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Sudden Fiction Latino: Short-Short Stories from the United States and Latin America
For readers who love great short-short stories, this bountiful anthology is the best of Latin American and U.S. Latino writers. Following on the success of the Flash Fiction and Sudden Fiction series, Robert Shapard and James Thomas join with Ray Gonzalez in selecting works that each present a complete story in less than 1,500 words. Luisa Valenzuela, one of Latin America’s most lauded writers, provides the introduction. Readers will delight in finding stars such as Junot Díaz, Sandra Cisneros, and Roberto Bolano alongside recognized masters like Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende, and Jorge Luis Borges. They will discover work from Andrea Saenz, Daniel Alarcón, and Alicita Rodriguez, as well as other writers on the rise.
In Julio Ortega’s “Migrations,” a Peruvian writer explores how immigrant speech and ethnic origins are a force of meaning that evolves beyond language. In “Hair,” by Hilma Contreras, a Caribbean pharmacist is driven mad by a young woman’s luxuriant tresses. These stories stretch from gritty reality to the fantastical in a mix that is moving, challenging, humorous, artful, sometimes political, and altogether spectacular.
In Julio Ortega’s “Migrations,” a Peruvian writer explores how immigrant speech and ethnic origins are a force of meaning that evolves beyond language. In “Hair,” by Hilma Contreras, a Caribbean pharmacist is driven mad by a young woman’s luxuriant tresses. These stories stretch from gritty reality to the fantastical in a mix that is moving, challenging, humorous, artful, sometimes political, and altogether spectacular.
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
10 people are currently reading
207 people want to read
About the author
Luisa Valenzuela
110 books104 followersLuisa Valenzuela is a post-'Boom' novelist and short story writer. Her writing is characterized by an experimental, avant-garde style which questions hierarchical social structures from a feminist perspective. She is best known for her work written in response to the dictatorship of the 1970s in Argentina. Works such as Como en la guerra (1977), Cambio de armas (1982) and Cola de lagartija (1983) combine a powerful critique of dictatorship with an examination of patriarchal forms of social organization and the power structures which inhere in human sexuality and gender relationships.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
February 27, 2017
Edited
The collectors/editors of the short short stories from micro stories (sometimes less than 100 words) to short short stories (several pages) to flash stories (between the micro stories the short short stories).
Major Negative Point: The topic? Nothing in particular, other than very short stories.
The writings selected: From hispanic writers from US and Latin America.
The introductory material states that this is a large difficult job to try to determine what belongs here (what doesn't belong?)
A fair introduction to very short stories describing life as working class hispanicso mostly.
Some extremely famous writers' writing are represented here. I will have to read more Jorge Luis Borges. In her autobiography, Sandra Cisneros cannot say enough about her love of Borges. I am being to understand why.
I am giving this book 3☆ mostly because it is not up to the standards for W W Norton anthologies. I see that this book is not called an anthology. Because the collection lacks the characteristics of an Norton anthology--sections with introductory information--I just don't understand the significance of this collection. I expected so much more.
The collectors/editors of the short short stories from micro stories (sometimes less than 100 words) to short short stories (several pages) to flash stories (between the micro stories the short short stories).
Major Negative Point: The topic? Nothing in particular, other than very short stories.
The writings selected: From hispanic writers from US and Latin America.
The introductory material states that this is a large difficult job to try to determine what belongs here (what doesn't belong?)
A fair introduction to very short stories describing life as working class hispanicso mostly.
Some extremely famous writers' writing are represented here. I will have to read more Jorge Luis Borges. In her autobiography, Sandra Cisneros cannot say enough about her love of Borges. I am being to understand why.
I am giving this book 3☆ mostly because it is not up to the standards for W W Norton anthologies. I see that this book is not called an anthology. Because the collection lacks the characteristics of an Norton anthology--sections with introductory information--I just don't understand the significance of this collection. I expected so much more.
