Editor’s Welcome

by A.P. Thayer

Dear reader,

I often think about what it means to be [insert current US-centric term used to describe those of Latin-American descent here]. And I do mean often. It’s up there with wondering if I’ll ever be a successful writer in the eyes of my mother and worrying about what sounds good for my next meal.

Because how can you ever hope to find a broad enough definition that includes two continents, their diaspora, 33 countries, and the hundreds of native and non-native roots that make up the Latin-American world? How can you ever find unifying details in such a disparate and widespread group of millions of people, some of whom have fought to not be clumped up together into a singular, regional group by the US hegemony? Food, language, skin color, history… certainly no one thing can encompass our people.

Still, magical realism, for better or worse, has become synonymous with Latin-America. Gatekeepers will tell you magical realism is only Latin-American, which, to me, erases its rich and world-spanning history, but that’s a topic for another time. I will agree, though, that writers like Márquez, Allende, and Schweblin have put the Latin-American seal on the genre and that the genre resonates with many of the things that we have in common.

But magical realism is not enough.

That is why, as guest editor of this issue, I chose these pieces. I think you will find the magical realism heritage strong in each and every one of them, but I hope you will also see how the stories go beyond that unifying element of magical realism in their own ways.

We are as much the things we have in common as the ways in which we are different.

Celebrate these writers. Celebrate their pieces. But, most importantly, celebrate the differences in their experiences, voices, styles, and themes.

We are not a monolith. But we are a ‘we’.

Thank you. And I hope you enjoy these pieces.

A.P.