Latino Spec Fiction, April 2015

A year ago on BuzzFeed, in his article, Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing, author Daniel José Older wrote: 

"When we raise the question of diversity, no one is demanding more tokens. We’re talking about systemic upheaval. Diversity is not enough. Maybe the word hasn’t been invented yet – that thing beyond diversity. We often define movements by what they’re against, but the final goal is greater than the powers it dismantles, deeper than any statistic. It’s something like equity – a commitment to harvesting a narrative language so broad it has no face, no name.

"Let’s . . . open ourselves to the truth about where we are and where we’ve been. Instead of holding tight to the same old, failed patriarchies, let’s walk a new road, speak new languages. Today, let’s imagine a literature, a literary world, that carries this struggle for equity in its very essence, so that tomorrow it can cease to be necessary, and disappear."

His good words made me wonder where Latino speculative fiction authors find themselves today. I can't gauge all aspects of our progress, but the following "feats" in the year since he wrote this make me feel positive our own efforts have pushed the diversity discourse in a more inclusive direction. Other stories have been published than what I mention below. Please add to Comments  anything that I missed.

• Tejano author David Bowles is cooking plato after plato of ferocious barbacoa. His short story Wildcat will appear in the May edition of Apex Magazine; it's a fantasy piece that takes place on the US-Mexico border in the early 20th century. His translation of the pre-Colombian Nahuatl poem A Cradlesong was just published in the journal Metamorphoses. The Smoking Mirror, his first book in the Garza Twins YA fantasy series was released last month.

From now through the summer, Bowles plans to publish reviews of at least the following Latino spec-fiction books:

Smoking Mirror Blues by Ernest Hogan; Ink by Sabrina Vourvoulias; Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-García; The Closet of Discarded Dreams by Rudy Ch. Garcia; The Hunted by Matt de la Peña; The Dinosaur Lords by Victor Milán; and a new collection by Jesús Treviño.

A synopsis of David's YA novel: "The 12-year-old Garza twins' lives in a small Texas town are forever changed by their mother's unexplained disappearance. Shipped off to relatives in Mexico by their grieving father, the twins soon learn that their mother is a nagual, a shapeshifter, and that they have inherited her powers. In order to rescue her, they will have to descend into the Aztec underworld and face the dangers that await them."

• Besides his hit, picture book, Last Stop on Market Street, Chicano story-maquina Matt de la Peña had a story in the anthology My True Love Gave to Me. In May, he continues the YA story of Romero's Disease, a deadly contagion ravaging Southern California, in his sequel, The Hunted.

• Canadian-Chicana Silvia Moreno-Garcia is kicking some big nalgas with her debut novel, Signal to Noise, received great reviews from The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus, io9, Publisher's Weekly, and The Guardian. The trade-mag Locus wrote: "Moreno-Garcia uses the trope in such an ingratiating way, though, and with such intriguingly conflicted characters, that it seems vibrantly new. I think it’s one of the most important fantasy debuts of the year so far."

• Daniel José Older's noir fantasy Half-Resurrection Blues has boosted his rep. His first YA fantasy, Shadowshaper, will take him even further, according to my reading. He also began developing a resource, Urban Fantasy Writers of Color: An Ongoing List.

• Chicano author Ernest Hogan newly released his sci-fi classic, Cortez on Jupiter, and has a story in the anthology, Mothership: Tales From Afrofuturism And Beyond.

• Tejano artist John Picacio issued his Lotería Grande Cards artwork that's hotter than Bowles's barbacoa. Get some before se acaban.

• Mario Acevedo's next novel featuring Felix Gomez, Rescue from Planet Pleasure, will be published by Wordfire Press. He describes his contribution as "a big, hairy story bristling with action, intergalactic adventure, skin-walkers, Hopi magic . . . all told in tumescent PervoVision." Mario also has two stories in the soon-to-be-published Nightmares Unhinged anthology.

artwork for Sabrina's tale

• Sabrina Vourvoulias--author of Ink--had a story, The Ways of Walls and Words, accepted by Tor.com. In reviewing Ink, Bowles noted: "At a time like the present, when immigrants are in such physical/political danger and law enforcement’s violation of minority rights is tragically underscored with frightening regularity, brave novels like Ink become not only a necessity, but a moral obligation."

• The Haunted Girl horror collection by Latina Lisa Bradley appeared last September.

• Lucha Corpi's Cactus Blood: A Gloria Damasco Mystery came out in December, again featuring her private investigator who possesses the gift of extrasensory prescience.

