Hispanic Heritage Month encompasses A LOT of amazing people, contributions, and traditions, too much to cover in just one issue, just one month, just one year. Heritage defined is something handed down from the past, as a tradition. Lived, it’s a way of being, thinking, and evolving. This month, Narazu slices off just the tip of the iceberg to celebrate some of the amazing art branching out from Hispanic communities worldwide!
¡Ir audazmente! (Boldly go!)
Team Narazu
All Indie. All Awesome.
Film
by Leo Faierman
It’s that time of year again, the split-month tithe of Latin-American attention that cuts into October with time left over to get costumes in order (are we virtually trick-or-treating this year? I’ll go as a mistaken Zoom meeting nip-slip). Yes, it’s Hispanic Heritage Month, and I won’t spare a glance at a gift horse’s maw to take the opportunity to shout out some sci-fi treasures, this time from Peru and Argentina.
THE RAVEN by Ricardo de Montreuil, director
What ever happened to The Raven? I mean, seriously? It’s been about a decade since news first hit the trades that (renown neighborhood racist) Marky Mark had obtained the rights and was busy making Peruvian director Ricardo de Montreuil’s visionary action short into a full-length reality. Many years have passed without a single update, so we might chalk this one up as another abandoned Hollywood phantom, but the original short remains available to watch while considering What Might Have Been. Actor Victor Lopez plays a young man chased through the streets by a murderous-drone-empowered LAPD, but possesses destructive superpowers to lay explosive waste to the eye-in-the-sky cop-tech. Legend has it that the short was made for a scant $5,000 (though sponsorship in the credits implies some additional possible resources), and ten years later this is still a dazzling low-budget attempt at rendering an urban Latino superhero. Return to The Raven (you can even download it directly!), a brief action spectacle which somehow hits different in 2020.
INVASION by Hugo Santiago, director
Hugo Santiago’s 1969 film Invasión lives in strange air – perhaps this is why co-screenwriter and Argentina’s giant of letters Jorge Luis Borges alternately praised, condemned, distanced from, and forgot it, in that order, while it yet lives on in mangled obscurity. A city named Aquilea putters along in some temporally mysterious center of the 20th century, threatened by grim-faced invaders with unclear terror methods and practices. Equally unclear are the city’s defenders, a kind of ragtag and muted assortment of cosmopolitan urbanity mired in low-key spy games, themselves ambiguous in the fight and their placement within it. If these descriptions sound vague, they are also deliberately honest, and Invasión has a strangely dreamy quality, helped by its masterfully composed photography, along with a script that doesn’t meander so much as it dodges quick comprehension; perhaps, in certain ways, like some of Borges’ work. The film’s history is equally lengthy and fraught, with original reels destroyed by Argentine authorities and the newest rendition digitized from a reliquary copy discovered in the early 2000s. A solid DVD is not available for purchase anywhere that I can find, but a YouTuber uploaded a decent-quality English-subtitled version in 2017, which can be found here. It’s a strange but rewarding experience that most definitely influenced later cinema, and works equally well as a bizarro snapshot of late 60s Buenos Aires and imaginative high-concept speculative noir.
LA ANTENA by Esteban Sapir, director
Following a film from my birth nation with another is one of the greatest retraux silent film homages of the 21st century. I’m speaking of Esteban Sapir’s La Antena, a deliriously gorgeous black-and-white near-silent sci-fi masterpiece, managing to outdo most of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (Delicatessen, Amelie) own comparably devotional tributes to French film pioneer Georges Méliès. There once was a city whose people lost their ability to speak, aside from a singer named “La Voz” who becomes a sacred and singular sound. She works for Mr. TV, a capitalist-fascist television mogul wooing the muted populace with her songs, though they are further mesmerized by TV-branded meals (which themselves are also somehow television?). A television repairman divorcee and his plucky young daughter soon end up embroiled in a desperate liberation scheme along with La Voz’s son, hoping to de-hypnotize the somnambulant citizenry. La Antena is relentlessly charming and inventive, weaving its diegetic subtitles into a physical presence that curls around its makeshift world, or carving the screen around its dazzling actors and magically homespun prop-craft. Nearly any frame of the film functions as a piece of art, and it’s absolutely required viewing by any and all lovers of formative sci-fi and operatic excess, to say nothing of its glorious soundtrack. I’ll write 1,000 words for this film before I even get started, though it can be unfortunately hard to track down; you can catch it on Amazon Prime with a Mubi subscription, or with Amazon’s lowest priced DVD, which is about $75, so hopefully a streaming giant is smart enough to snatch it up soon and spread its delights farther. Again: La Antena is a must-see marvel that is worth the work to track down.
Art
Sometimes it’s best simply to be quiet and let excellence drop the mic.
(pictured above, LA MACETA by John Picacio, product illustration for Loteria card deck.)
