A collection of 27 Spanish and Latin American science fiction stories, dating from 1862 to 2001. 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. 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. 

Contents:

Introduction: Science fiction in Latin America and Spain -- I. In the beginning : the visionaries -- Distant future (Mexico 1862) / Juan Nepomuceno Adorno -- On the planet Mars (Spain, 1890) / Nilo Maria Fabra -- II. Speculating on a new genre : SF From 1900 through the 1950s -- Mechanopolis (Spain, 1913) / Muguel de Unamuno -- Death Star (Chile, 1929) / Ernesto Silva Roman -- Baby H.P. (Mexico, 1952) / Juan Jose Arreola -- III. The First wave : the 1960s to the mid-1980s -- Cosmonaut (Cuba, 1964) / Angel Arango -- Crystal goblet (Brazil, 1964) / Jeronimo Monteiro -- Cord made of nylon and gold (El Salvador, 1965) / Alvaro Menen Desleal -- Acronia (Argentina, 1966) / Pablo Capanna -- Last refuge (Argentina, 1967) / Eduardo Goligorsky -- Post-Boomboom (Argentina, 1967) / Alberto Vanasco -- Gu Ta Gutarrak (We and our own) (Argentina, 1968) / Magdalena Moujan Otano -- Future (Venezuela, 1970) / Luis Britto Garcia -- When Pilate said no (Chile, 1971) / Hugo Correa -- Falsifier (Peru, 1972) / Jose B. Adolph -- Violet's embryos (Argentina, 1973) / Angelica Gorodischer -- Brain transplant (Brazil, 1978) / Andre Carneiro -- Annunciation (Cuba, 1983) / Daina Chaviano -- Miscalculation (Mexico, 1983) / Federico Schaffler. IV. Riding the crest : the late 1980s into the new millennium -- Stuntmind (Brazil, 1989) / Braulio Tavares -- Reaching the shore (Mexico, 1994) / Guillermo Lavin -- First time (Spain, 1994) / Elia Barcelo -- Gray noise (Mexico, 1996) / Pepe Rojo -- Glimmerings on blue glass (Mexico, 1996) / Mauricio-Jose Schwarz -- Day we went through the transition (Spain, 1998) / Ricard de la Casa and Pedro Jorge Romero -- Exerion (Chile, 2000) / Pablo Castro -- Like the roses had to die (Cuba, 2001) / Michel Encinosa.