Chicanonautica: Xicanxfuturism: Gritos for Tomorrow is Here!

by Ernest Hogan

It’s here! Now! At long last, on September 16^th, Mexican Independence Day, as the National Guard rolls into Memphis with Chicago "probably next",  Xicanxfutursim:Gritos for Tomorrow / Codex I,  edited by my fellow space vato Scott Russel Duncan and Jenny Irizary, was launched, dropped, whatever the kids are calling it these days.

And it’s giving me visions of an armada of ornate, pyramid-shaped spaceships taking off, filling the sky . . .

Take that, Elon!

It’s not just another story collection, its art, comics, stories, flash fiction, poetry, and essays by Xicanx sci-fi veterans, social justice thinkers, influential speculative. Not just breaking into the genre, but tearing down its borders, creating new universes.

Once again, our language--whatever it may be—is stretched to the limits. I’m not sure what to call it. A movement? An aesthetic? Maybe it just what’s happening now as La (new, transmogrified) Migra patrols our streets, closing in.

Meanwhile, some of us have been having visions of different worlds, universes.

My contributions will be in Codex II, coming in February 2026, but I recommend you buy both, and get on the excitement now.

It got me feeling like a proud Father of Chicano Science Fiction.

Ernest Hogan is also the author of High Aztech and Guerrilla of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction. And this just in: Palabras del Pueblo is taking last applications for the Fall 2025 session, you there's still time to sign up for my "Gonzo Science Fiction, Chicano Style" class.

Chicanonautica: My Gonzo for Sale Again

by Ernest Hogan

I’m doing it again. I’ll be sharing my ancient Chicano (Xicana, Xicanx, whatevertheunholychingada) sci-fi wisdom on writing gonzo science fiction en stylo Chicano during the Fall session of the Palabras del Pueblo Writing Workshop. See the above ad for details.

Uh-oh. A whole lotta repetition and Spanglishism there. I’m doing it already, like a good space vato, ciberbandido, Chicanonaut.

I keep repeating Chicano. Like it’s my mantra or something.

So here I am, doing my best to squeeze my 40plus years of being a professional writer (should I mention that I’m one of the most successful Chicano writers of my generation?) into some revised notes that I can use as a guide to spill my guts to eager students.

I’m willing to do just about anything short of making Ernesto brain tacos. Nah, that only works for flatworms anyway.

It’s cheap compared to other writing workshops. Only $100. And if that’s too much for you, get in touch, options are available.

It’s also Raza-oriented. Non-Raza can apply too, just be warned that you will be a minority—which is an important educational experience. Besides, my entire “formal” education was gringo-oriented and I survived and thrived.

Apply as soon as possible, the deadline is September 14^th, and this apocalyptic year is zooming along.

And the world needs our wild imaginations now more than ever.

 

Ernest Hogan was born in East L.A., his mother’s maiden name is Garcia, and her family were Mexican circus performers.

Chicanonautica: Xicanx Futurism is Coming!

by Ernest Hogan

Just in time for the mass deportations, from the official Instagram announcement:

 

Riot of Roses Publishing House is proud to announce the acquisition of XICANX FUTURISM: GRITOS FOR A FUTURE, edited by Scott Russell Duncan. Coming 2025!

 

XICANAX FUTURISM features the writing of over 30 Xicanx writers and artists. Thank you to each of the contributors for trusting us with your work. Our art is our resistance.

 

What is Xicana Futurism? It’s the Chicano sci-fi stuff that I’ve been doing for decades–Xicanx is also a science fiction state of being–extended beyond the traditional borders of the genre, reaching into the genre and pop culture. We are new life and new civilization, boldly going where nobody ain’t ever been before. La Cultura of tomorrow–should that be manaña?

 

Only this manaña is here and now!

 

Along with a drawing by me, there will be a new adventure of Paco Cohen, Martian Mariachi: “A Wild and Woolly Road Trip on Mars” that takes place on a Red Planet that Elon Musk wouldn’t dare dream of.

 

It gets me thinking that I should look over the rest of the Paco stories, and write what I need to fill the gaps to make them into a novel. I should really do it. I ain’t getting any younger, you know . . .

