A POC/non-white/mixie nerd scrapbook. Because we’re awesome.
The constellation Orion—or, possibly, among some Mayan peoples, a turtle—rising over the temple of Kukulkan in the Mayan city of Chichen Itza. The orange star on the left is Betelgeuse and the brightest blue one is Rigel, corrupted English versions of the original names given them by medieval Arab Muslim astronomers.
(Via Phil Plait’s 2012 astrophotography roundup.)
diggingforroots replied to your post: Genre in Latino literature
is he confusing sci-fi for “magical realism”??? m.r. is very common in Latin American literature. sf… not so much, as far as anything i’ve read. and i think they are definitely two different things.
No idea, though it’s possible he counts magic realism as speculative fiction. I guess it depends how strictly you want to define the genre(s)! X.…?
Regarding last Thursday’s post about Three Messages and a Warning, X. replied via Twitter:
I shared the Mexican sf book with an MFA [Master of Fine Arts] friend here who had an interesting reaction since he has an ambivalent relationship
he says that sf is the norm for Latino writing and that realist writers like himself are often seen as sellouts to mainstream white writing, so they tend to be marginalized
…which I didn’t know, not being familiar with the tradition. (Working on it, working on it…) Just goes to show that genre is very much a relative thing!
Description: The cover of Three Messages and a Warning—skeletons with monarch butterfly wings against a dark grey background.
Via The World SF Blog, Small Beer Press has Three Messages and a Warning: Contemporary Mexican Stories of the Fantastic up for pre-order.
This huge anthology of all-original Mexican science fiction and fantasy features ghost stories, supernatural folktales, alien incursions, and apocalyptic narratives, as well as science-based chronicles of highly unusual mental states in which the borders of fantasy and reality reach unprecedented levels of ambiguity. Stereotypes of Mexican identity are explored and transcended by the thoroughly cosmopolitan consciousnesses underlying these works.
¡Santas revelaciones, Batman!
La explicación la da Miguel León-Portilla acá {PDF}They were not Aztecs, they were Mexicas.
Description: The Batman slapping Robin/”My parents are DEEAAAAAD!!!” meme. Robin: “Oye Batman, entonces los Aztecas en Tenochtit…” Batman: *slap* “¡¡¡Que no eran Aztecas!!! ¡¡¡Eran Mexicas!!!”
Jesus fucking Christ, Robin, get it right.
This is a truly beautiful story at Crossed Genres for the “Characters of Color” issue, featuring Latina characters and culture. It’s also the last story in the Crossed Genres Year Two anthology and quite frankly, what an absolutely beautiful story to finish an antho with. I cried reading it. So I thought I’d share it with you.
“Hmmm, this looks on topic and Jhameia has good taste, let’s give this a quick read-through and reblog. I’m sure it’s very touching but I pretty much never cry at stories.”
Three-quarters of the way through: “Nah, not making me cry.”
Last section: *bawls*
Via the World SF blog, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s short story “Bloodlines” is online at Fantasy Magazine. It’s a coming-of-age story about an ugly duckling in a dynasty of witches, set in contemporary Mexico.
Elena flipped the picture of San Antonio de Padua on its head and placed thirteen coins before him. She split a coconut, bathed it in perfume and whispered his name. When neither worked, she phoned Mario. Five minutes later she was yelling at the receiver. My mother was shaking her head.
“She should have given him her menstrual blood to drink. Now there’s no way she’ll bind him. He’s out of love.”
“But they’ve had fights before. He’ll come back to beg her forgiveness before next week,” I said, and wished it true even though my wishes don’t count.
“Not this time.”
“Maybe there’s something you could do.”
“Ha,” my mother said.
The screaming stopped. Elena stomped through the living room and went to her room, slamming the door so hard San Antonio’s portrait fell to the ground and cracked…
