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Sexy Cyborg Cholo Clownz

by Joe Jimenez 

In this text, cyborgs in the form of cholos are portrayed. It was in a story form. I enjoyed that this excerpt wasn’t commentary (although commentary does help clarify ideas). There was dialogue between the cyborgs in Spanish and English which I related to. 

I chose to elaborate on this writing piece because the title caught my attention. I wondered how a cholo could be tied to being a clown. I am not going to lie that I was a bit lost throughout the story because a lot of things are going on at the same time as well as new concepts being introduced like ‘carino’ and ‘To belong’. Within this story, I felt that the cyborg cholos were becoming real life humans that were experiencing a new consciousness and body. 

Interestingly, I believe that the narrator who is speaking to the messed up cyborg is talking about resistance and keeping things (injustices) silent. I believe this is so due to the Spanish vocabulary utilized like; ‘aguantando’ and ‘tragandotelo’. Those words I associate with conforming and simply ‘taking it’. 

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Part 6 Chicanonautica Manifesto

by Ernest Hogan 

Honestly, this excerpt I took it more as an explanation/ auto-biography of the speculative fiction and sci-fi themes Hogan wrote. He explains how he just began writing what his mind knew without thinking too much about it and what the outcomes will be. This meant to me that any sci-fi writing a Latinx person writes is of great discovery. This is because there is not much visibility or encouragement of such intellectual practices. It is like many excerpts state. The Latino population has been covered with an invisibility cloak and then labeled with the word ‘lazy’. 

Hogan talks about how he was unafraid to spill out his radical ideas. HIs non-mainstream ideas that would further impede some of his stories from having a greater response. I say this because Hogan describes how he wasn't considered “commercial” by the main publishers. Sometimes, when our ideas don't match the popular opinion, it will not be published or visible. This is also a form of invisibility and suppressing the Latino voice. Someone else (publishers) put themselves one the power stance to put their opinions first and at a higher value that the original Latinx person. This has happened in research when it comes to indigenous research. Colonizers interpreted our customs through their viewpoint, not our or our ancestors who are the obvious experts. Hence, just emphasizes the importance of our voice spreading in all aspects. 

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Mundos Alternos A Skylab for Speculative Curation

by Robb Hernandez

I felt like this article talked a lot about the backstage work of researching speculative fiction and how it connected with Latinx identity. With all honestly, the sub-theme within this text that called my attention was In Search of a Speculative Caribbean. This part talked about how there was a transnational advisory board with scholars and specialists in complementary fields. It described how Rebeca Noriega’s creative works in Puerto Rico produced a decolonial science fiction visual vocabulary (376). It gave examples of Caribbean technological advancements. 

It talked about how Puerto Rico is a neocolonial state and being a place that has lived moments of technological invasion and distortion throughout political history. It was interesting and intriguing to read about this because the text mostly centers the technological advancements in the Mexican or Chicana/o culture. This is where one can decide if speculative fiction includes all Latinos/as. This also brings me to reflect on the various consequences of latinidad. 

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Part 5 For Those Seeking Signs of Intelligent Life Xicana Chronicles of the Original Alien Ancestors

by Debora Kuetzpal Vasquez

This excerpt was a very touching one for me, and I highly appreciated it because it talked about womanhood through an indigenous perspective and if I am not mistaken included some homosexuality aspects to it. I love the imagination piece it has. There are ‘aliens’ and space ships within the story of love which I love. I also felt sad. I felt sad because traditions were not passed down to me and my siblings. My mother keeps quiet of her past and her grandparents. She has briefly explained some ancestral past in relation to “witches”. My moms tias were assumed to be witches, but it was never confirmed. However, I have my own assumptions about spirituality within my family tree. My mother’s herbal teas and home remedies do not fool me. Along with, ‘feelings’ perhaps also knows as un don.

The story described how cruel it was to eat meat and how all the malicious treatment and abuse energy stays within the meat. Moreover, the narrators described a world without greed. It was an alternate world that focused on peace and consciousness. Another aspect that I loved about this excerpt was that my mind was hungry to see more images it was portraying. They were of brown women kissing or simply being present. The turtle image on the galaxy was also pleasing. The simple connection between spirituality and indegeneity was personal to me.