September 6, 2018
List of my favorites from this collection:
"The Book Without Covers" - Enrique Jaramillo Levi
"3 Microstories" - Ana Maria Shua
"Light Is Like Water" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"Celeste's Heart" - Aida Bortnik
"The Eclipse" - Augusto Monterroso
"When New Flowers Bloomed" - Carmen Naranjo
"The Captive" - Jose Emilio Pacheco
"The Proof" - Rodrigo Rey Rosa
"Chronicle of the City of Havana" - Eduardo Galeano
"The Visitor" - Daniel Alarcon
"Cat's Eye" - Luisa Valenzuela
"The Book Without Covers" - Enrique Jaramillo Levi
"3 Microstories" - Ana Maria Shua
"Light Is Like Water" - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
"Celeste's Heart" - Aida Bortnik
"The Eclipse" - Augusto Monterroso
"When New Flowers Bloomed" - Carmen Naranjo
"The Captive" - Jose Emilio Pacheco
"The Proof" - Rodrigo Rey Rosa
"Chronicle of the City of Havana" - Eduardo Galeano
"The Visitor" - Daniel Alarcon
"Cat's Eye" - Luisa Valenzuela
January 15, 2025
What a wonderful collection of flash fiction and short-short stories! I read this book in search of what Felix Padilla coined Latinidad, that is, how one enacts or embodies one’s Latinity. I bought this because I wanted to feel closer to my heritage, my people, and my roots, to understand how the community, in all of its vastness, expresses something so complex—something that spans 26 countries brimming with cultures from all sorts of terrains, hues, languages, slangs, customs, beliefs, diets, and dialects. As with any concept closely examined under a microscope, I began to see it squirm and unravel, but I also saw it crystallize and bond. Although I witnessed crystallization and bonding, what I read cannot be expressed within a pan-Latine confinement or essence.
I confirmed from reading these stories that Latinidad is a protean concept. I knew this from all the Latines I met from various countries over my life. The more I read, the more I found that although Latinidad pertains to a particular people, these people, my people, are so diverse that they almost begin to shed any and all particularities. These people, my people, are constantly becoming, shifting, morphing, and exercising an intense agency within a highly constrained biopolitical and geopolitical system. This was evident and summed up nicely within Julio Ortega’s “Epilogue: Migrations,” when he wrote of a few Latin American students, “These students belonged not to Marx’s first chapter but to Fourier’s triumphant morning; they were full of their own force, laughing, mumbling, and kidding around…These boys and girls were the last product of migration, and perhaps both their speech and their ethnic origins were a force of meaning that was still evolving beyond our language” (292).
As I read these stories, hear the swirling rhetoric around us, and see how we’re portrayed in the news cycles, I find that Latines are so constrained that they must change, assimilate, and acculturate to survive. But then the question inevitably arises: how do we as a people maintain our identity amidst the upheaval if this is the case? How do we maintain tradition? Perhaps by partaking in the intimacies of these stories, I could arrive at an answer—one of many, of course.
I won’t go into detail about why these are my favorite stories/authors, but I will say that you should read them for yourself to see why. My favorite stories/ authors are as follows:
3 Microstories – Ana Maria Shua (Argentina)
People of the Dog – Alma Luz Villanueva (U.S.)
Red Serpent Ceviche – Antonio Farias (U.S)
How to Live with a Feminista and Still be a Macho – Juan Felipe Herrera (U.S.)
The Back of My Own Head in a Crowd – Alberto Rios (U.S.)
The Uprooted – Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay)
Asunder – Robert Lopez (U.S.)
Devotion—Alejandra Pizarnik (Argentina)
Epilogue: Migrations – Julio Ortega (Peru/U.S.)
But so many stories in this collection are worthy of praise (and many were written by such heavy hitters as Junot Diaz, Borges, Allende, Tomas Rivera, Sandra Cisneros, Carmen Tafolla, and Robert Bolano). They are a collection of flavors that make up a hearty stew that warms your body and heart in a world teeming with cold, cruel winds. There is a home built in these stories—one built of characters who, in their wandering, build it through their actions, thoughts, observations, and beliefs. The nest of these narratives becomes thicketed with their brazen humanity.
