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McOndo

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McOndo is a Latin American literary movement that breaks away from Latin America's long-dominant magical realist literary tradition by strongly associating itself with mass media culture[1] and the modernity of Latin American urban living [2]. Often closely associated with Mexico`s Crack Movement[3], McOndo attempts to contextualize being Latin American in a world dominated by American pop culture [4]. The movement challenges the rural, magical world typically depicted within the Magical Realism genre[2] as it tends to add exoticism to Latin America while permeating,“reductionist essentialisms that everyone in Latin America wears a sombrero and lives on trees.”[5] The works within the McOndo movement are often characterized by realism, references to American and Latin American popular culture, contemporary urban or suburban settings, and often contain hard boiled and gritty depictions of crime, poverty, globalization, class differences, sex, and sexuality. Though McOndo works often deal with the underlying consequences of politics, they are usually less overtly political than those of the magical realists. According to McOndo writer Edmundo Paz-Soldán, the new narrators of this movement "move with ease in a world of fast food and fast culture...they are the first generation of writers more influenced by mass media than by literary tradition." [6]


History

Origins

Although many Latin American authors began to shift away from the fantastical styles of Magical Realism during the 1980`s, the inception of the McOndo movement is believed to have begun in 1994.[7] During this time, Chilean writer Alberto Fuguet participated in an International Writer's Worshop which took place at the University of Iowa.[7] While attending the workshop, Fuguet attempted to present a short-story to the Iowa Review for publication.[7] Upon reading Fuguets work, the editor was convinced that the lack of magical realist or fantastical components in the narrative made it seem as if, "the story could have taken place right there in [North] America."[7] Consequently, the story was rejected on the grounds that 'it was not Latin American enough,' thus making it extremely hard to publish in the United States because of its lack of magical realism.[7] In response to the rejection of North American editors, a short-story anthology was compiled in 1996 dawning the title McOndo.[8] The anthology, edited and introduced by Alberto Fuguet and Sergio Gómez, compiled 17 short stories all written by individuals from Latin America or Spain.[8] All of the contributors were males who had primarily commenced their literary career in the 1990s and all were born after the late 1950s.[8] The contributing authors distanced themselves from the magical realism genre as they believed it did not correctly represent modern Latin America, which in the 1990's was full of, "shopping malls, cable television, suburbs, and pollution."[8] Alternately, the authors wished to focus on the erasure of nations borders and geographical identities as a result of expanding transnational networks while exploring the effects of globalization on economics and culture.[8] Fuguet argued that his own transnational middle-class upbringing in both urban Chile and the suburban United States made it difficult for him to relate to such themes. Still the rejections kept coming and the advice from writing coaches and publishers was the same: "Add some folklore and a dash of tropical heat and come back later."[9]

In one essay, Fuguet railed against the picturesque, exotic stereotypes the publishing world had come to expect of Latin writers, citing well-known Cuban author-exile Reinaldo Arenas's pronouncement that the literary world expected Latin American novelists to tackle only two themes: underdevelopment and exoticism. Fuguet wrote that he does not deny that there are picturesque, colorful, or quaint aspects to Latin America, but that the world he lives in is too complicated and urban to be bound by the rules of magical realism.[9]

Precursor

It is a common belief that the McOndo movement has been greatly influenced by a previous literary current from the 1960s in Mexico known as "La Onda". The movement, literally known as 'the wave,' was originally associated with the changing styles and rebellious attitudes originating from the introduction of Rock music to Mexico.[10] International groups such as the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Rolling Stones, and the Beatles began to exemplify a generations desire to rebel against tradition.[11] As a result the large influence of foreign mass culture,[12] the Mexican middle class youth began to associate themselves with international hippie movement.[13] Consequently, the group was soon characterized by the style of hair and dress, the literature they read, the type of language they used, and the general aversoin towards authority.[10] This group of Mexican writers focused on popular mass media and the qualities of youth culture, including the language and music of the time.[14] wrote to provoke reaction; there were critics, much like with the McOndo movement which criticized their work as being ‘antiliterary,’ while others applauded their dynamic work and viewed the group as popular or alternative literature. Examples of work from La Onda authors include Gustavo Sainz’s Gazapo in which he discusses the contradictory and volatile world of adolescence, in addition to José Austín’s De perfil, which follows the life of a young uninterested student, and the adolescent experiences he endures. [15]

