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I've been thinking about the rise of BIPOC Futurisms in speculative fiction, especially Latinx and Indigenous Futurism.
In trying to articulate the aims of my own work, I've realized there's a continuum between past, present & future.
I'm calling it Nican Huehcatlahtolli.
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In trying to articulate the aims of my own work, I've realized there's a continuum between past, present & future.
I'm calling it Nican Huehcatlahtolli.
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You may know that I read & write a lot in the indigenous Mexican language Nahuatl.
For Nahuas before the Spanish invasion, time was relative. Though Nahuatl has both past & future tenses, the classic dialect had no simple word for “past” or “future.”
No. Distance was key.
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For Nahuas before the Spanish invasion, time was relative. Though Nahuatl has both past & future tenses, the classic dialect had no simple word for “past” or “future.”
No. Distance was key.
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The past is the place-time we're coming from; the future, the place-time we're headed toward.
I say "place-time" because locative words could stand for either places or times.
Xopan, for example, is both "green place" & "green time" (spring).
Implications for futurism:
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I say "place-time" because locative words could stand for either places or times.
Xopan, for example, is both "green place" & "green time" (spring).
Implications for futurism:
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Many think of BIPOC Futurisms as a tool for portraying the alternate present we deserve as a future we wish to manifest, bringing into existence a relevant, responsive time far from now that is rooted in a time long before now.
Ancestral past meets speculative future.
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Ancestral past meets speculative future.
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In Nahuatl, that ancestral past and speculative future are called by the same name:
Huehcan
The distant place-time.
"Huehcahua" means to be ancient, from the times of yore.
"Huehcatlahtoa" means to prophesy about the future.
Their distance is anchored *here,* "nican."
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Huehcan
The distant place-time.
"Huehcahua" means to be ancient, from the times of yore.
"Huehcatlahtoa" means to prophesy about the future.
Their distance is anchored *here,* "nican."
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Discourse about speculative future or ancient past can be called Huehcatlahtolli, "distant, deep, old words."
And Nican Huehcatlahtolli are those futurisms rooted not just in the past, but in the past of THIS PLACE, here, where our ancestors lived & loved & dreamed & died.
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And Nican Huehcatlahtolli are those futurisms rooted not just in the past, but in the past of THIS PLACE, here, where our ancestors lived & loved & dreamed & died.
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That's what I hope folks find in my work, the "mecayotl" or eternal braided rope of community stretching back into the mists of ancestral past & ahead into the dreamed-of place-times in which ancestral ways can blend with innovative technology—plus all the stops in between.
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The novel @ggmccall & I wrote this summer, THE MOON CONCH, is a great example of Nican Huehcatlahtolli, weaving past, present, & possible future together in a way that feels perfectly natural to us two Mexican Americans from the border.
Others will call it magical realism.
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Others will call it magical realism.
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An intrinsic part of Nican Huehcatlahtolli, IMO, is the vision of time as cyclical. For Mesoamerican peoples before the Spanish invasion, the world had been made, destroyed, & remade multiple times.
Those eras or "suns" weren't devolutions from some Golden Age, no—
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Those eras or "suns" weren't devolutions from some Golden Age, no—
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In each era, the gods tried to DO BETTER, to find the best balance between chaos and order, to craft thinking beings who could best steward the earth.
The raw material of the previous age was used to build the next. The earth herself was a retooling of the primal leviathan.
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The raw material of the previous age was used to build the next. The earth herself was a retooling of the primal leviathan.
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Just as each "sun" carries the "DNA" of the one before, the sort of futurism I embrace projects the culture, language, beliefs of the here-rooted past and present into the future.
There is no break, no abandoning of local lore for universal science. Instead, the two blend.
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There is no break, no abandoning of local lore for universal science. Instead, the two blend.
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In my "kaiju" novel LORDS OF THE EARTH, science can only defeat the giant monsters that emerge from Mexico's volcanoes to plague that nation ... when it takes into account Indigenous traditions, rituals, language (wielded by a Nahua anthropologist).