And so, I ask again, how do we as a people maintain our identity amidst the upheaval if this is the case? How do we maintain tradition? To me, the answer lies in the archive of our stories, history, and cultures. And when I say cultures, I mean cultures. Because there are many, and they exist over a wide-ranging cornucopia of diversity. It seems paradoxical that such an assorted brew of beings could spawn one fermented solution, but this is what has spawned—a village of churning characters that swarm in unison to create a cultural locale. One to place one’s body, spirit, heart, and mind so that one can exact the motions of a culture. Latinidad is indeed a village of the heart and mind but also of the body, spirit, tongue, blood, and senses, all stirring to call us back. These stories served as a cradle for our community. The stories themselves are cradled in Community. Despite the diatribe and alienating rhetoric, or perhaps because of it, the stories place us together in our otherness, in our alienation, in our erasure, and cement us in our solubility, which creates a constant in any environment seeking to dissolve us.
Upon reading these stories, I found that these are the ways we circulate who we are—how we tell ourselves about who we are. As it relates to this anthology, these stories then take on the diametrically opposed hues of acculturation and enculturation, tradition versus assimilation, what is native versus what is foreign, what has been taken versus what has been relinquished, and what has been preserved to our benefit or our detriment.
I confirmed from reading these stories that Latinidad is a protean concept. I knew this from all the Latines I met from various countries over my life. The more I read, the more I found that although Latinidad pertains to a particular people, these people, my people, are so diverse that they almost begin to shed any and all particularities. These people, my people, are constantly becoming, shifting, morphing, and exercising an intense agency within a highly constrained biopolitical and geopolitical system. This was evident and summed up nicely within Julio Ortega’s “Epilogue: Migrations,” when he wrote of a few Latin American students, “These students belonged not to Marx’s first chapter but to Fourier’s triumphant morning; they were full of their own force, laughing, mumbling, and kidding around…These boys and girls were the last product of migration, and perhaps both their speech and their ethnic origins were a force of meaning that was still evolving beyond our language” (292).
As I read these stories, hear the swirling rhetoric around us, and see how we’re portrayed in the news cycles, I find that Latines are so constrained that they must change, assimilate, and acculturate to survive. But then the question inevitably arises: how do we as a people maintain our identity amidst the upheaval if this is the case? How do we maintain tradition? Perhaps by partaking in the intimacies of these stories, I could arrive at an answer—one of many, of course.
I won’t go into detail about why these are my favorite stories/authors, but I will say that you should read them for yourself to see why. My favorite stories/ authors are as follows:
3 Microstories – Ana Maria Shua (Argentina)
People of the Dog – Alma Luz Villanueva (U.S.)
Red Serpent Ceviche – Antonio Farias (U.S)
How to Live with a Feminista and Still be a Macho – Juan Felipe Herrera (U.S.)
The Back of My Own Head in a Crowd – Alberto Rios (U.S.)
The Uprooted – Cristina Peri Rossi (Uruguay)
Asunder – Robert Lopez (U.S.)
Devotion—Alejandra Pizarnik (Argentina)
Epilogue: Migrations – Julio Ortega (Peru/U.S.)
But so many stories in this collection are worthy of praise (and many were written by such heavy hitters as Junot Diaz, Borges, Allende, Tomas Rivera, Sandra Cisneros, Carmen Tafolla, and Robert Bolano). They are a collection of flavors that make up a hearty stew that warms your body and heart in a world teeming with cold, cruel winds. There is a home built in these stories—one built of characters who, in their wandering, build it through their actions, thoughts, observations, and beliefs. The nest of these narratives becomes thicketed with their brazen humanity.