Etymology

Critics and supporters

Critics of McOndo such as Chilean author Ricardo Cuadros argue that its irreverence for Latin American literary tradition, its focus on American culture, and its apolitical tone tend to dismiss important ideas about writing developed by older Latin American writers who lived under, opposed, and were often suppressed by dictatorial regimes; Cuadros also critizes one of the lead authors, Alberto Fuguet, in The New York Times article, New Era Succeeds Years of Solitude: "Fuguet makes a cariacture out of Latin American literature, which is very rich and complex and which comes from a very painful literary process."[16] The movement has been critized for replacing natural landscapes and animals with a 'wild jungle of cell phones, McDonald's, malls, drugs and an unintelligable slang' according to Bolivian critic Centa Reck. Additionally, critics such as Ignacio Valente who is a professor at the University of the Andes complains that the book, McOndo, compiled by Fuguet and Gómez, was not about expression or commentary on Chilean life, but moreso, an imitation of American culture. Fuguet has also been called a "sell out to American culture, a spoiled product of globalization and an irresponsible countryman" according to New York Times article titled, New Era Succeeds Years of Solitude. [16]

In contrast, supporters, including some magic realists such as Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes, argue that McOndo is capturing the Latin America of today rather than yesterday and that McOndo writers have not completely forgotten the past. In Giannina Braschi's mock diary, "The Intimate Diary of Solitude" (published in Empire of Dreams), the narrator of the Latin American Boom is shot by a lonely make-up artist who works at Macy's and despises the commercialization of her solitude. Even Fuguet, in his 2003 novel The Movies of My Life, captures some of the terror of the Augusto Pinochet regime in his depictions of a grim Pinochetist boarding school, his mention of a pro-Salvador Allende cousin who disappeared and his caricature of a mean-spirited pro-Pinochet grandmother (out of the mold of Charles Dickens's Madame Defarge). A Latin American professor Verónica Cortínez at the University of California at Los Angeles is a supporter of this movement that allows freedom of expression: "The McOndo writers reject the idea that Latin American writers need to ascribe to certain topics or ways of being."[16]

Themes

McOndo is a movement that was founded with an established connection to previous Latin American works and responses to said works. The messages, portrayals and themes of Latin American society in the art and literature of McOndo have arisen in contrast to works of the "boom generation" and especially Magical Realism. While rejecting the resulting stereotype of Latin American literature that stems from magical realism, McOndo authors still maintain a respect for the authors themselves. "I'm a really big fan of Márquez, but what I really hate is the software he created that other people use," says Fuguet "they turn it into more of an aesthetic instead of an ideology. Anybody who begins to copy `One Hundred Years' turns it into kitsch." [16]

Relationship between Latin America and the United States

Part of the McOndo movement, as a response to the global reception of Magical Realism works and those by Gabriel Garcia Marquez especially, deals with the reality of the power relationship between Latin America and the United States. This relationship is also relevant in seeing the influence of globalization and corporate imposition on Latinamerica. The appearance of the idea of the McJob is directly connected in several ways to the connection between these two American countries, both through immigration and results of globalization and expanding quantities of corporations providing many low-paying jobs in Latin America. This relationship between the United States and Latin America in modern times is visible in McOndo through various depictions.

The narratives and texts of these writers show another Latin America, one that is no longer the exotic or the strange (as it was once viewed in the Magical Realism era). McOndo writers accept the integration that Latin America has with the globalized world and fight to impose a new canon and a different vision of Latin America. Also, it is important to note that the United States is also home for many of these McOndo writers. The chicano population is extremely important within the McOndo movement and modern Latin America in itself. This is relevant in modern times as the United States is also home for an enormous Latin American population and can be considered a latinamerican country in some aspects.

Urban Space and Cities

The authors of the McOndo movement link together the representation of urban space (or the absence of its representation) with mass culture. This bond between city and media is a way in which the authors can represent experience, construct identities and create politicized narratives. Urban space is the term coined to represent the mistaken identities that cities have become and narratives of the McOndo movement represent cities in a modern demeanor - cities have become 'non-places,' in which technology and cable (Por favor, rebobinar by Fuguet) have replaced the city. Cities are becoming interchangeable according to some authors such as Ana María Amar Sánchez, and are now seen at a distance or at high speed, from the perspective of a highway, shopping center or screen. [6]

Sex and Sexuality

In accordance with the contemporary world in which it takes place in, the McOndo literary movement addresses the themes of sex and sexuality in a rather modern and unapologetic way. Sex scenes can tend to be described and explained realistically and detailed in some cases to the point of coming off as vulgar. Sex is not a theme that is romanticized unnecessarily. Also, consistent with McOndo's contemporary and postmodern foundations, gender roles and homosexuality are not ignored as relevant themes in modern society. While these roles and definitions are not shown or explained as concrete, they are introduced and portrayed as real contemporary issues that also deal with the conflicts of identity that are ever present in modern Latin America.