• Cubano-americano Joe Iriarte's short story, Weight of the World, was accepted by Fantastic Stories of the Imagination, and another story, Extra Innings, was published in Penumbra.

• Victor Milán's epic fantasy novel, The Dinosaur Lords, will debut this July. In June, he'll also have a story entitled The Seeker: A Poison in the Blood in S. M. Stirling's anthology, The Change: Tales of Downfall and Rebirth, coming from Roc.

• Kathleen Alcalá's first published short story, Midnight at the Lariat Lounge, will be reprinted in the Weird Western anthology, and her tribute to Isak Dineson will appear in the Latino/a Rising anthology.

• Guadalupe Garcia McCall had several nonfiction poems published in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Science.

• Scheduled for August, the speculative fiction anthology, Latin@s Rising, will include at least Kathleen Alcalá, Ana Castillo, Junot Díaz, Carlos Hernandez, Ernest Hogan, Adál Maldonado, Carmen Maria Machado, Alejandro Morales, Daniel José Older, Edmundo Paz-Soldán, Alex Rivera, and Sabrina Vourvoulias.

• As mentioned above, Hollywood vaquero/writer/y-mucho-más Jesús Treviño will have a new collection published soon, entitled Return to Arroyo Grande.

• Last, and maybe least, my historical fantasy short story, How Five-Gashes-Tuumbling Chaneco Got His Nickname, will appear in the Diverse Weird Westerns anthology from WolfSinger Press.

The old-male-white-guard of speculative fiction believes that US speculative fiction is on the decline, partly from “the infestation of even the smallest American heartland towns by African, Asian, and Aztec cultures.” Aztec cultures is possibly the most shallow way of depicting Latino spec-lit. But given the list above, and others that I'm unaware of, I think it would be suavísimo if more than Aztlán became Tenochtítlan-ed. What DanielJosé termed, "systemic upheaval." Ajúa!

I'm finding it difficult to keep up with new stories by Latino spec-fiction writers. So I'll finish with, Perdóname, if I omitted anything published in the last year. I'll add more information as I receive word from anyone. So, stay tuned for mucho más.

Es todo, hoy,

RudyG, uno de los "Aztec-cultured" Latino authors que también se llama Rudy Ch. Garcia

Sasquan, and Milán with the accent

As a Chicano writer of fantasy and science fiction, in 2013 I was invited to participate on eight panels of the World Science Fiction Convention, also known as WorldCon, the biggest annual gathering for sci-fi/fantasy, including the prestigious Hugo Awards for best fantasy and sci-fi of the past year. I felt more overwhelmed by the number of panels than I felt honored, so I trimmed it down to five. You can read about my Con experience in the series Strange Chicano in a Stranger Con.

My panels were part of Lone Star Con's "Spanish Strand," the organizers' effort to diversify a normally very white-attended event. Honored to be involved in that, at the conference I turned out to be one of just a handful of Latino spec fans or writers. For WorldCon to improve Latinos', and other's, participation, I made a few recommendations in my report. Apparently, I should have made more, like, including some as special guests.        

The 2015 WorldCon, Sasquan, will be held in Spokane. According to their latest (Aug.) progress report, the line-up of guests of honor looks much like 2014 LondonCon and 2013 LoneStarCon, as well--a bunch of white people. You need to go back to 2011 for the last time a non-European, non-white person received such an invitation, Peruvian-born Boris Vallejo.

Vallejo invited because?

It's funny to see a Sasquan graphic of brown, green and purple aliens, wondering if that indicates a growing awareness of the need for the American sci-fi/fantasy too-white community to diversify itself more than it did at LoneStarCon. Or perhaps that was meant to be a one-time effort. Especially given that next year's con will be held in the Northwest, in a city named Spokane and for a con named Sasquan.

Spokane was named for a Salishan tribe, the Children of the Sun. Sasquatch, the Big Foot creature that's the take-off for the Con's title--was the original Halkomelem tribe's name for the creature. And here's a map of the tribes who were forcibly removed so that SF/F fans can enjoy next year's event without having to worry about "Indian raids" or paying anything to those tribes.

People like to say that I'm "frustrated" or "bitter" bringing up such history, so to pre-empt that, here's the short version. The city of Spokane's land wasn't settled in the 1800s; it had been lived on, in and with for thousands of years by Salish-speaking tribes, renamed the Flathead tribe. Beginning with the 1855 Hellgate (appropriate?) Treaty, the U.S. gov't, military, and illegal white squatters took over 20,000,000 acres of homelands, built railroads through their villages, forged signatures of their leaders and eventually ratified the "relocation" to the Jocko (Flathead) Reservation. The Salish practiced a belief in nonviolent resistance to meet the threats of bloodshed and starvation they faced if they didn't relocate. To keep tribes from exercising to at least hunt outside of the reservation, in 1908 the Swan Valley Massacre sealed the deal. Included in the desecration of a way of life were American heroes like U.S. Grant, James Garfield, and maybe some ancestors of those who'll attend Sasquan 2015.

