Latin American & Latinx Speculative Fict

What role does speculation play in subverting the past, rethinking the present, and building different futures within Latin American and Latinx communities? The field of Speculative Fiction uses multiple forms of arts and media to craft fictional imaginaries that have become a vehicle to narrate historical horrors (Merla-Watson & Olguín) and criticize versions of modernity imposed across the Americas (Colanzi). Nonetheless, as Gaspar de Alba claims, these artifacts remain both alien and Indigenous to the West. While these speculative imaginaries use the codes of non-mimetic fiction, such as space-time travel, creatures, robots, alternative realities, and genetics; they also expand upon them to address struggles of the Americas’ history of colonialism, dispossession, and mestizaje.

Throughout the seminar, we will engage in a cross-cultural trajectory of multiple forms of representation, such as literature, comics, film, music, and performance within the US-Mexico border, the Caribbean, and the Southern Cone. From Anzaldúa’s Borderlands to Queer Futurities. We will navigate movies like La Llorona and Sleep Dealer, and representations in Marvel, DC, and Star Wars universes. From transdisciplinary works by Rita Indiana and Luis Carlos Barragán to artwork by Marion Matínez, Amalia Ortiz, and Matías Bergara. We will reflect on how to elucidate Futurisms from mestizos, indigenous, and afro-caribbean identities. Likewise, fictions about waste, viruses, and flesh will display critical takes regarding political tensions and the environmental crisis.

This undergraduate seminar prioritizes hands-on and discussion-based methodologies like group activities and active participation to deepen multiliteracy competencies, public and virtual humanities, and underlying communication abilities of second-language acquisition. The students will be able to transfer critical thinking, decision-making, and research skills into the development of a scaffolded multimedia project, which critically reflects on units’ topics, primary and secondary sources, historical and cross-cultural contexts. This multimedia project will also build an open database that gives an afterlife to each student's contributions to an emerging field and a growing community of LatAm/Latinx SpF Arts & Media. The course is intended for students majoring in Hispanic Cultures and/or Comparative Literature and Society. Advanced Spanish Language level is a requirement, but the seminar is taught in English.