{"id":17676,"date":"2022-09-20T04:26:31","date_gmt":"2022-09-20T10:26:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/?p=17676"},"modified":"2023-05-23T13:20:55","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T19:20:55","slug":"from-freeway-la-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/2022\/09\/from-freeway-la-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"From Freeway: La Movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

An award-winning cyberpunk novel set in mid-twenty-first century Cuba, <\/span>Freeway: La Movie<\/span><\/i> crosses the absurdity of American pop culture with the deep, fragmented unease of Cuban-US relations.<\/span><\/p>\n

A novel-in-stories set in mid-twenty-first century dystopian Havana, <\/span>Freeway<\/span><\/i> narrates the adventure of two misfits wandering the construction site of a colossal freeway-to-be\u2014a mysterious feat of engineering that slices through Havana, designed to connect the US and Cuba. The two embark on a futile journey, overlaid with the elusive filming of a documentary about the freeway construction. Both film quality and interior monologues drift aimlessly, haunted by Cuban history and US pop culture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freeway: La Movie<\/span><\/i> is a satirical novel that attempts to reconcile what might be hopelessly irreconcilable: the body and the machine; analog and digital; post-industrial overdevelopment and post-socialist underdevelopment; Cuba and the US; reality and fiction; the plasticity of personal identity and rigid categories such as gender, class, and nationality. Through the clash of utopian promises and dystopian realities, <\/span>Freeway<\/span><\/i> reveals the unease of contemporary culture from the US to Cuba.<\/span><\/p>\n

Freeway: La Movie<\/span><\/i> is coming in October 2022 from <\/span>Deep Vellum<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Freeway needs builders. The locals need money.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

El Autista goes into the employment office. A robust woman, carved out of marble with a chisel and hammer, greets him.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

El Autista comes out a bit later, shaking:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve let me go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They never even hired him. The woman gave him an IQ test and then a psychometric personality test. She told him he wasn\u2019t fit for the job.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe job only requires moving things from one place to another,\u201d El Autista argued.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signing a little piece of paper, the woman told El Autista that she was referring him to a place where they could help him. They had <\/span>specialists<\/span><\/i>. She told him High Command had established clear guidelines for determining who could build the Great Freeway and who couldn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHigh Command,\u201d repeated El Autista, with his peculiar way of repeating words that immediately confirms his diagnosis, whatever it may be. For her part, the woman couldn\u2019t tell him who was in the High Command, or from where they commanded, or what the guidelines were.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now I go into the office. The woman looks at me and asks me not to waste her time. She can\u2019t offer me a job.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou very well know why. Next!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We can\u2019t work in construction, but we can look at Los Transformer robots. Los Constructicons, they\u2019re called. They\u2019re enormous. They walk across the ravaged land like beasts of war. They\u2019re the heavyweights of the nonfiction engineering film. They look like toys from a distance. They lift and move structures, and every so often, they gracefully transform into bulldozers, excavators, dump trucks, cement mixers, steamrollers, cranes, etcetera.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The workers are careful not to get trampled by Los Transformers. Attracted by this work of historic proportions, they don\u2019t just come from the North but from all the surrounding areas. They swarm in: Mexicans, Central Americans, Dominicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans, natives of the Bahamas, from Grand Cayman, from Jamaica, from the Islands and coasts trampled by the fury of hurricanes.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A guy with a Mexican accent approaches me:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat team are you on, compa\u00f1ero?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not working.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t cast you?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat casting?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThose sons of a chingada madre don\u2019t even show their faces.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey sent my friend straight to the psych ward,\u201d I add to his complaint. \u201cThey\u2019ve probably confined him to a cell by now.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey do have good medical facilities, that\u2019s for sure. Great camps where they have everything. Any drug you want. What do you need? I can\u2019t help you, but I know some guys.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not looking to buy anything. I don\u2019t have any money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOh, so do you want to make some cash? I need another assistant.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

