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Venezuela

Entry updated 6 February 2023. Tagged: International.

Venezuelan Proto SF began with the short story "La Realidad Circundante" ["The Surrounding Reality"] by Julio Garmendia, published in his first book La Tienda de Muñecos ["The Doll Store"] (coll 1927). In this story Garmendia shows us a personality-adapting machine which can scientifically adapt any personality to a continuously changing world. Eleven years later Enrique Bernardo Núñez published La Galera de Tiberio ["Tiberius' Galley"] (1938), a novel that shows Venezuela in the future. Three decades later David Alizo published a short story collection called Quórum (coll 1967). Some of his stories have a weak relationship with sf. A few years later Julio Miranda edited an anthology of Venezuelan sf: Ciencia ficción venezolana: antología ["Venezuelan Science Fiction: Anthology"] (anth 1979). In this book Miranda selected some short stories including a small amount of real sf: "Conspiración en Neo-Ucrania" ["Conspiracy in New Ukraine"] (previously unpublished) by Francisco de Venanzi; "Racine en el Aeropuerto" ["Racine at the Airport"] (in Órdenes ["Orders"] coll 1970) by José Balza; "Jinetes de Luz" ["Horsemen of Light"] (in Imágenes y conductos ["Images and Ducts"] coll 1970) by Humberto Mata; "Inútil Redondo Seno" ["Round Useless Breast"] (in Rostro Desvanecido Memoria ["Vanished Face Memory"] coll 1973) by Pascual Estrada; "Valdemar Lunes, el Inmortal" ["Valdemar Monday, the Immortal"] (in Volveré con mis perros ["I'll Be Back with My Dogs"] coll 1975) by Ednodio Quintero. José Gregorio Bello Porras published the collection: Andamiaje ["Scaffolding"] (coll 1977). Armando José Sequera wrote another one: Me Pareció Que Saltaba Por el Espacio Como una Hoja Muerta ["It Seemed to Me that it Leapt Through Space Like a Dead Leaf"] (coll of linked stories 1977). This book contains thirty-two stories about a community of Venezuelan astronauts. Pedro Berroeta wrote an sf novel: La Salamandra ["The Salamander"] (1973). And Carlos Sabino wrote another: La Religión de los Hanksis ["The Hanksis' Religion"] (1989). None of these authors wrote any subsequent sf.

Thus the very first career sf writer in Venezuela was Luis Britto García, author of two collections titled Rajatabla [" At Any Cost"] (coll 1970) and La Orgía Imaginaria ["Imaginary Orgy"] (coll 1983) and the novel Abrapalabra (1979), in which he mentions Time Travel, Extraterrestrial beings and alternate realities (see Alternate Worlds). Britto García is a constant sf reader and his short story Futuro ["Future"] was published in Lo Mejor de la Ciencia-Ficción Latinoamericana ["The Best of Latin-American Science Fiction"] (anth 1981).

In the 1980s a new generation was born. Strongly influenced by classic sf, two groups of fans started sf clubs in separate universities: UBIK at the Universidad Simón Bolívar and ALFA at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. The first of these is still active in the second decade of the twenty-first century. Those clubs were the training ground for several young one-story writers, and four real science fiction writers: Jorge De Abreu, Jorge Gómez Jimenez, Susana Sussmann and Ronald Delgado, who along with other modern novelists constitute the landscape of current Venezuelan sf.

Since the late 1980s, Jorge De Abreu, José Urriola (1971-    ), Jorge Gómez Jiménez, Susana Sussmann and Ronald Delgado have continued to publish much short sf in Anthologies, Magazines, webzines and web sites. Meanwhile, several novels have been published as traditional books and Ebooks: Alberto Castillo Vicci published the collection Cuentos Esotéricos ["Esoteric Tales"] (coll 2008) and the novel Demiurgo, S.A. (Fábrica de Utopías) ["Demiurge Inc. (Utopias Factory)"] (2012), in which the author shows us a procedure for rewriting the human code and making a new Utopia without our present troubles. Castillo Vicci has two new sf novels forthcoming: Ciberpresidente ["Cyberpresident"] (2013) and «Proyecto Tánato» ["Tanatus Project"]. Ronald Delgado published three short story collections: El Despertar de Meganet ["The Awakening of Meganet"] (coll 2008), Réplica ["Replica"] (coll 2011) and La Tierra del Cielo Sin Sol ["The Land of the Sunless Sky"] (coll 2012). Fedosy Santaella (1970-    ) wrote a novel named Las Peripecias Inéditas de Teófilus Jones ["Teofilus Jones Unpublished Adventures"] (2009) in which a policeman must protect the President's Cat in a depressing Dystopia. Carlos José León (1964-    ) published the first book of a trilogy, A un Paso del Infinito ["One Step from the Infinite"] (2010), in which a prehistoric man (see Prehistoric SF) must save the universe.

In the last four decades, several Venezuelan SF Magazines and later E-Zines have been born and have died. Some of these still continue. Examples are: Cygnus, edited by UBIK Club de Ciencia Ficción between 1986 and 1994; Necronomicón, edited by UBIK Club de Ciencia Ficción between 1993 and 1995; and Tlön, edited by Fondo Editorial El Perro y La Rana between 2010 and 2011. Examples of the webzines are: Necronomicón online, edited by the Asociación Venezolana de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía since 2003; Crónicas de la Forja, edited by Los Forjadores since 2006; and Ubikverso, edited by Asociación Venezolana de Ciencia Ficción y Fantasía since 2010. [SS]

see also: Latin America.

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