Sherman Alexie, SF indio author

So, next year, instead of simply trying to diversify the Con's attendance as WorldCon did in San Antonio, organizers could consider INCLUSION of Native American SF/F authors as invited guests. Maybe Sherman Alexie, author of Flight will be available. If he's not, I don't doubt he could suggest other First Nations authors who've written spec lit. At the least, I could provide some names.

But I'm not done being "frustrated and bitter." Since the Con is on the West Coast, why don't organizers realize what was begun in LoneStarCon with the Spanish Strand should be continued by INCLUSION of Latino SF/F authors? Putting aside my own literary obscurity, there are many who could help increase Latino participation from populous California and the Northwest--for instance, Victor Milán or Junot Díaz (writing a new sci-fi) as Special Guests. Or how about some youth for Toastmaster, for a change, like Matt de la Peña or Amy Tintera? There are many more, but at the moment, none on the Con's agenda who would interest Latinos into attending. Chingau, what if they were interesting to Anglo attendees?

spec author Matt de la Peña

Here's two other points, adjusted, that I suggested to WorldCon organizers:

• If high school and college Latinos (add Native Americans) are desired, more day passes need to be made available to nearby communities. Attendance could turn significant and be a good investment where it is normally not available.

• Con organizers should allow for one very famous gringo author on every panel related to Latinos (add Native Americans) in order to attract sufficient, Anglo attendees. Small audiences for such issues can be interpreted as belittlement.

Amy Tinter SF novel

If you want to contact them, here's the word from Sasquan organizers: "Make Sasquan a truly unique convention. We're always looking for program suggestions. If you have any, drop by our Idea Forum. We'll be sending out invitations to be on programs, between this fall and next spring. Sasquan would like to hear from you if you're interested in being considered as a Program Panelist and/or Events Performer. Fill out our Panelist/Performer Volunteer form."

By the way, I hope Sasquan doesn't fall into minority-bloc mentality and use an Asian SF/F writer to fulfill a "quota." In 21st Century U.S., Asians are definitely in and easy, all over the screen and on the tube whenever the historically under-represented Others need to be assuaged. An Asian SF/F writer would be good diversity for WorldCon. What I've been talking about is INCLUSION of Latinos and Native Americans. They are different, even if not as accepted and respected.

To pre-empt another point, someone might suggest I volunteer to help diversify WorldCon's exclusion of us and the indios. Bastions of white privilege should fix themselves, not expect our free time and labor to divest themselves of what we point out to be exclusion-problems of their own making. I would help. As soon as WE saw more reasons for doing so. Like I did at LoneStarCon. And, if I have a new book coming out, as a Chicano spec writer I hope to attend Sasquan. I hope its program and speakers list gives me and others more reason than that for doing so.

The accent in Milán

I recently had an exchange with SF author Victor Milán where I pointed out that the accent in his last name didn't appear on the cover of his latest book, Dinosaur Lords. In La Bloga's Latino Spec Lit Directory, we hadn't established what he considered himself, but now that's settled. Here's how it went:

1st response: "Thanks, Rudy. Also thanks for including me in the Latino Spec Lit Directory. My father was puertorriqueño; I have considered (and characterized) myself as a Latino writer pretty much throughout my career. Also, thanks for reminding me about that accent mark...."

2nd response: "All done. Wrote to Editor Claire asking for the change. For them as don't know: that's not an affectation. Milán is my family name. It's not on my birth certificate, but they didn't do none o' that there furrin stuff in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the mid-1950s. But I've used it as my name pretty much everywhere the "ick" (as a long-ago lady friend amusingly termed it) was an option. Also, those who have followed my work know that Victor Milán is my professional name as well as my actual surname. And so appears on much if not most of my published writing.
"It shouldn't be hard to change. It's not as if it's incorporated into the swell painting or anything. And when the becomes a Bigassasaurus of a blockbuster movie, the accent's gonna be on my name in the credits, too. So there." - Victor Milán

Es todo, hasta Sasquan(?),

RudyG, aka mestizo (part Latino, part-Native American) spec lit author Rudy Ch. Garcia