El Mexicano, Hu Jintao, had come to the Island with a beardless fifty-something who responded to the name \u201cPoppy.\u201d Hu Jintao was an engineer who belonged to Los Tecn\u00f3cratas, the ones known for controlling and repairing Los Transformers. Poppy assisted him with as much dedication as ineffectiveness. He didn\u2019t understand machines. He didn\u2019t understand Los Transformers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBut Poppy cooks very well, and I care about him,\u201d Hu Jintao tells me. \u201cA bit after we met, he confessed he had fallen in love with me. I made it clear I was 100 percent heterosexual but that we could be friends. Since then, he has been a faithful companion. The thing is\u2026 he makes me nervous. I don\u2019t know anything about his past except that he\u2019s from the United States. I don\u2019t think Poppy is his real name. I think he\u2019s a fugitive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A rumor that <\/span>something<\/span><\/i> is approaching circulates in English and in Spanish among the workers. The radars have picked it up. Nobody knows for sure what the radars are, or where they are, or even what it is they\u2019ve seen. But it\u2019s approaching.<\/span><\/p>\n

And one fine day it appears on the horizon, to the west, under the clouds, in the Gulf. It is a gigantic woman, colossal\u2026\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is a woman of tropospheric proportions.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a robot,\u201d some shout.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a blow-up doll,\u201d others shout.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a hurricane,\u201d Hu Jintao says, and they all stare at him, agape. El Mexicano turns to me, his face deformed with terror, and adds: \u201cThis is what I was trying to warn you about. This is what the Island Machine makes.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/strong><\/p>\n

At Universidad Tecnol\u00f3gica de Canc\u00fan, Hu Jintao had been the student of a brilliant scientist. More than brilliant: a scientific genius. Hu Jintao referred to him simply as \u201cEl Profesor.\u201d A feeble old man with a white beard and an aura of local celebrity that followed him everywhere. Hu Jintao professed absolute admiration.<\/span><\/p>\n

One day, El Profesor asked him to join a secret project. Hu Jintao accepted immediately, of course, and went to Isla Mujeres with El Profesor. Once there, he found himself in an enormous lab equipped with the most advanced technology. Technology he had never even dreamed of.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cH\u00edjole, I had no idea there could be a lab like this in M\u00e9xico,\u201d he said when he recovered his words and accent. \u201cOr in any other part of the world.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cVery few know about it,\u201d El Profesor said. \u201cFrom now on, keep it a secret, or it\u2019ll cost you your life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cProfesor, are you in charge of all this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYes, you can say I\u2019m in charge. And I am the guardian angel. I am the mastermind. I am the origin. I am the creator of all this. Do you know how long I\u2019ve been working here?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWorking on what, Profesor?\u201d Hu Jintao was getting nervous.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis way. I\u2019ll show you something you\u2019ll like\u2026 or not.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They descended to the subterranean levels. Hallways. Control rooms with long panels. Operators in white lab coats. Very few, given the magnitude of the place. Most were Chinese. They finally reached a type of microwave oven whose size was beyond all comparison. The schematics showed that it was connected to a funnel, kilometers long\u2014 much like a particle accelerator\u2014that would end up in the Caribbean Sea, in the Yucat\u00e1n Channel.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHere is where we collect hurricanes, and then we transform them,\u201d El Profesor said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The process involved reconnaissance planes that would \u201ccapture\u201d the hurricane, the hurricane essence, with a thorough scan of its structure and variables. All of which was then cloned in the microwave.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are they transformed into?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt depends on the name. Those with female names are transformed into women, rather exaggerated women. What else can you expect from a woman with hurricane DNA? Those with male names, however, we have never been able to transform into men or into anything else. It just doesn\u2019t work the same way. I do not know why this happens. This is where you come in. Your job will be to figure out the problem, to help me fix this small glitch.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But Hu Jintao found something else on that island. Love. From the moment he laid eyes on El Profesor\u2019s daughter, he couldn\u2019t think about the masculine transformation problem anymore.<\/span><\/p>\n

