By the Father of Chicano Science Fiction! "Energetic, fast-paced, funny, and thoroughly enjoyable." -Analog "Ernest Hogan is the creator of a Xicano science fiction genre with a crossover readership. ...raw creativity." - Frank S Lechuga Here Is What Ernest Hogan Has To Say About Some Of The 15 Gonzo* Stories In This Book... Part of the reason why a lot of what I do turns out science fiction is because it's so easy for me to identify with aliens and mutants. Being a Chicanoid polluted with Black Irish genes, I'm more Mutant Mex than Futuro-Africoid, and look like that brown, mongrelized Third World nightmare that ruins the sleep of so many Klansmen. This all leaves me with no culture that I can really call my own. THE YENAGLOSHI EXPRESS The idea for this one came from a Kerouac-ian road trip through Arizona I took with my high school buddy, Dennis. I'm not sure if my comedic depiction of werewolves jibes with the horror that people have of them. But I'm an outsider from another culture. PANCHO VILLA'S FLYING CIRCUS Steampunk started becoming popular, and the centennial of the 1910 Mexican Revolution came along. Then I decided to visualize it as a spaghetti western.The story was suddenly more focused and had a bad attitude that was perfect for the alternative universe social commentary. LUPITA'S HAND The Western is the mythology of Norteamerica. The tropes of the western are loosening. The good guys don't have to be white or speak English. With different viewpoints, come different stories. Which is okay by me. I've always preferred my westerns weird. Alejandro Jodorowsky's El Topo is my all-time favorite. FRANK'S TRICER RUN Of course my bullfighting fascination overlaps into the running of the bulls at the Fiesta de San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. Back in the Nineteen-Nineties, after Jurassic Park dinosaurs were all the rage. Could I come up with a story with dinosaurs and bullfighting? THE GREAT MARS-A-GO-GO MEXICAN STANDOFF Could I get away with using the word "Mexican" in the title of a science fiction story... Why not a space opera? With a private eye? And gangsters in a colonized solar system. Then I got my twisted mind working on it ... FLYING UNDER THE RADAR WITH PACO AND LOS FREETAILS This is the origin story of my character, Paco Cohen, Mariachi of Mars. I was depressed, still observing, learning. I learned a lot from the Chicanas I worked with, their lives fascinated and inspired me. I imagined my situation on a colonized Mars. COYOTE GOES HOLLYWOOD This is inspired by my travels in the Southwest/Aztlán, and love of cartoons. All I had to do was plug Native American mythology into the modern media.