ABOUT (from johnpicacio.com): “JOHN PICACIO is one of the most acclaimed American artists in science fiction and fantasy over the last decade, creating best-selling art for George R. R. Martin’s A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE series, the STAR TREK and X-MEN franchises. as well as over 150 book covers. Major clients include Penguin Random House, Tor Books, Macmillan, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, Saga Press, Pyr, Baen Books, Tachyon, and many more. His body of work features major book illustrations for authors such as Leigh Bardugo, Rebecca Roanhorse, Michael Moorcock, Harlan Ellison, James Dashner, Brenda Cooper, Frederik Pohl, Mark Chadbourn, Sheri S. Tepper, James Tiptree, Jr., Lauren Beukes, Jeffrey Ford, Joe R. Lansdale, and many, many more. His accolades include three Hugo Awards, eight Chesley Awards, three Locus Awards, two International Horror Guild Awards, the World Fantasy Award, and the Inkpot Award. He is the founder of the creative publishing imprint, Lone Boy, which has become the launchpad for his Loteria Grande cards, a bold contemporary re-imagineering of the classic Mexican game of chance. In 2018, he became only the third person in the history of the World Science Fiction Convention to serve as Guest of Honor and Hugo Awards Master of Ceremonies at the same Worldcon, and the first the Latinx to ever be a Worldcon Guest of Honor. He is the founder of The Mexicanx Initiative. He lives and works in San Antonio, TX.”
(pictured above, THE JAGUAR by Laura Molina, indie comic.)
ABOUT (from Wikipedia): “Laura Molina is an American artist, musician, and actress… perhaps best known for her Naked Dave paintings and being the lead singer/guitarist of the 1980s rock band Tiger Lily. She is also the creator of Cihualyaomiquiz (The Jaguar) a self-published comic book printed under Molina’s own Insurgent Comix imprint.”
Her output has slowed during recent years due to illness, which makes this a good time to support her. Head to www.lauramolina.com for Molina news and updates.
(pictured above, mural by Wendy Ortiz.)
ABOUT: Wendy Ortiz went from self-taught artist to having over 300 thousand followers of her sumptuous, macabre, or simply brilliant artwork on her Instagram. One look at her emotive, powerful works might have you clicking “follow” too.
(pictured above, Omni, issue one cover by Alitha Martinez.)
ABOUT (from the Wikipedia page): “For much of the latter half of the 1990s, Martinez worked as a background assistant/inker for other creators, with her earliest known work being her 1993 contribution to the series Cable. Martinez counts 1999 as her big break in comics when she was working as an assistant to Marvel editor Joe Quesada. Via this connection, she became the lead artist on Iron Man, working on the book for the better part of 2000 and 2001.
“After a series of short stints and one-shots for the next few years, Martinez became a regular artist on the Season 2 and Season 3 Heroes webcomics produced in 2008–2009 to supplement the popular television show of the same name.
“Moving to DC Comics, Martinez co-created the villain Knightfall in Batgirl #10 (August 2012).
“In recent years, she helped create the artwork, including cover art, for a special commemorative issue of Riverdale by Archie Comics.Martinez penciled most of the first five issues of World of Wakanda, a spin-off from the Marvel Comics’ Black Panther title that was primarily written by Roxane Gay. In 2017, she was a guest artist for the limited series Lazarus X+66 from Image Comics, written by Greg Rucka. She also worked on five issues of Marvel Comics’ Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur.
“In 2019, Martinez released the series Omni with writer Devin K. Grayson for the Humanoids Publishing comic line.
“In 2020, art by Martinez was included in the exhibit Women in Comics: Looking Forward, Looking Back at the Society of Illustrators in New York City.
“Martinez is on the faculty of the School of Visual Arts.”
Comics
By George Carmona III
Latin Heritage Month
Officially known as Hispanic Heritage Month, a discussion for another time, this month is a celebration of Latin/LatinX creators and characters. The comic picks for this month are books that are from Latin/LatinX creators who give us wildly different stories yet are very similar in their personal views.
Writer/Artist: Mike Hawthorne
Colorists: Sam Bowen and Ari Pluchinsky
Happiness Will Follow is Mike Hawthorne’s beautifully illustrated graphic novel memoir of growing up Puerto Rican in Pennsylvania. Unflinching in the portrayal of his relationship with Blanca, his mother, and the rest of his family, this is a story of tragedy and abuse transforming into a tale of finding hope and peace. Known for his more superheroic artwork for companies like DC and Marvel, Hawthorne shifts gears to give a more naturalistic view of growing up in the ’80s. This book will touch you on many levels. At times I had to stop because of the distance I had with my absentee father and the politics of engaging with his side of the family, so be prepared for a rollercoaster of emotions as you travel along on Hawthorne’s journey of healing, discovering his Puerto Rican roots, and finding life with art and comics.
Writer: Vita Ayala
Artist: Lisa Sterle
Colorists: Stelladia
Letterer: Rachel Deering
Cover Artists: Jen Bartel and Lisa Sterle
Set to the backdrop of a Hurricane Sandy-like superstorm, this modern-day spin on Dante’s Inferno has Elysia Puente taking a journey through the hell that is the New York City Subway system to save her brother. Driven by guilt and family baggage, Elysia charges into this magical realistic realm encountering versions of Greek myths Nueva York style. Not for young readers (as this story has some adult themes, like her tumultuous relationship with her mother stemming from Elysia being a lesbian) and this is a strong point with Ayala’s writing: they don’t skirt around issues, and at times this does feel like a deep therapy session. And when it comes to the Spanish dialogue, most comics would translate it by putting it in brackets. Not here. So fire up your google translate if your Spanish isn’t up to snuff. This series is collected but you can look for the individual issues. The first issue has a variant cover based on the famous New Mutants #19 art done by Bill Sienkiewicz.