Latin American Literature

[pugetopolis]

Motorcycle Diaries

After the Revolution (2010)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niqrrmev4mA

“To me her song
is the sound of the
night (la noche entre
en calor) at the Mais
Oui, the legendary
West Did cha-cha bar
Of the late fifties”
—James McCourt,
Introduction, Cobra by
Severo Sarduy

Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” video—dances on the YouTube Big Screen ceiling tonight. It captures the spirit of the Revolution—all these years later.

The leather queens, the boots, the marching, the stomping, the whips, the S & M nazi bondage & delicious Latino deliverance.

Lady Gaga is at her stylish chic best—truly the YouTube born-again reincarnation of none other than Evita Peron herself—the Beloved Queen of Fascismo Argentina!!!

Even tho I’m dead & gone now—my Latino muse speaks to you thru these Ouija Board Bored Rubbery Lips. Thru my Severo Sarduy “Cobra Queen” Cuban Magic & Realist Fabulated Cuban kitschy Lips. It's simply impossible these dayz now, my dear. Maria Montez ladies of the night like me—we have to resort to tacky baroque magic realismo tricks of the trade, dontchaknow.

Baroque kitsch escapes from Cuba. Lost drag Havana Eden drag queens—Cuba Libra chicas. Forbidden Fernando de Roja La Celestina glories behind us. Sarduy Scheherazade seraglio gigolo baby-paste ahead of us.

My Apache kitsch Tel Quel ventriloquist theatrics dayz behind me. All those long lost nights—Genet drag Notre Dame des Fleurs, Haute Surveillance, La Balcon, Les Paravants… Left Bank jazz boîte trumpets crooning & drifting into the night.

Oh the Eros of Exile—those hot Havana SM rotten Arriba Tangos!!! The Latino unconscious—knows no negative. It plunges ahead—to Paris & New York. Sarduy gets shanghaied—Marlene Dietrich Oriental Express sweeping her away!!!

“Don’t call my name, Alejandro!!! Oh Roberto let me go!!!”

Thus, my dears, you can see me—falling into the kitschy exiled present. The haughty here & now of Roberto Bolaño—the new los perros románticos.

For am I not—just an old burned-out revolutionary Romantic Dog:

“Not working, not praying
Not studying in the morning light
Alongside the romantic dogs”

“Ni trabajar ni rezar
ni estudiar en la madrugada
junto a los perros románticos”

“I get a kick outta me,” like Evita & Imelda. My Afro-Cuban camp baroque kitsch power. Like the Cognoscenti from Cherry Grove on Fire Island. All the way to Art Deco Key West “¡como no!?!”

This Cuban planet—torn from its course. Falling back into Gulf of Mexico Big Oil spill slime—the BP Gringo Gusher that wiped out the Gulf Coast Riviera Rednecks.

Mother-of-pearl luminous spiraling bones—down there off Key West. Down with Davy Jones—and the bones of Hart Crane. Jumping off the Orizaba—down into the beautiful blue Gay Carib.

Shrimp, sharks, seagulls, pelicans—my sister Hart Crane sinking deep. Down into poisonous, iridescent conch-shell of death. Blown by benzene clouds & hurricanes. Alejandro!!! Alejandro!!! Alejandro!!!

Cigarette butt love—gone badboy bad. Bad Romance boyfriends—Fernando!!! Roberto!!! Armando!!!

[S2B]

Congratulations Mario Vargas Llosa

I'm inspired to dive into my copy of "Travesuras de la niña mala" that has been sitting in the stack for (gasp) a YEAR according to the receipt tucked inside like a potential bookmark...

híjole, how does life get so in the way of reading rich literature ?!

Maybe I'll get a copy of Isabella Rosellini in "Feast of the Goat" to watch again too.
 

[Beppo]

Hola S2B,

I also have a couple of unread Vargas Llosa's silently treading the shelves.

Currently reading War & Peace - coming up to about the halfway point. 

[madupont]

Beppo
I thought that was what I saw in here; and I hardly ever drop in.
He is teaching at Princeton again, for those who speak and read Spanish.  There may be some other "events" among those who speak English as well; not to be left out....

But I am a little behind in the news, something got stuck in my plans just over two months ago, ideally to relocate or just put it off until Spring, 2011.  So, I just got the news about his teaching plans about 11 days late.  My Princeton Packet ended up going to the wrong address. This was the fastest summer that I've ever had but nothing planned could move ahead.  It's a regular log-jam. A friend who grew up in the area has not yet replied as to whether she thinks I would like her childhood neighborhood rather than being in the midst of Nassau where I spent over a decade; the cost of living has doubled there.

This reminds me of when I left Princeton; and the Sunday New York Times would arrive on Wednesdays out here in the country until I found it on line about a year later.  Now, the Princeton Packet takes even longer to get here, to be of much use. I do have an inkling of an idea how to get the news faster after meeting a retired couple here when I went to look at their house for sale(he used to be the ink supplier from DuPont for the Princeton Univ.Press and his wife worked on the editorial staff for the campus weekly/daily news re: lectures,events,etc.  The realtor will know which direction that they went.

If I hear anything more  in regard to Llosa events. Will contact you immediately.

Your post was funny by contrast because a lot of the rest of us are reading Sean Wilentz,Bobby Dylan in America.  More or less, for the course he is developing. Doubleday was the publisher who took his manuscript but they are not what they used to be. Cheap paper makes your text and illustrations just get by when they do such a shoddy job because of "Hard Times".

[S2B]

so I've been dropping a word in here then dashing off...and am doing it again   

any NYers still in the group ? TOMORROW (Wednesday) there is an event you may want to attend :

What Bolaño Read: the New York discussion

http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=19645

"...Symphony Space in New York will conduct their own version of this exercise next Wednesday (11/10) for a Selected Shorts event titled “Roberto Bolano and the Writers He Admired.“ Felix Solis and Charles Keating are reading some of Bolaño stories, as well as those of Javier Marías, Nicanor Parra, and Jorge Luis Borges..."

[Lhoffman]

so I've been dropping a word in here then dashing off...and am doing it again   

any NYers still in the group ? TOMORROW (Wednesday) there is an event you may want to attend :

What Bolaño Read: the New York discussion

http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?p=19645

"...Symphony Space in New York will conduct their own version of this exercise next Wednesday (11/10) for a Selected Shorts event titled “Roberto Bolano and the Writers He Admired.“ Felix Solis and Charles Keating are reading some of Bolaño stories, as well as those of Javier Marías, Nicanor Parra, and Jorge Luis Borges..."

The crib notes to your link are quite nice.   The list links to each book.   Always a tendency to note which I've read.   

http://mhpbooks.com/mobylives/?author=17

I'd forgotton about Enrique Vila-Matas' Bartleby & Co, which has been waiting in my stack for some time now.