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“Waking the Sleeping Giant” Mestizaje, Ideology, and the Postcyberpunk Poetics of Carlos Miralejos’s Texas 2077

by Jose R. Flores 

I choose this excerpt for my blog because it rose aggressive emotions as I read it. It discusses the “Latino vote” as an untapped potential and describes it as a ‘slumber’. Although I have heard various elections that the ‘Latino vote’ might skew results or is on the rise, I had never gone into much depth. I did wonder who was keeping record of all the Latino votes and demographics. That is all. However, this excerpt explains how the “Latino vote” is assumed to be homogenous and in the same political and social agenda. 

There is a brief synopsis of the text Texas 2077 that is a example of cyberpunk literature. This text reinforces the, “trope of the Latino community as a political ‘sleeping giant’” (265). Texas 2077 introduces the emerging Latino-dominated political party, New Era., which wants to be a part of Year 2000 Time Capsule. However, a Jewish executive marketing manager rejects their request to participate. the director, Max Wizenberg fears that the increase of Latino population may hinder political organizing. He believes suppressing the media coverage can fix the issue. This is an example of Latino invisibility and its many causes. Suddenly, I thought of all the Latino people like me. It may not be that we are no interested in politics, it’s that our information has been made invisible and silenced. New Era ends up becoming one of the largest political parties in the novel. 

I enjoyed this reading because it touches on how the units of Latinos is vital. We are not a homogenous group although for centuries we have been jumbled up into one category. The idea of latinidad goes far beyond skin color. We need to stop the ‘infighting’ before we move together to gain political power.

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Narrating the Right to Health Speculative Genre in Morales’s The Rag Doll Plagues

by Andrew Uzendoski

This article highlights human rights as a universal human right. It talks about human rights requiring three qualities. Human rights are natural, equal, and universal. Thus, since not all humans in the world posses all of this, there are no standardized and human rights security around the globe. The Speculative fiction story, The Rag Doll Plagues, recognizes the right to health as a universal human right. The narrative includes a viral pathogen spreading around the continent it, “depicts how three distinct pandemics ravage three North American populations in three different era” (249). Furthermore, Morales targets for profit hospitals and corporations as the threats to securing universal access to health care. I cant help but think as I read this on capitalism and how it is a direct cause of why not everybody has health care. All in al this text by Morales shows how readers can utilize speculative fiction to critique and promote human rights ideals through writing. 

I choose to include this on my blog because the way Morales breaks down the piece into three different time periods. my most favorite time period is the first colonial period. The plagues is called, “La Mona” which infects indigenous peoples and some Europeans. After many die, the plagues sort of disappears yet the discriminatory medical system that is put in place afterwards will be mirrored in the second act by the US health care system. I enjoy that this time period is included because it claims and repeats the unfortunate events. of many indigenous deaths due to European arrival. Europeans came overseas dirty and would not bathe as much as the indigenous people. I know they described my ancestors and dirty and savages, yet Europeans were the dirty ones filled with disease that soon affected my peoples lives. If I would draw a European colonizer as they arrived to the land, they would be physically dirty to represent all the malice they brought to this land.

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Part 4 The Future of Food? Indigenous Knowledges and Sustainable Food Systems in Latin@ Speculative Fiction

by Gabriela Nunez 

This article blew my mind in the sense that food trucks and food concessions were always a normal aspect of Mexican culture and I would go on to argue a practice I have seen in other Latin American countries. I would not be at all surprised if Asia had some similar to these trucks. The story told within this excerpt is chef Roy Choi’s food truck; it was a Korean taco truck. Choi’s use of technology plus the cool aesthetic he infused into this Korean-Mexican street food triggered a shift in mainstream perception of the Mexican taco truck. Taco trucks used to be described as “roach coaches” whose customers tended to be construction workers. All of a sudden, it became a hip foodie culture. 

However the title of this chapter made me immediately think about the food gap there is within the higher class and working class. This food distribution has constantly fluctuated and affected people in different ways. For example; in the US a certain class cannot afford to buy organic and unprocessed foods. It is unfortunate that McDonald’s is cheaper than a couple of pounds of fruits and vegetables. it is also ironic that quinoa, expensive and highly nutritious, used to be a peasants food that was given to the working servants of Latin America. Now, quinoa is expensive and tend to be consumed by people who can afford it. 

Lastly, I enjoyed this chapter and decided to attach it to my blog because it mentions that food reaffirms ethnic and cultural identity. That could not be more true and part of your daily life like arroz and frijoles is to me. 

