7/27/2019 Entrevista con Federico Schaffler sobre ciencia ficción mexicana

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/entrevista-con-federico-schaffler-sobre-ciencia-ficcion-mexicana 1/4

7/27/2019 Entrevista con Federico Schaffler sobre ciencia ficción mexicana

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/entrevista-con-federico-schaffler-sobre-ciencia-ficcion-mexicana 2/4

short story awards, had several conventions and were recognized in national magazines,

invited to international book fairs, published many books and were acknowledged in

other countries. Sadly, this momentum came practically to a halt in 2000 after a fiercely

fought campaign to preside AMCYF. After that, almost everyone went their own way

and several authors kept the flame burning, but not me. I had a 10 year hiatus when I

 barely wrote because I had to work on other things.

But now I´m back and even though a part of me is strongly pushing me to once again

 put on the promoter and editor cap, as well to once again conduct a genre literary

workshop (I coordinated the Terra Ignota literary workshop from 1990 to 2002), I think 

it´s time to do some serious writing of my own.

Here in the Philippines, there’s a predisposition for short stories rather than

novels. Is that also the case there? 

Yes, even though it is common knowledge that novels are easier to sell to the publishing

houses and many have been able to appear to wider markets, but not with a SF label.Short stories can be found in personal collections, very few anthologies, electronic and

 printed magazines and blogs. Several novels have been published in Spain and that has

opened up some doors that still are difficult to cross. Others prefer not to be labeled and

have managed to publish in general collections.

Could you tell us more about the Mexican SF anthology that you edited, Mas alla de lo

imaginado?

It was the first anthology published in Mexico that had only stories from Mexican

writers. The National Council of the Arts, CONACULTA, by way of the Tierra Adentro

Cultural Program, commissioned me in 1990 to prepare what eventually came to be

three volumes, with 42 different authors, the youngest of whom was 17 and the eldest

72. The first two volumes appeared in 1991 and immediately sold out. The third

appeared in 1994 and the fourth and fifth volumes never were published.

Mas alla de lo imaginado, or MADLI, as we call it, served as a loud wakeup call that

motivated new writers, at the same time that it served as a common ground for those of 

us who already wrote and published but were not widely known about.

Many of the authors in MADLI later on garnered national or international literary

awards, were published in Mexico and other countries and became household names for the SF community.

What was your criteria in selecting the stories for all three volumes? 

I wanted to show a wide range of well written stories, most of them dealing directly

with Mexican themes or characteristics. Many stories were intimate, other galaxy

spanning and several very well could be included in other non-genre anthologies. I tried

to balance new voices with established writers and sought stories from many sources,

among them the Premio Puebla, a well known SF short story competition that began in

1984.

How would you describe Mexican science fiction and fantasy? 

7/27/2019 Entrevista con Federico Schaffler sobre ciencia ficción mexicana

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/entrevista-con-federico-schaffler-sobre-ciencia-ficcion-mexicana 3/4

7/27/2019 Entrevista con Federico Schaffler sobre ciencia ficción mexicana

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/entrevista-con-federico-schaffler-sobre-ciencia-ficcion-mexicana 4/4

as five of the authors, two of whom were already friends of mine. I finished the book in

a couple of days and highly recommend it for anyone who wants to have a broad

 panorama of current Mexican fantastic fiction. I also hope that Eduardo and Chris N.

Brown can soon publish a follow-up volume because there are many more authors that

were not included who should be well known to English readers.

What projects are you currently working on? 

I´m working in translating into English some of my stories, as well as and writing new

ones directly in this language. I am also outlining two novels that I expect to begin soon

(I still do not know which one will be first). I am also trying to finish a space opera

novella that I started and left unconcluded a dozen years ago. I recently finished a book 

of flash fiction, called “From Zero to a Hundred” that has stories that have a word count

 between 0 and 100 and I have a pet project of writing this year twelve stories, ranging

from one to twelve pages long, on January 1, February 2, March 3 and so on (1/1, 2/2,

3/3…) so I can finish with a 78 page chapbook. But most importantly I will try to break 

into international markets, by publishing in the US, Canada, Spain and Argentina,among other countries.

 Federico Schaffler was founding president of the Mexican Association of Science

 Fiction and Fantasy Writers, AMCyF, in 1992. He also edited the first anthology of 

original SF stories from Mexico, “Mas Alla de lo Imaginado” (3 volumes, 1991-1993),

as well as another 22 books that range from essays to short story collections and 

chronicles. In 2011 he was designated Emeritus creator of the State of Tamaulipas,

 Mexico, due to his writing and editorial work for over 28 years. He was once a member 

of Science Fiction Writers of America, in the early 1990´s, when he gained admission

after successfully arguing that America is the whole continent, and not only the USA,

and that as a Mexican national he was eligible to be a member. After that, the SFFWA

eventually changed their admission guidelines.