And so, I ask again, how do we as a people maintain our identity amidst the upheaval if this is the case? How do we maintain tradition? To me, the answer lies in the archive of our stories, history, and cultures. And when I say cultures, I mean cultures. Because there are many, and they exist over a wide-ranging cornucopia of diversity. It seems paradoxical that such an assorted brew of beings could spawn one fermented solution, but this is what has spawned—a village of churning characters that swarm in unison to create a cultural locale. One to place one’s body, spirit, heart, and mind so that one can exact the motions of a culture. Latinidad is indeed a village of the heart and mind but also of the body, spirit, tongue, blood, and senses, all stirring to call us back. These stories served as a cradle for our community. The stories themselves are cradled in Community. Despite the diatribe and alienating rhetoric, or perhaps because of it, the stories place us together in our otherness, in our alienation, in our erasure, and cement us in our solubility, which creates a constant in any environment seeking to dissolve us.
Upon reading these stories, I found that these are the ways we circulate who we are—how we tell ourselves about who we are. As it relates to this anthology, these stories then take on the diametrically opposed hues of acculturation and enculturation, tradition versus assimilation, what is native versus what is foreign, what has been taken versus what has been relinquished, and what has been preserved to our benefit or our detriment.
Read
July 14, 2022Reading this collection of sudden fiction felt like attending a highly-populated lovely house party, where the well-connected host was showing me around to all of their friends. We would chat, and in a few minutes I'd get to know these strange, interesting people before being whisked away towards a completely different person. It's not like I was a complete stranger to the party guests: I'd hung out with Junot Diaz and Gabriel Garcia Marquez before, and it was cool to finally meet friends-of-friends like Jorge Luis Borges, Isabel Allende, Roberto Bolano, and Sandra Cisneros. But the vast majority of the party was being introduced to complete strangers, listening to them talk or flirt, dance or cry into their drink, and generally giving a good once-over before moving along. Along the way, I got some smack-talk, I stole a kiss or two, I even managed to get a number, but that's about the highlight of the house party. Not too many divas, not too many buzzkills, just a lot of distinct, talented people. I can't imagine going back to the party itself, but I'm definitely hanging out with some of those people again ... probably at their own place.
November 12, 2024
One of the best books in this series. Flash fiction is a national pastime in places like Mexico.
September 21, 2018
In less than 300 pages, editors Robert Shapard, James Thomas and Ray Gonzalez present 67 stellar short-short stories from the United States and Latin America, a feast of astonishing variety. Some of the contributors may be famous than others (Carlos Fuentes, Luisa Valenzuela, Roberto Bolano, and Isabel Allende, among others) but the majority of them are totally new to many of us and constitute, to say the least, exciting discoveries.
To describe such a feast in depth would take forever and spoil the joy of finding intense creativity of every type in each distinct story. Perhaps a fast and furious literary tasting menu would tantalize the imagination for drawing the next lucky reader.
The flies imagined their god. It was also a fly.
Toto asked me why the light went on with just the touch of a switch, and I did not have the courage to think about it twice. “Light is like water,” I answered. “You turn on the tap and out it comes.”
Soon we branch to postmodernist stuff, because customers want, and customers is always accurate. They say, Barth, Barthelme, Pynchon! Coover! We say, okay. We say, is good. Also postmodernists drink. Minimalists, they don’t drink so much. Is poetry good? Poetry haiku, is like haiku, sonatnas—no good, no one sings.
Stars without shadows.
[The four excerpts come from: “The Lord of the Flies” – Marco Denevi; “Light Is Like Water” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez; “Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote” – Juan Martinez; and, “Johnny Depp” – Socorro Venegas]
As The Pet Shop Boys sang, “We are never being boring.” Faced with this collection of 67 short-shorts, that is our story too.
To describe such a feast in depth would take forever and spoil the joy of finding intense creativity of every type in each distinct story. Perhaps a fast and furious literary tasting menu would tantalize the imagination for drawing the next lucky reader.
The flies imagined their god. It was also a fly.
Toto asked me why the light went on with just the touch of a switch, and I did not have the courage to think about it twice. “Light is like water,” I answered. “You turn on the tap and out it comes.”
