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Latin Labyrinths: The Next Generation

October 2006

Looking for a way through the labyrinth of Latin American literature? Juan Villoro’s “House Loses” makes clear the life of a broke-down casino in the hills, and Horacio Castellanos Moya’s sweeping novel Senselessness illuminates the violence in Central America. Literature becomes a vehicle to freedom in the imaginary travelog of an exile, One Year by Juan Emar. Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza raises a glass to his friend Gabriel García Marquez. As a kind of apotheosis, Ralph Angel’s essay on Federico García Lorca’s poetry formulates the immortality of song.

Finally, we discover ourselves in the company of the heirs of the legacy of Jorge Luis Borges. Fernando Sorrentino catalogs brilliant faux-encyclopedia entries on “The Extinction of Basilisks” and “The Diet of Horses,” and Alberto Ruy-Sánchez shows the ontological side of the entomological in his sensual “Garden of Voices.” Then Aura Estrada divines the aesthetics of Borges in relation to those of Roberto Bolaño.

The House Loses

By Juan Villoro

Radio held up his three losing cards. There was no need to show the other two as well.

Translated from Spanish by Amanda Hopkinson

From “Senselessness”

By Horacio Castellanos Moya

I am not complete in the mind, said the sentence I highlighted with the yellow marker and even copied into my personal notebook…

Translated from Spanish by Katherine Silver

From “One Year”

Today I had surgery on my ear and telephone.

Translated from Spanish by Daniel Borzutzky

From “The Lost Cause: A Memoir of My Life with Gabriel García Marquez”

By Plinio Apuleyo Mendoza

“My friend,” his voice explodes, “Why don’t you come have lunch with me?”

Translated from Spanish by Timothy Pratt

Attempting to Live Inside Federico García Lorca’s “Poema del Cante Jondo” for a While

I’m convinced that some languages, languages we neither speak nor understand, are familiar to the ear.

Two Common Misconceptions

By Fernando Sorrentino

The most casual observation would seem to suggest, beyond a doubt, that the basilisk species is on its way to extinction.

Translated from Spanish by Donald A. Yates

The Garden of Voices

By Alberto Ruy-Sánchez

According to legend, those strange rocks had been brought by sea from distant countries where silk was sold.

Translated from Spanish by Rhonda Dahl Buchanan

Borges, Bolaño and the Return of the Epic

By Aura Estrada

During their lifetimes, Jorge Luis Borges and Roberto Bolaño struggled against vanity and all things pretentious, aspirational, ordinary, and obliging.

Translated from Spanish by T.G. Huntington