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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 exoticise 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 usually are less overtly political than those of the magical realists.


History

Origins

Although many Latin American authors began to shift away form the fantastical styles of Magical Realism during the 1980`s, the inception of the McOndo movement is believed to have begun in 1994.[6] During this time, Chilean writer Alberto Fuguet participated in an International Writer's Worshop which took place at the University of Iowa.[6] While attending the workshop, Fuguet attempted to present a short-story to the Iowa Review for publication.[6] 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."[6] 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.[6]In response to the rejection of North American editors, a short-story anthology was compiled in 1996 dawning the title McOndo.[7] The anthology, edited and introduced by Alberto Fuguet and Sergio Gómez, compiled 17 short stories all written by individuals from Latin America or Spain.[7] All of the contributors were males who had primarily commenced their literary career in the 1990s and all were born after the late 1950s.[7] 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."[7] 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.[7] 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."[8]

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.[8]

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". This group of Mexican writers focused on popular mass media and the qualities of youth culture, including the language and music of the time.[9] 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. 2

Critics and supporters of McOndo

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. Some critics go so far as to accuse Fuguet and his ilk of the trivialization or McDonaldization of a rich Latin American literary tradition.[citation needed]

But 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).

Notable writers

Writers associated with McOndo include:


Different Mediums

Themes

McOndo is a movement that was founded with an established connection to previous Latinamerican works and responses to said works. The messages, portrayals and themes of Latinamerican society in the art and literature of McOndo have direct relation and naturally compared to works of the "boom generation" and Magical Realism especially.

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 Latinamerica 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.

Urban Space & 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. (citation needed - Mala Onda 51,69)

Sex & Sexuality

Violence

Crime

Poverty

Class Differences

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 c d e Hidalgo 2007, 1.
  7. ^ a b c d e Hidalgo 2007, 2.
  8. ^ a b Fuguet, Alberto (1997). "I am not a Magic Realist!". Salon.com. Retrieved 2007-12-12. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Amar Sánchez 2001, 209.

References

http://www.letras.s5.com/af0812047.htm

2Edmundo Paz-Soldán and Debra A. Castillo: Latin American Literature and Mass Media. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc, 2001. Print.

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

See also

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