 

Meanwhile, Xicanx Futurism: Gritos for a Future will inspire you to run amok and create a Xicanx future no matter what anybody who’s taking over the government thinks.

 

Hope it gets here before we all get deported or something . . .

 

Ernest Hogan is guilty of writing Guerrilla Mural of a Siren’s Song: 15 Gonzo Science Fiction Stories, which includes “Uno! Dos! One-Two! Tres! Cuatro!” that was inspired by the current occupant of the White House.

Chicanonautica: Chicxulubing Into an Old/New Word

by Ernest Hogan 

Warning: R. Ch. Garcia is a cohort of mine and responsible for my getting involved in La Bloga, so I may not be completely objective in discussing his major achievement in speculative fiction, Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub. (I warned him about the hazards of introducing a strange new word to the Anglocentric book biz. May Tezcatlipoca help him.)

Anyway, Death Song, or maybe I should call it Chicxulub--readers need to get used to learning alien words if they’re going to survive in this world--is out, and it’s good, a heroic fantasy, coming-of-age story that’s also a journey of Mexicanidad, pushing the limits of the YA/Young Adult category, that’s really just a marketing gimmick (I remember when it was weird new thing, that seemed too dominated by church youth counselors, that in recent years focused on introverted high school girls of all races). 

I also remember when fantasy wasn’t considered an Anglo thing. It is the intellectual property of the entire human race, but in the Nineteen-Sixties of my childhood, it wasn’t considered proper for someone over age 12 to be interested in such things. Then Lord of the Rings became popular. I first read it around 1970 in high school, jocks would see the cover and accuse me of being a sissy, then I would show them one of the gorier passages . . . In a few years sword&sorcery invaded the paperback racks; it rapidly devolved into a commercial formula that got so Anglo I wanted to scream. This was while I was studying (on my own, school was no help) pre-Columbian, African, and other cultures, and getting inspired.

At one point I wrote an angry letter to Amazing Stories (where I would later make my first fiction sales) asking WHY IS FANTASY SO DAMNED ANGLO? (yeah, in all caps, just like that). It didn’t seem to do much good. And it took the publishers decades to begin to stop thinking that all marketable fantasy worlds were based on distortions of medieval England.

Things have changed a bit, though I must note that Chicxulub was not published by a New York publisher. And mainstream publishing is all the poorer for it.

Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub really is a major achievement. Not just an exercise in regurgitating undigested pop culture like most YA, we’ve got more than a typical Jungian monster fighting tale here. There is a lot more going on—the Dragón, la Muerte Blanca, is not just a threatening beast, she is a fully realized character and  a creation that stands out in global pop culture that has become crowded with such things. Fans of more conventional fantasy and science fiction will be impressed. She also grows out of pre-Columbian mythology.

To make it all the better, the book contains a lot of reality. The best fantasy is always intimately connected to realism. It’s set in a time and place that can be recognized as our modern world. There is a quest that goes from New Mexico, to Mexico City, to Chichén Itzá and the Yucatán—places I’ve been to on my own quests—that all ring true.

And the characters! The primary protagonist, Miguel Reilly is an Irish-Mexican (like me, though he isn’t at all like me) going against the usual stereotypes about the Latinoid Continuum. Maritza Magdelena, the leading lady, who is more of co-hero, a Maya medical student who can hold her own in a supernatural battle. And then there’s Tomás, the shaman, who is going to be compared to Carlos Castaneda’s Don Juan, but is much more interesting and inspiring.

I have always found Castaneda entertaining, but somewhat lacking, and suspect. I knew some people who went to one of his “magical passes” retreats back in the Nineties. Their descriptions of what went on did not change my mind. People who buy Death Song of the Dragón Chicxulub will be getting more spiritual bang for their bucks.

This is a big step toward the de-Angloization of fantasy. And a helluva good read. Something to buy and give as a gift during Hispanic Heritage Month. 

Ernest Hogan, has a story in Speculative Fiction for Dreamers: A Latinx Anthology (on sale now). He also will be judging Somos en escrito’s Extra-Fiction Contest--the deadline is September 30, hurry mi gente!