I’m not gonna lie, I disagreed with Mariana Enríquez when she said that there’s no horror tradition in Latin America. At least in my country, Mexico, authors like Amparo Dávila, Guadalupe Dueñas, and Inés Arredondo have written darker stories that certainly toe the line with horror since the 1950s. Yet, I do think we’re now building a new canon — one that has been prolific enough that I’m confident calling it a second literary boom. And I’m not the first to do so. Newspapers like The Guardian and The New York Times have written about it as well. There’s no question about there being a new boom, but why horror? And who’s writing about it? Then there are other writers who haven’t been translated into English, like Giovanna Rivero, Solange Rodriguez Pappe, or Mónica Bustos. But because of this boom of horror in Latin America, I’m sure we’ll get their translations soon. That’s actually my favorite thing about this boom: because more and more people read and write horror in Latin America, more publishers are translating and publishing these books in English. This opens up a whole new readership to the authors, which in turn helps them write more stories. It’s like a monster straight out of these horror books. The more it feeds, the bigger it gets — and boy do I want this particular monster to be ginormous. Before you leave, why don’t you check out more horror books written by Latine authors? They’re not the only ones we’ve covered, either. And if you dive into our Horror Archives, I’m sure you’ll find plenty of frights for your TBR!