12/ https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Earth-Kaiju-David-Bowles/dp/1925493857/
12/ https://www.amazon.com/Lords-Earth-Kaiju-David-Bowles/dp/1925493857/
In my graphic novel series CLOCKWORK CURANDERA (winter 2021), steampunk technology, alchemy, & Indigenous magic co-exist in an alternate Northern Mexico / South Texas. An apprentice curandera & her friends must grapple with all three to save their people from oppression.
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In my MG fantasy series GARZA TWINS, Mexican American shapeshifting twins use their powers to halt efforts by gods of chaos to bring this age to an end. Their syncretic Catholic faith is shown to be part of a continuum alongside ancestral beliefs.
14/ https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Mirror-Garza-Twins/dp/1925148645/
14/ https://www.amazon.com/Smoking-Mirror-Garza-Twins/dp/1925148645/
The stories in CHUPACABRA VENGEANCE = Nican Huehcatlahtolli. Readers may think of them as separate examples of fantasy, horror, sci-fi, alt-history, magical realism—but they're all anchored HERE & in the mecayotl between huehcan behind & before us.
15/ https://www.amazon.com/Chupacabra-Vengeance-David-Bowles/dp/1940885353/
15/ https://www.amazon.com/Chupacabra-Vengeance-David-Bowles/dp/1940885353/
Many other Mexican American authors have been engaged in Nican Huehcatlahtolli. @NestoHogan is the patron saint of such futurism. HIGH AZTECH, CORTEZ ON JUPITER, & SMOKING MIRROR BLUES unabashedly shredded sci-fi tropes, reweaving them around our cultural mecayotl.
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The work of @katkat_alcala embraces the union of distant past, possible present, & speculative future, recognizing the relationship between our mestizaje & the many strands of mecayotl.
My respect to scholars @ProfessorLatinx, Matthew David Goodwin & Cathryn Merla-Watson.
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My respect to scholars @ProfessorLatinx, Matthew David Goodwin & Cathryn Merla-Watson.
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I've mentioned my hermana @ggmccall—her SUMMER OF THE MARIPOSAS (alongside upcoming, unannounced projects) is definitely Nican Huehcatlahtolli, a deft celebration of sisterhood & motherhood weaving ancestral past with poignant, place-rooted present.
18/ https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Mariposas-Guadalupe-Garcia-McCall/dp/1620140101
18/ https://www.amazon.com/Summer-Mariposas-Guadalupe-Garcia-McCall/dp/1620140101
Nican Huehcatlahtolli is fully evident in the work of @silviamg, from the chaotic yet creative musical magic of SIGNAL TO NOISE to the uniquely Mexican vampires of CERTAIN DARK THINGS, the darkly divine trek in GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW, & much more. A master of the tradition.
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In an essay for NIGHTMARE published 4 years ago, I made an initial attempt at grappling with Nican Huehcatlahtolli (focusing on sacred stories & folklore). I mentioned @Riosdelaluz & @irenelarasilva, along with the above authors.
20/ http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/h-word-mining-dark-latino-folklore/
20/ http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/nonfiction/h-word-mining-dark-latino-folklore/
Nican Huehcatlahtolli is not just the work of Mexican and Chicanx authors, it's arguably Mesoamerican or more broadly Pan-American.
In the above article, I mention @followthelede, who is another masterful weaver of ancestral past, possible present, & speculative future.
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In the above article, I mention @followthelede, who is another masterful weaver of ancestral past, possible present, & speculative future.
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Here's another article in which you can see me grappling with the idea of Nican Huehcatlahtolli (before the framework expounded upon in this thread had fully solidified for me):
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https://firesidefiction.com/shapeshifting-sorcery-the-persistence-of-mesoamerican-magic
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https://firesidefiction.com/shapeshifting-sorcery-the-persistence-of-mesoamerican-magic