Crime and Violence

As part of the realistic modern Latin American world and everyday life, there is a natural inclusion of the crime and violence in the works of McOndo. Guns, knives and physical violence have a presence as well as detailed descriptions of violence that sometimes comes off as grotesque. As Andrea Montejo describes in his article Breaking Free - Colombian writers get personal "Indeed, the violence that has for several decades shaken the country’s major cities is at the heart of such bestselling novels as Vallejo’s La Virgen de los Sicarios (Alfaguara, 1999; Our Lady of the Assassins, Serpent’s Tail, 2001) and Franco’s Rosario Tijeras (Siete Cuentos, 2004). Although very different in their stylistic approach, both portray the harsh reality of an underworld ridden with drug lords, merciless hit men, and the overabundance of easy money—all of which have come to be associated with Colombian literature. The latest batch of writers is well aware of their country’s reality, but they have refrained from portraying it in similar terms."[17] The depictions of the violence that is ever-present in contemporary Latin America and especially in countries such as Columbia and Mexico has evolved as it is now something that is written about as something that is simply part of everyday life. However horrific the portrayals and real life examples of traffickers, hitmen and other criminals may be.

Poverty and Class Differences

In continuity with the aim of McOndo to depict the reality of modern Latin America, the representation of the disparity of wealth and poverty has a fundamental presence in the works of the movement. Also, the infusion of technology and contemporary infrastructure within the impoverished societies of Latin America result in a greater highlighting of this disparity of wealth and globalization. For example, as Emiliano Paz Soldan explains in an interview, "In Bolivia there exists small islands of modernity in the middle of a great pre-modern ocean. The collision between the tradition and modernity interests me."

Mediums

Books

Graphic Novels

  • [[Road story : una novela gráfica de Gonzalo Martínez / Alberto Fuguet. Main Author: Fuguet, Alberto. Other Author(s): Martínez, Gonzalo, 1961- Published: [Santiago de Chile] : Alfaguara, 2007.]]

Movies

Notable writers

Writers associated with McOndo include:

Notes

  1. ^ Amar Sánchez 2001, 207.
  2. ^ a b De Castro 2008, 106.
  3. ^ De Castro 2008, 105.
  4. ^ Arias 2005, 142.
  5. ^ Arias 2005, 140.
  6. ^ a b Amar Sánchez 2001, 218.
  7. ^ a b c d e Hidalgo 2007, 1.
  8. ^ a b c d e Hidalgo 2007, 2.
  9. ^ a b Fuguet, Alberto (1997). "I am not a Magic Realist!". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-12-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  10. ^ a b Zolov 1999, 113.
  11. ^ Zolov 1999, 112.
  12. ^ Zolov 1999, 102.
  13. ^ Zolov 1999, 104.
  14. ^ Amar Sánchez 2001, 209.
  15. ^ Paz-Soldán and Castillo 2001, 8.
  16. ^ a b c d LaForte 2003.
  17. ^ Andrea Montejo, 2.

References

  • Amar Sánchez, Ana María (2001). "Deserted Cities: Pop and Disenchantment in Turn-of-the-Century Latin American Narrative". In Edmundo Paz-Soldán and Debra A. Castillo(eds.) (ed.). Latin American Literature and Mass Media. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 207–221. ISBN 0-8153-3894-5. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)
  • Arias, Claudia M. Milian (2005). "McOndo and Latinidad: An Interview with Edmundo Paz Soldán". Studies in Latin American Popular Culture. 24: p139-149. Retrieved March 28, 2010. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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  • Paz-Soldán, Edmundo and Debera A. Castillo (2001). "Deserted Cities: Beyond the Lettered City". In Edmundo Paz-Soldán and Debra A. Castillo(eds.) (ed.). Latin American Literature and Mass Media. New York: Garland Publishing. pp. 1–18. ISBN 0-8153-3894-5. {{cite book}}: |editor= has generic name (help); Cite has empty unknown parameter: |month= (help)

http://www.mellenpress.com/mellenpress.cfm?bookid=6388&pc=9

See also

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