Soon we branch to postmodernist stuff, because customers want, and customers is always accurate. They say, Barth, Barthelme, Pynchon! Coover! We say, okay. We say, is good. Also postmodernists drink. Minimalists, they don’t drink so much. Is poetry good? Poetry haiku, is like haiku, sonatnas—no good, no one sings.
Stars without shadows.
[The four excerpts come from: “The Lord of the Flies” – Marco Denevi; “Light Is Like Water” – Gabriel Garcia Marquez; “Customer Service at the Karaoke Don Quixote” – Juan Martinez; and, “Johnny Depp” – Socorro Venegas]
As The Pet Shop Boys sang, “We are never being boring.” Faced with this collection of 67 short-shorts, that is our story too.
November 5, 2018
A great book with excellent short stories that are all very sudden, as the title reveals! It's good to read when you don't have too much time, because some stories are just a paragraph in length. It's a good tool for the classroom, too, when it comes to studying author's purpose, structure, genre, and/or to pair with texts. Some of these stories could also be great introductory texts for a unit. It was a fun read.
June 12, 2023
I really enjoyed this book. I had not known that short-short fiction was so popular in Latin American literature. Many familiar authors here, but many others new to me. I didn’t love every story, but they were all interesting and, because they were so short, even the ones I didn’t care for required only a small investment of time and attention.
May 16, 2018
Some real gems in here!
January 12, 2022
I didn’t love these as much as I was hoping to.
June 17, 2024
Loved the micro stories
August 16, 2010
A quick, mostly enjoyable read although I'll be the dissenting voice that says the combination of U.S. latinos and Latin American wrtiers is a little weird. Part of me feels that it would have been a better compilation were it focused entirely on the Latin American microcuento, especially because lots of great authors are missing - Alberto Chimal, Ignacio Solares - to cite two examples would have been welcome additions who are currently very under translated. This perspective has its limitations however, when I consider Rudolfo Anaya's "The Native Lawyer" would have never crossed my path if it weren't for the broader format. That said, the majority of my favorites in this collection come from La Sur, including Augusto Monterroso and Ana Maria Shua. At any rate it's always great to see new translations reach stateside - and this accesible format with lots of the big names of latino/chicano fiction (Urrea, Cisneros, Diaz) means these stories will make it into the hands of people who they would otherwise never reach.
March 28, 2011
I'm biased with my background in Hispanic Literature, but I agree with the editors that the best short fiction comes out of Latin America and US Latinos. There is a huge variety of stories here, a very strong point of the book. Sometimes, a story has to be read a couple of times for it to have any resonance for me, and of course different readers will prefer different stories, but with so much material, you're sure to find something that you like! I love the short-short format and feel that it can create powerful, lasting images, raise questions, and inspire more writing. I'm slogging through 2666 right now, so I really appreciated the chance to see that Roberto Bolaño can write a complete story in less than five gazillion words! I may also be biased because the Julio Ortega who closes the collection was my Borges professor! The worst thing about this book is the cover. The flaming newspaper probably contains a statement about the media or the act of writing or reading, but it first of all suggests the barbaric practice of ear candling (to remove excess wax) and would be very off-putting in a bookstore. I received this book through the Early Reviewers program, and I'm so glad. It is a very worthy addition to the dialog on short fiction.
March 30, 2015
whew, i thought i would never finish this book. it's just under 300 pages, but when each story is 1-4 pages, the math comes out to be a million stories in this book. i should have taken the hint by the title (sudden) but i didn't quite understand how short these stories would be. from the pace of reading it, i would have preferred an occasional 20 page story every now and then, just to make the book feel less abrupt.
the stories themselves were all over the board in terms of how i felt about them. my favorite was 'the back of my own head' by alberto rios, enough to where i'm going to pick up a full length book of his. otherwise, i think i'm going to stick to novels for awhile to feel the satisfaction of getting a full story in.
the stories themselves were all over the board in terms of how i felt about them. my favorite was 'the back of my own head' by alberto rios, enough to where i'm going to pick up a full length book of his. otherwise, i think i'm going to stick to novels for awhile to feel the satisfaction of getting a full story in.
