ترجمة (242)
0:00A lone man wanders a desolate town where
0:03time stands still and he can't tell
0:05who's alive and who's dead. The town's
0:08people tell him disturbing stories of
0:10cruelty all at the hands of his own
0:14father. And just when the man thinks
0:16he's had enough, he what? Too much of a
0:19spoiler. Okay, fine. Are you ready to
0:21get spooked? Hi, I'm Kurly Velasquez and
0:24this is Crash Course Latin American
0:26Literature. Come in if you dare. Ha.
0:37Latin Americans are no strangers to
0:42Anyways, uh, spirits of the dead figure
0:44heavily in Latin American religion and
0:46folklore thanks to the blending of
0:48indigenous traditions with Spanish
0:50Catholicism. Like Mexico has diiautos,
0:53Day of the Dead, a whole holiday
0:56dedicated to reuniting with the spirits
0:58of loved ones. which is less funeral
1:00vibes and more let's eat and hang out
1:02with our ancestors vibes. Yeah, give me
1:05that cheesemet from the great beyond.
1:08But when it comes to Latin American
1:10literature, the horror genre is actually
1:13pretty recent. An early exception comes
1:16from Mexico and involves lots of ghosts.
1:19Let's take a look at the curly notes.
1:21The Mexican author Juan Rulfo was born
1:24into violence. He grew up in Royal
1:26Halisco and when he was just 6 years
1:28old, his father was killed by bandits. A
1:31few years later, he witnessed the
1:32Gsteros Rebellion, a deadly clash
1:35between Catholic peasants and the
1:37secular-ledd Mexican army. Amid the
1:39chaos of the rebellion, his mother also
1:41died. His landowning family lost their
1:44money and he moved to a boarding school
1:46in Guadalajara before settling in Mexico
1:48City. But Rufo never forgot his roots in
1:51the countryside or the violent memories
1:53of his youth and he channeled them into
1:55Pedro Paramo which would become one of
1:58Mexico's most famous novels. The 1955
2:01book tells the story of Juan Preci who
2:04in the aftermath of the Mexican
2:06Revolution and his mother's death goes
2:08in search of his aranged father. Its
2:10first line is so iconic many Mexicans
2:17Padre Unal Pedro Paramo or as Douglas J.
2:20Weatherford translated it into English.
2:22I came to Kala because I was told my
2:25father lived here. A man named Pedro
2:27Paramo. Much like Shakira's lyrics, it's
2:29more exciting in Spanish. But Juan
2:31doesn't find his father in Komala. He's
2:34long dead. Instead, he finds a hot
2:37abandoned ghost town. Literally, the
2:40town is full of ghosts. And each one has
2:42stories to share of Juan's callous
2:45landowning father who wre havoc through
2:47cruelty and violence and then left the
2:50town to perish. In fact, Bonamo
2:52translates to wasteland or barren plain,
2:55a comment on both the physical
2:57environment and the emotional wreckage
2:59of the town. The spook factor is high as
3:02Juan wanders through what might be
3:04reality or just a dream. I won't spoil
3:07the twist, but let's just say it'll make
3:08you have to catch your breath. Readers
3:11didn't know what to make of Pedro Paramo
3:13at first. It was unlike anything they'd
3:15ever read, especially because of Rufo's
3:18blend of historic influences and new
3:21ideas. Like, he flirts with
3:23environmental determinism, the idea that
3:26our physical environment controls our
3:28fate, which shows up in Latin American
3:31literature as far back as Domingo
3:351845 novel Bakundo. In Pedro Paramo, the
3:40barren town of Kala reflects the
3:42desolation of its people. And Rulfo also
3:45pulls inspiration from La Nolla del
3:47Dictador, a genre of fiction that
3:50interrogates dictatorships.
3:52Rulfo characterizes Paramo in similar
3:55ways to the dictators of the past as a
3:58heartless strong man high off of his own
4:00power. At the same time, Rufo tries out
4:03new styles and techniques like stream of
4:06consciousness where you write as though
4:08recording the character's thoughts and
4:11devices like flashbacks to tell a story
4:16Using these literary tools, Rulfo
4:19creates a dreamlike world that speaks to
4:21the horrors of the real world. And while
4:24casual readers were a bit perplexed,
4:27Pedro Baramo spoke to Latin American
4:29writers in a big way. It majorly
4:32influenced the boom writers of the 1960s
4:35who often manipulated reality through
4:38magical realism, a style that
4:40incorporates fantastical elements into
4:42real world settings. Even Gabrielle
4:44Garcia Marquez said the book inspired
4:47him to write his magnum opus
4:50the solida 100 years of solitude. But
4:54Pedro Paramo's influence didn't end with
4:56the boom. It since inspired a whole new
4:59generation of Latin American horror
5:01writers who have their own takes on the
5:03issues of their day. As we talked about
5:05in previous episodes, there was a lot of
5:08political unrest in Latin America in the
5:1020th century. And this gave way to
5:12authoritarian governments, economic
5:14distress, and violence, leaving Latin
5:17Americans with a sense of fatigue and a
5:20lot of trauma to process. Baby girl,
5:22talk to any elder in our family. A lot
5:25of trauma to process.
