Introduction

SÁNCHEZ-CORDERO, SANTIAGO

Place of birth: Mexico City 1993.

Education: educated in Mexico City, went to film school in Canada. Considers himself largely a self-taught individual by means of the remarkable Vancouver Public Library.

Writings: fiction mainly fantastic, non-fiction mainly political, poetry both lyrical and narrative.

Political orientation: Libertarian socialist, with anarchist tendencies. Considers individual creative expression—released from nationalist and religious bondage—the supreme culmination of the human experience and the deepest, wildest embodiment of freedom. Espouses an active pacifism that opposes militarism by means of writing, protest, boycotts. Believes art can be used as a weapon for these aims. Rallies behind the struggle to recognize indigenous rights and sovereignty around the world. Considers the climate crisis and mass extinction of the twenty-first century to represent not only the greatest challenge in history to the survival of the human species, but to redefine all aspects of human life. Repudiates nationalism, fossil fuel proliferation, colonialism, militarism, fascism, surveillance capitalism.

Philosophical orientation: Schopenhauer and Nietzsche. Political and ethical thought influenced by Noam Chomsky. His philosophy is summed up by John Keats in the final lines to his masterpiece, Ode to a Grecian Urn: “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.”

Literary influences: favorite writer most days is Percy Byshee Shelley. Considers Jorge Luis Borges the supreme practitioner of the short story form. Believes the greatest literature to be fantastic as portrayed in the works of Milton, Dante, Homer. Adores James Joyce, Kafka, Poe, Le Guin, Tolstoy, Virginia Woolf, H.P. Lovecraft. Fond of the Weird fiction of Mariana Enríquez and the original oddness of Samantha Schweblin. Favorite book is Baker’s The Peregrine.

Religion: Agnostic. Moved to search for spiritual meaning beyond religious dogma. Advocates for secularism in politics as well as spirituality in the sciences.

Travels: extensive travels across the northern hemisphere, particularly Mexico, the USA, Canada, and Europe. Dreams of traveling to the Amazon, Japan, China, Africa, the Arctic Circle.

Enjoys: classic cinema, particularly the films of Robert Bresson. Amateur bird-watcher. Fond of running and swimming. Delights in freshly-made coffee with rich, golden crema. He is a radical fundamentalist only in the belief that coffee should be drank unadulterated and black as the voids between the stars; anything else is sacrilege. Loves hearing the rain fall over the sea, or lying beneath a tree to gaze at the emerald leaves silhouetted against the sky. Can spend days at the right museum. The labyrinthine alleys of Coyoacán in Mexico City, and the sea wall outlining Stanley Park in Vancouver are probably his two favorite places in the world. Admires architecture with spiritual significance and not purely utilitarian design, such as Gothic cathedrals. As an introvert, solitude means happiness.