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Contesting Monstrosity in Horror Genres

Chicana Feminist Mappings of de la Pena’s “Refugio” and Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Series by Luz Maria Gordillo 

This excerpt talked about US mainstream cultural productions of science fiction and fantasy, horror, and gothic genres that are predominantly white and heterosexist. There is a lack of powerful queer women of color as protagonists in narratives which illustrates the hetereosexism and racism plaguing these popular narratives. Very descriptively, the chapter went on describing women as powerful witches and vampires that was later changed due to the high attention of male vampires who took the lead in the horror, gothic, and fantasy realm. There was some visual retaliation with The Mayfair Witches series by Rice however the female vampires were beginning to resemble the male vampires which caused female vampires to eventually fall off. (200). This makes me reflect on how women were burned to death because people assumed they were witches in the past as well. Furthermore, this makes men reflect on Santeria and how different demographic groups view Santeria. 

My theory about people who tend to shun and close the idea of Santeria or other forms of spiritual religion is that their veil remains on. This goes back to when the colonizers arrived to this land and saw our ancestors worshipping multiple gods and goddesses. Worshipping every aspect upon this earth. They judged and criticized this aspect of the indigenous peoples. It’s brainwashing and erasing history that allows this to happen. 

A story of white passing was also mentioned within these pages which I appreciated because I would never know what that feels like, I do know that I have felt privilege as well. Specifically, Mexican white privilege and how people desire some ‘ethnic flavor’. 

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Part 3

#rapetreesarereal Chican@futurism and Hybridizing Horror in Christopher Carmona’s “Strange Leaves” by Cynthia Saldivar 

This article was highly intriguing because it focused on the violence between the border of Mexico and United States especially on women. There has been reports of several trees having undergarments on the branches. These trees are, “sites where immigrant smugglers sexually assault migrant women” (185). It speaks to the thousands of Central American women who emigrate to Mexico in hopes to cross to the United States or far enough to claim asylum. In the past recent years, the immigration rate for Honduran, Guatemalan, and Salvadorians leaving their country are at an all time high due to the extreme gang and women violence. Almost all women who cross the border of Mexico to the United States get sexually assaulted. Now imagine having to cross two or three more borders. That is how far Central American women and children are traveling to escape violence in their home countries.

The article mentions various themes like cyborg feminism, cyber space, and the internet in the hands of Mexicans and Chicanos/as. However, I want to focus on Shi’s journey to the United States. Rape is the manner in which the body is assaulted and it occurs in two scenes. The chapter describes how not only did Shi get violated but her mother as well. Both instances of rape stem from the patriarchal system that allow Latina bodies to be sexualized and discarded. This is just another example where women utilize their bodies to provide a sort of income and ensure a better life.

In addition, Carmona includes new and old technology through the use of hashtags, cellphones, and an !Telegram. She incorporates Shi, an indigenous young girl, in a modern world where indigenous people like many others have been excluded. The importance of hashtags are shown within the story as well because they, “materialize out of shared experiences and have an impact on social and political reality” (189). Furthermore, the use of hashtags within the story contribute to its complex hybridity and brings together multiple identities, histories, and peoples which I thought was interesting especially when thinking about how people utilize hashtags in modern day.

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Machete Don’t Text

From Genre Textualities to Media Networks in Machete by William Orchard

This excerpt elaborates on Chicano/a film and how its critique can tell us what the big popular culture’s view was specifically after solely having the 1970s exploitation films where there were, “rough production values, narrative investments in socially marginalized groups, and genre depictions of men as violent and virile and women as sexual objects for male consumption” (145). This part reminded me of a TED talk that it called, “The Danger of 1 Story” I believe. The main idea of this TED talk was that if one single story is repetitively told about a place or someone, eventually that is all they become to the audience. Hence, the audience does not know the other great stories or rich culture a place like Africa and Haiti have. I relate this to American history and society. If society solely shows the dominant culture, then that is what that group of people become. I feel like this is what happened and often happens when a white person or any person with privilege encounters a film that does not fit their usual beliefs or assumptions. 

The text describes how the second trailer provoked various emotions from both ends of the political spectrum. I appreciate that it was during the time SB1070 was in conversation. The legislation passed three months before the film released, thus some scholars viewed the film as a fantasy response. I feel like these films are necessary not only to voice and claim the situation but to also heal. Not all the Chicano/a and Mexican population get to unveil themselves and work towards “decolonization’. Film and technology can reach far more eyes than books t minds unfortunately in these days. That is not an accident either. 

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PART 2

From Code to Codex Tricksterizing the Digital Divide in Ernest Hogan’s Smoking Mirror Blues 

by Daoine S. Bachran 

Part 2 of the book continued the discussion of cyborgs, networks, and post humanism. This article was the first one of part 2 and it stuck out to me because it described further on how there is a sharp class gap in access to digital technologies, tools, literacies, the codes and assumptions behind the design choices, etc... Although I do recognize how technology has helped the Chicana/o population, there is still a large amount of Latinos all over who struggle immensely with technology and are not encouraged or have the tools to learn. Consequently, like the book says, “the digital divide leaves Latina/os in digital behind as both creators and users of digital spaces” and are criticized as being lazy and uneducated. 

The defeat of capitalism through technology is described through Ernest Hogan’s novel, Smoking Mirror in this excerpt as well. The novel highlights the future’s dependence on mass media for culture as he creates space for Chicana/o techno-signification. Hogan seeks to recover mass media while simultaneously recovering Chicana/o histories from Aztec myths and zoos suit riots, revitalizing and claiming Chicano nationalist practices in modern/ future times. As I read all these creative sci-fi stories, my mind was blown because I had never connected sci-fi with the stories I was told as a child of la llorona or el chupacabra with political aspects of what was going on with Mexico. 

Another subject that hit close to home was the explanation of the digital divide being in film as well. I was disappointed to find out that once audio TV came out, lots of women of color (especially Latinas) were moved to the margins due to their “ethnic accents’. It was also disappointing to read how Latinas/os roles changed to more whiter characters. Let’s not forget that darker complexioned latinos/as are depicted as evil or seductive malicious characters. 

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Chicana/o Cyberpunk after el Movimiento

by Lisa Rivera 

This excerpt was one I also highly appreciate because it highlighted the problem there is between technology and Latinx populations. Interestingly enough, a main idea consisted of how twenty first century technologies are a site of power and of resistance to that power by American mestizas and mestizos, primarily those who identify as Chicana or Chicano. Chicanafuturism also applies to the relationship between technoscience and Chicana/o culture. 

A term that confused me was cyberpunk, but I quickly read that cyberpunk, “emerged in response to both globalization and the information of ‘cyber’ technologies that propel it” (95). The setting for it is in the future and concerned with the social, economic, and ecological impacts of globalization and information technologies. Cyberpunk creates space for a different story of history to be told. After reading various articles that are considered cyberpunk, I realized that cyberpunk text can critique capitalism, identity formation, music and performances, and globalization along with high end technology.

A specific sub theme of the text was 1990s Chicano Cyberpunk. It caught my attention because it introduces ‘cyborgs’. Specifically, Guillermo Gomez-Pena’s ‘ethno-cyborgs’ and Valdez’s movement era Chicana/o humanoid robots which are Mexican and Chicana/o who are satirical and embody cultural stereotypes. Interestingly, the ethno-cyborgs reverse the political gaze onto the white cultural dominant (101). I could then see how Chicanas/os have utilized technology to share political messages to a wide audience in a highly innovative and creative way.

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PART 1

Entry1: The Emancipatory Power of the Imaginary Defining Chican@ Speculative Fiction by William A. Calvo-Quiros 

This excerpt for me was a very life changing one since it defined Speculative fiction through the eyes of a Chican@. I understand Chican@ Speculative production to be a, “tactic for emancipation and self-governance” that “deeply intertwines sociopolitical and historical oppressive experiences” (40). I had to reread and read the context of speculative fiction. The quote that helped me visualize and make sense of the reading was, “interconnected system of Chican@ cultural productions that grant access to the complex ways in which Chica@s make sense of what is happening around them and interpret their histories of resilience and intellectual resistance”. All the dreams and non0reality thoughts I have had are, “tactics of survival as it envisions a future free of oppression”. These thoughts and plans are alternative ways of being alive, and many Chican@s do this to remain alive and endure daily challenges. The article describes this process as a, “strategic, political, and epistemic tactic for survival” ( 41). Basically, for Chican@s imagining a new self, collectively and individually, CSPs become a political project of self-affirmation, valorization, and emancipation. 

This chapter reminds me of hope and how it is crazy intelligent for groups of people to recognize their “place” in society and work towards dodging those barriers. An important thing to recognize is that the speculative is interwoven with the real world and this imaginary world along with symbolism. These are spaces that hope and desire for a better world and works towards building such community. 

I feel like this chapter was very moving for me because it affirmed my emotions and process of identification. In the past, I was not exposed to many female Xicana music, literature, artwork, or academic works. I always found it challenging to fit my ideas into those spaces. I kept my thoughts and artistic mind to myself. I love the double agent reference of the maid who worked as a secret agent. It highlights how invisible Chican@ women are in the world. Imagining to create change is the way to change the world.