A Night of Screams: Latino Horror Stories - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1558859616 ISBN 13: 9781558859616

Publisher: Arte Publico Press, 2023

Synopsis

"The movement of the old woman's hands is quick and youthful as she works the dough for tamales on Mars' dusty, dry surface where their cohete broke apart and crash landed. She, her husband and their only son survive, and the old man curses the coyotes who took his money for a rocket not built to accommodate his family of eleven. A storm is coming, and he rails at his wife that she's wasting her time. "We'll be dead by the time you finish your goddamn tamales." This riveting collection of horror stories-and four poems-contains a wide range of styles, themes and authors. Creepy creatures roam the pages, including La Llorona and the Chupacabras in fresh takes on Latin American lore, as well as ghosts, zombies and shadow selves. Migrants continue to pass through Rancho Altamira where Esteban's family has lived for generations, but now there are two types: the living and the dead. A young man returns repeatedly to the scary portal down which his buddy disappeared. A woman is relieved to receive multiple calls from her cousin following Hurricane Marâia in Puerto Rico, but she is stunned to later learn her prima died the first night of the storm! There's plenty of blood and gore in some stories, while others are mysterious and suspenseful. In his introduction, editor Richard Z. Santos writes it is no surprise these stories are brilliant and terrifying, given cartel violence, a history of CIA-backed dictatorships in Latin America, increasingly scary rhetoric from American politicians, decades of institutionalized racism and the demonization of Latinos in the media. "After all," he says, "we are the faceless horde, invading zombies hellbent on upturning the world and replacing it with something foreign, accented and impossibly different""--

About this title

About the Author

Richard Z. Santos is the author of a novel, Trust Me (Arte Público Press, 2020), and his fiction, essays and reviews have appeared in multiple publications, including The San Antonio Express-News, Kirkus Reviews, The Rumpus, The Morning News and The Texas Observer. A board member of the National Book Critics Circle, he received an MFA from Texas State University. Santos lives in Austin, Texas.

Edition details

• Publisher: Arte Publico Press
• Publication date: 2023
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1558859616
• ISBN 13: 9781558859616
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 221
• Editor: Santos Richard Z