- Home
- Early Classics of Science Fiction
- fiction
- literary criticism
- Cosmos Latinos
Cosmos Latinos
An Anthology of Science Fiction from Latin America and Spain
Edited Andrea L. Bell and Yolanda Molina-Gavilán
Series: Early Classics of Science Fiction
Sales Date: 2003-07-31
368 Pages, 6.00 x 9.00 in
The first-ever collection of Latin American science fiction in English.
Opening a window onto a fascinating new world for English-speaking readers, this anthology offers popular and influential stories from over ten countries, chronologically ranging from 1862 to the present. Latin American and Spanish science fiction shares many thematic and stylistic elements with anglophone science fiction, but there are important differences: many downplay scientific plausibility, and others show the influence of the region's celebrated literary fantastic. In the 27 stories included in this anthology, a 16th-century conquistador is re-envisioned as a cosmonaut, Mexican factory workers receive pleasure-giving bio-implants, and warring bands of terrorists travel through time attempting to reverse the outcome of historical events.
The introduction examines the ways the genre has developed in Latin America and Spain since the 1700s and studies science fiction as a means of defamiliarizing, and then critiquing, regional culture, history and politics—especially in times of censorship and political repression. The volume also includes a brief introduction to each story and its author, and an extensive bibliography of primary and secondary works. Cosmos Latinos is a critical contribution to Latin American, Spanish, popular culture and science fiction studies and will be stimulating reading for anyone who likes a good story.
IN THE BEGINNING
Juan Nepomuceno Adorno - "The Distant Future" (Mexico, 1862)
Nilo Maria Fabra - "On the Planet Mars" (Spain, 1890)
SPECULATING ON A NEW GENRE: SF FROM 1900 THROUGH THE 1950s
Miguel de Unamuno - "Mechanopolis" (Spain, 1013)
Ernesto Silva Roman - "The Death Star" (Chile, 1929)
Juan Jose Arreola – "Baby H.P" (Mexico, 1052)
THE FIRST WAVE: THE 1960s TO THE MID-1980s
Angel Arango - "The Cosmonaut" (Cuba, 1964)
Jeronimo Monteiro - "The Crystal Goblet" (Brazil, 1964)
Alvaro Menen Desleal - "A Cord Made of Nylon and Gold" (El Salvador, 1965)
Pablo Capanna - "Scronia" (Argentina, 1967)
Magdalena Moujan Otano - "Gu TA Gutarrack (We and Our Own) (Argentina, 1968)
Luis Britto Garcia - "Future" (Venezuela, 1970)
Hugo Correa - "When Pilate Said No" (Chile, 1971)
Jose B. Adolph - "The Falsifier" (Peru, 1972)
Angelica Gorodischer - "The Violet's Embryo's" (Argentina, 1973)
Andre Carneiro - "Brain Transplant" (Brazil, 1978)
Daina Chaviano - "The Annunciation" (Cuba, 1983)
Federico Schaffler - "A Miscalculation" (Mexico, 1983)
RIDING THE CREST: THE LATE 1980s INTO THE NEW MILLENIUM
Braulio Tavares - "Stuntmind" (Brazil 1989)
Guillermo Lavin " - Reaching the Shore" (Mexico, 1994)
Elia Barrcelo - "First Time" (Spain, 1994)
Pepe Rojo - "Gray Noise" (Mexico, 1996)
Mauricio-Jose Schwarz - "Glimmerings on Blue Glass" (Mexico, 1996)
Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero - "The Day We Went through the Transition" (Spain, 1998)
Pablo Castro - "Exeriom" (Chile, 2000)
Michel Encinosa - "Like the Roses Had to Die" (Cuba, 2001)
ANDREA L. BELL is Associate Professor of Spanish and Latin American Studies at Hamline University in Minnesota. YOLANDA MOLINA-GAVILÀN is Associate Professor of Spanish at Eckerd College in Florida and the translator of Rosa Montero's The Delta Function (1992).
"Helpful explanatory notes, a comprehensive bibliography and a well-organized historical introduction all add value to this intriguing anthology.... (T)he political, social and economic turmoil that rocked Latin America in the 1970s and '80s seems still to pervade its science fiction... Teachers of SF college courses looking for a multicultural angle will make this required reading."
~Publishers Weekly
""Helpful explanatory notes, a comprehensive bibliography and a well-organized historical introduction all add value to this intriguing anthology.... (T)he political, social and economic turmoil that rocked Latin America in the 1970s and '80s seems still to pervade its science fiction... Teachers of SF college courses looking for a multicultural angle will make this required reading.""
~Publishers Weekly
""The introduction provides a historical overview of sf development in the Spanish-speaking world, and the notes accompanying the stories build useful contextual frameworks for appreciating the authors and their work... A welcome expansion of the sf terrain for Anglophones, especially since its scholarly trappings highlight how vital sf is in Latin America and Iberia.""
~Booklist
"The stories are exceptionally good reading. They are highly original, fast-paced, and keep the reader entranced till the end."
~Norma Nelida Dangla, Professor of English, University of MoronBuenos Aires
"Cosmos Latinos is the first anthology of its kind to offer a critical and scholarly approach to Latin American science fiction to the English-speaking audience. An unusually important book.""
~Aaron Dziubinskyj, Assistant Professor of Spanish, DePauw University
Related Books