April 23, 2025
2.75. These collections are always worth reading—there’s always a nugget of gold hidden among the short stories.
My rating typically depends on how many of those nuggets I can find, and, unfortunately, this one didn’t have quite as many as I’d hoped—especially compared to New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories From America and Beyond, another entry in the series.
That’s not to say there aren’t great stories here—there absolutely are—but compared to previous volumes, the number of standouts is noticeably lower.
Of course, taste is subjective, and what didn’t resonate for me might for you. Chances are, you’ll still find something in here to enjoy.
My rating typically depends on how many of those nuggets I can find, and, unfortunately, this one didn’t have quite as many as I’d hoped—especially compared to New Sudden Fiction: Short-Short Stories From America and Beyond, another entry in the series.
That’s not to say there aren’t great stories here—there absolutely are—but compared to previous volumes, the number of standouts is noticeably lower.
Of course, taste is subjective, and what didn’t resonate for me might for you. Chances are, you’ll still find something in here to enjoy.
March 16, 2010
This is an extremely well-edited collection of short-short fiction (that is stories that are less than five pages long, mostly less than two pages long, and some even shorter than that) by Latino and Latin American authors. The collection does a nice job of showing the strengths of the extra-short story and the variety of styles from writers across Latin America and Latinos in the United States. I also discovered that this collection is just about the most perfect thing to read in an airport.
January 11, 2011
For some reason, short stories have never caught my attention, but short short stories provide palatable gems without landing in the no-mans-land of ambiguous length. This collection boasts a range of topics, styles, approaches, and themes, but a great deal of them really impressed me. In particular, Day Ah Dallas Mare Toes, by Luna Calderón, sings with poignant charm and cries out for being taught in middle/high school language arts classes.
June 8, 2011
It's so tough to rate short story collections because the quality of the stories varies. Overall, about 75% of these selections were very good, and only a few were unreadable, so I settled on 3 stars. This is a great book to have in a purse or the car, for when you may only have a few minutes of spare time waiting in line or something.
December 2, 2015
I liked the idea of this collection of very short stories, but the variety was just too great, the styles too varied, for me to really enjoy it. I thought I'd pick it up when I just wanted a quick read here and there, before bed if I felt tired, etc. But I kept passing it up, and now I'm just going to admit it: this book wasn't for me.
Read
April 15, 2021Like a typical anthology, there are some stories within that are amazing, some that are good, and some that are so-so. Regardless of what category in which each story falls, this is a very enjoyable collection and is a must for readers wanting to learn more about Latino culture.
May 17, 2010
It's worth reading, although some of the short stories were not the type I usually like to read
June 22, 2010
Seems I'm not a fan of short, short fiction. I'll read several more stories to see if I change my mind. 6/18/10
June 28, 2012
You need to read this book if you want to continue telling people you like short stories. I am that serious.
November 20, 2012
In the course I am teaching on Latin@ lit, the students were the most interested in the neat little stories I found in here to share with them.
April 13, 2013
great collection of short-short and micro stories -- some in translation.
October 31, 2013
The ones I read, I enjoyed.
March 20, 2014
Some stories here are awesome (Junot Diaz is just one), and some are just okay.
March 16, 2015
Wonderful variety of short-short stories, both from Latin America and from Latinos living in the US.
March 30, 2018
This is a genre that I was unfamiliar with. These are short short stories, from a few pages to 1 paragraph. I was reminded of the old Twilight Zone tv show. Many took place in a different reality and involved a single incident. Others covered an entire lifetime. This genre is particular to Latin culture in the Western hemisphere. other than being a bit disappointed that no Brazilian works were included, I enjoyed this anthology and highly recommend it for people who like fiction.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews