race. 

La Raza Cósmica rides again!

Also, I’ve made a deal with a non-traditional publisher . My novels will available in trade paperback. And there will be a collection of my best short fiction. 

The world is in turmoil, but then ain’t it always?

I’m excited about 2014. There's gonna be crazy caca raining out of the sky. And the really good stuff has just begun.

Órale, pues!

Ernest Hogan knows his writing is psychotropic. Please read it responsibly.

Chicanonautica: Prelude to the Smoking Mirror Blues/Dead Daze Blast

by Ernest Hogan

So here we are. 2012, and the Mayan Calendar -- that may actually be the Olmec Calendar -- are coming to an end. October’s coming to an end too.  And you know what that means . . . Halloween . . . then los Días de los Muertos . . . put them together, and you’ve got Dead Daze!

And these are going to be extra special Dead Daze, because my novel, Smoking Mirror Blues, will be FREE from the Amazon Kindle store from October 31st to November 4th. That’s Halloween, both Days of the Dead, and an extra Saturday!

Sunday, it goes back up to $2.99. There are those who would say that continuing this to Sunday would be blasphemy. Then there are others who would relish the blasphemy of buying Smoking Mirror Blues on the Sunday after Dead Daze.

I’m also offering snippets from the novel and its reviews, as well as suggestions for music to read it by on Facebook, Twitter, and my blog. Come on down, and join the party!

Like I’ve said before, I think that Dead Daze is a good idea. Let's make it a real transborder event, taking it beyond the hipster holiday that it has become.

Can we remember our dead loved ones, celebrate our cultures, and let loose our imaginations all at the same time for three fantastic days? I think we can, and should.

Or as President Malcolm Jones says in Smoking Mirror Blues:

I think it's a very American phenomenon -- the creation of a new culture and new traditions out of those that are coming together in Southern California.

And we’re seeing interesting developments in Mexico with megaofrendas becoming larger than life walk-thru environments. What will happen when cyber and robotic technologies are plugged in? I can hardly wait!

Who knows? Maybe some recombocultural celebrating can help solve our border conflicts? 

Welcome to the Global Barrio! Next stop, the Galactic Barrio!

Ernest Hogan’s novels Smoking Mirror Blues and Cortez on Jupiter are back from limbo as ebooks. His recombocultural classic High Aztech will be ebookized soon. Tezcatlipoca whispers into his ear.

Chicanonautica: Shakycam Shots of a Writer’s Life

by Ernest Hogan

A critic once described my style as “shakycam” -- as in low-budget documentaries shot with hand-held cameras in close, dangerous quarters. It wasn’t intended as a compliment, but does describe what I do as well as how I write.

I know I have a writing career because, like Frankenstein’s monster, it has taken on a life of its own. I keep losing track of it. I have to check my blog to make sure. Keeping up with it gets shakycam.

Take these items from my to-do list:

I’ve been (with the help of my wife) getting my novel Smoking Mirror Blues ready to become an ebook. We finally got through the final go-over and sent it off to the formatter. Tezcatlipoca willing, it may be available around Día de los Muertos.

That done, I started the tedious task of scanning my novel High Aztech -- like Cortez on Jupiter, it was written back in the Ninteen-Hundreds on an ancient mechanism called a typewriter. Not only that, but because of the Españahuatl slang, I’m probably the only human being on the planet who can do the necessary proofreading. I’m in for some fun times in the next few months!

I’m also working on a science fiction short story and a novel about bullfighting. The short story may end up as part of the novel in the end, but it actually creates more work for me.

I’ve decided to put my fantasy novel about the preColumbian ball game aside for a while because, if you haven’t guessed, I’m kind of busy. And I can’t let that cam get too shaky.

And I finally got a chance to do a collection of my short fiction. This is going to one desmadre of a project! It will include works from the typewriter era that will have to be scanned, and will be a twisted thirty-year journey through the strange things that grew in my mind, and the strange places where they got published. Trying to read it in one sitting will probably cause hallucinations and brain damage. 

Imagine what putting together that document will be like!

When going over my list of published stories, I realized that there were some that will have to go in other volumes. “The Frankenstein Penis” and its sequel have a still-growing number of true stories connected to them.  Paco Cohen, Mariachi of Mars, and Victor Theremin, the science fiction writer who has lost track of where science fiction ends and his life begins, also demand their own books.

And after crossing a few things off my to-do list, I remembered something I had to add to it. Better get to work.

Ernest Hogan really is doing all that stuff. Being a Chicano makes it more complicated and exciting. It’s also very shakycam.