282: Mexican Gothic (with Isabel Cañas)
Spirits
Multitude
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 May 2022
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We’re joined by author Isabel Cañas to talk about her debut novel, The Hacienda, and all things postcolonial gothic! And along the way we chat about Latinx Mirkwood elves, the haunted house book boom, and holding the door open for others.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of murder, storms, rejection, isolation, colorism, racism, and colonization.
Guest
Isabel Cañas is a Mexican-American speculative fiction writer. After having lived in Mexico, Scotland, Egypt, and Turkey, among other places, she has settled (for now) in New York City, where she works on her PhD dissertation in medieval Islamic literature and writes fiction inspired by her research and her heritage. You can order her book, The Hacienda, now!
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Julia recommends Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
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About Us
Spirits was created by Julia Schifini, Amanda McLoughlin and Eric Schneider. We are founding members of Multitude, an independent podcast collective and production studio. Our music is "Danger Storm" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com), licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Spirit Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. |
| 0:11.6 | Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. |
| 0:14.4 | I'm Amanda. |
| 0:15.4 | And I'm Julia. |
| 0:16.4 | And this is episode 282, where we are so excited to be joined by Isabel Kanias. |
| 0:20.6 | Isabel, welcome. |
| 0:21.6 | Thank you so much for having me. |
| 0:23.6 | It is our absolute pleasure. |
| 0:24.9 | Thank you so much for being here. |
| 0:26.6 | And we're so excited to talk about your new book, The Hacienda. |
| 0:31.3 | To kind of get us started, Isabel, would you mind giving us a little plot teaser so that |
| 0:37.0 | our audience can go and pick up the book and they're like, yes, excellent. |
| 0:40.4 | Absolutely. |
| 0:41.4 | So, to set the vibes for this book, it's usually pitched as Daphne DeMaria's Rebecca |
| 0:46.3 | meets Mexican Gothic, which means it's very much like a traditional Gothic set in Mexico. |
| 0:51.5 | So our story begins in 1823 when our protagonist Beatriz has lost money and position in the |
| 1:00.4 | political turmoil that followed the Mexican War of Independence from Spain, which ended |
| 1:04.0 | in 1821. |
| 1:05.0 | And in order to pick herself up and make a life for her and her mother, she decides to marry |
| 1:10.9 | this handsome, mysterious widower who has a state in the countryside, Asienda San Ysidro. |
| 1:16.0 | So she marries him, heads out there, discovers that it is immensely haunted. |
| 1:21.1 | No one will help her and she doesn't know what to do. |
... |
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