Or even about the masculine gender in general.<\/span><\/p>\n

El Profesor introduced her as his daughter, but Hu Jintao doubted she was. She was young enough to be his granddaughter, and, also, they didn\u2019t look anything alike. El Profesor looked like a former Nazi official with very pale skin and little blue eyes, magnified by the thick lenses of his glasses. She, on the other hand, was a voluptuous Indian woman with big black eyes and large breasts; she was an authentic beauty, uncolonized. Hu Jintao thought of Ixchel, the Mayan goddess. Almost as if he could read Hu Jintao\u2019s thoughts, El Profesor told him his daughter was, in fact, the goddess Ixchel, but that he affectionately called her Chely.<\/span><\/p>\n

As one might expect, Hu Jintao and Chely became lovers. They kept it from El Profesor. Hu Jintao didn\u2019t think they should sneak around, but Chely said it would be best if her father didn\u2019t find out so soon. She asked him to trust her, so he agreed to keep the relationship a secret, thinking the secret would soon become public.<\/span><\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for El Profesor to find them naked in bed together.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cTraitor! That\u2019s how you repay me? And after all I\u2019ve done for you? Stealing my daughter\u2019s virginity!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hu Jintao, dumbfounded, was sure this had to do with a hidden camera. What else could it be? But El Profesor was now charging at him with a knife, and so, he chose to run out of the room.<\/span><\/p>\n

El Profesor ran after him. Since arriving at the island, Hu Jintao had noticed certain changes in the scientist\u2019s personality. It was almost as if the clich\u00e9 of the mad, evil scientist who wants to take over the world had begun to seep out of his pores. He now realized the psychopath in El Profesor had completely awoken.<\/span><\/p>\n

And he was a tireless psychopath at that. Hu Jintao, with El Profesor after him, ran through the entire maze of absurd installations until he succumbed to exhaustion. Finally, he was able to hide in a storage area and there, luckily, Chely found him first.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to leave, <\/span>mi amor<\/span><\/i>. I drew you a map so you would know how to get to the yacht anchored on the other end of the island. Board quickly and get as far away from here as you can.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hu Jintao understood it was too late to act sensibly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChely, you didn\u2019t tell me you were a virgin.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I\u2019ve never been a virgin. Which means I\u2019ve always been a virgin. According to the Catholics, anyway, I\u2019ve been one for centuries. Do you understand? You know, the Blessed Virgin and all of that. But none of that matters now. If you don\u2019t leave, my father will keep looking for you, and when he finds you, he\u2019ll kill you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The yacht set sail from Isla Mujeres, but it didn\u2019t get far. As soon as the fugitive discovered (over by Cayo Largo, at the entrance of the Gulf of Bataban\u00f3) the pillars of what would be a great freeway over the sea, he completely forgot about his escape. He had found the titanic project that matched his skills.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hu Jintao volunteers to confront the hurricane. If someone has to do it, he tells Los Tecn\u00f3cratas and the workers gathered there, it has to be him. It is Hu Jintao the hurricane has come for. The hurricane is there to kill him. He is going to fight for his life, and he is going to fight for the future, so not even a meter of the construction will be delayed. We have to stop the hurricane from destroying everything. (Everything has already been destroyed.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Translated by Lourdes Molina<\/span><\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An award-winning cyberpunk novel set in mid-twenty-first century Cuba, Freeway: La Movie crosses the absurdity of American pop culture with the deep, fragmented unease of Cuban-US relations. A novel-in-stories set in mid-twenty-first century dystopian Havana, Freeway narrates the adventure of two misfits wandering the construction site of a colossal freeway-to-be\u2014a mysterious feat of engineering that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":17395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2893],"tags":[4097],"genre":[],"pretext":[],"section":[],"translator":[2540],"lal_author":[3507],"class_list":["post-17676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adelantos-de-traduccion-y-novedades-editoriales","tag-number-23-es","translator-lourdes-molina-es","lal_author-jorge-enrique-lage-es"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17676"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17676\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"pretext","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pretext?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"section","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/section?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/translator?post=17676"},{"taxonomy":"lal_author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/latinamericanliteraturetoday.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lal_author?post=17676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}