5:27Aba, is that you? Anyways, take the
5:32Argentinian writer Mariana Enriquez. She
5:35was born in 1973 and grew up in the
5:37shadow of Jorge Videla's dictatorship.
5:40So, writing horror became a tool for her
5:42to explore the feelings of fear and
5:43dread that hung over her as an adult.
5:46She writes of her work, there's nothing
5:48more serious than a ghost, somebody
5:51trapped in its trauma, personal or
5:53historical, repeating it forever.
5:56Impossible to calm down. unable to break
5:59the cycle, desperate for a voice and for
6:02justice. Like one of the stories in her
6:052016 collection, Lasas Perimos in Fuego,
6:09the things we lost in the fire, follows
6:11two teens playing a prank in an old
6:14hotel that was a police academy under
6:16Videla. When doors start slamming and
6:18the sound of marching fills the rooms,
6:21it might be literal ghost, but it might
6:23be historical ones, too. In this way,
6:25Enriquez points out how the past still
6:28haunts the present. Enriquez's work is
6:30emblematic of a new subgenre of horror.
6:34Dubbed the Novogical Latina Americano,
6:37new Latin American Gothic, it takes on
6:40political and social problems in the
6:42region like drug abuse, police violence,
6:45and poverty, and especially issues that
6:48affect women using horror to call
6:50attention to them. As for the roots of
6:52today's horrors, some authors of the
6:54female Gothic hearken back many
6:56generations to before colonization. For
6:59example, Ecuadorian writer Monica Oela's
7:022020 short story collection Las
7:04Boladoras infuses horror with Incan
7:07mythology and folklore from indigenous
7:10shamans to mythical flying creatures. In
7:13this way, she links the challenges of
7:15today with far older ghosts. In an
7:18interview, Oella said, "I was born in a
7:20wild city which floods every year,
7:22bringing in crocodiles, frogs, and
7:24serpents. A city which receives the
7:27ashes of active volcanoes. I've survived
7:30eruptions and earthquakes. And that's
7:32why I like to say my writing has a
7:34cardiac quality. In other words, the
7:37threatening energy, the life force of
7:39horror writing is inspired by the
7:42natural landscape." So some scholars
7:44call her collection an example of
7:46Goautico Andino or Andian Gothic horror
7:50fiction inspired by the landscape of the
7:52Andes mountains. By focusing on the
7:54physical environment, Oela's work links
7:57back to Rufos. It has that same element
7:59of environmental determinism where the
8:02natural world mirrors societal problems.
8:05But it also explores dangers unique to
8:08women like the threat of sexual
8:09violence. And yet there's something
8:11empowering about her work too. Oh says
8:14the traditional stories that inspire her
8:16can actually help alleviate fear and in
8:19her words dissolve the harshness of the
8:22experience of being a Latin American
8:24woman. So these days there are enough
8:26Latin American Gothic books to fill your
8:28local library. Just check out Fernanda
8:31Melur's Hurricane Season, Lilana
8:33Golansi's You Glow in the Dark, Maria
8:36Fernandanda Ampu's Human Sacrifices, and
8:39Dolores Reyes's Earth Eater. The genre's
8:42become so popular that some folks have
8:45gone so far as to call it the new boom
8:48or the female boom. Though some authors
8:50of the subg genre think these labels are
8:52well-meaning, but ultimately misguided.
8:55Calling it a female boom can make it
8:57seem like female Latin American writers
8:59are an anomaly, an alternate version of
9:02the standard male writer who's long been
9:05centered in Latin American literature.
9:07Plus, as Ecuadorian author Maria
9:08Fernandanda Ampro points out, the term
9:11focuses on the wrong thing, her gender
9:15instead of her work. There's a lot to be
9:17scared of in this world we live in.
9:22Okay. everyone. But a new generation of
9:24Latin American writers is using the
9:27horror genre to take their everyday
9:29fears and create something from them.
9:32They draw attention to the issues that
9:34still plague their home countries, and
9:36they keep readers on their toes, warning
9:38that these imagined realities should
9:41remain the stuff of nightmares. Next
9:44time, we'll learn from Latin American
9:45writers who have crossed borders and
9:47genres. I'll see you then. Thanks for
9:49watching this episode of Crash Course
9:51Latin American Literature, which was
9:53filmed at the Gardlo Hernandez studio in
9:55Indianapolis and was made with the help
9:57of all these spooked people. If you want
10:00to help keep Crash Course free for
10:01everyone forever, you can join our
10:03community on Patreon. Oh, and if you're
10:05interested in learning about some of the
10:07topics covered in this episode, we
10:09pulled together a playlist you can dig
