Future Visions of Dominican History in Odilius Vlak’s Crónicas historiológicas

Samuel Ginsberg

doi:10.26824/lalr.80

Abstract

The work of science fiction writer Odilius Vlak (Azua, Dominican Republic, 1976) looks to the future to comment on the country’s past. In many of the stories that comprise the collection Crónicas historiológicas (2017), Vlak examines how history is written and remembered through the eyes of future Dominicans. In this article, I examine Vlak’s counterfactual takes on the Dominican War of Independence and the Trujillo dictatorship in the stories “Descargas de meteoritos en la batalla del 19 de marzo” and “Juegodrox platónicos.” By injecting speculative elements into such significant moments in Dominican history, Vlak critiques how histories are created, sold, and mythologized, while also highlighting the role of counter-narratives in contesting official accounts. In “Descargas de meteoritos en la batalla del 19 de marzo,” a mysteriously powerful space rock wins the Battle of Azua, and future generations are confronted with a virtual record of the violence of the Dominican War of Independence. In “Juegodrox platónicos,” future Dominicans attempt to solve the mystery of disappearing children during the Trujillo era, while the dictator enlists science fiction writers and artists to fortify his larger-than-life persona. Examining Vlak’s challenging of Dominican history opens up the possibility of studying contemporary Caribbean science fiction’s relationship to the future and the past.

Highlights

In the Dominican science fiction-comedy film Arrobá (2013), directed by José María Cabral, three amateur thieves named Samuel, Pedro, and Pilón use a makeshift time machine to go back in time and retry a botched bank robbery
In “Descargas de meteoritos en la batalla del 19 de marzo,” a mysteriously powerful space rock wins the Battle of Azua, and future generations are confronted with a virtual record of the violence of the Dominican War of Independence
In “Juegodrox platónicos,” future Dominicans attempt to solve the mystery of disappearing children during the Trujillo era, while the dictator enlists science fiction writers and artists to fortify his larger-than-life persona

Summary

Historical Fiction and Alternate Histories

Besides the Trujillo regime and the Battle of Azua, the stories of Crónicas historiológicas feature references to many other historical moments and figures, including President Joaquín Balaguer, the 1655 attempted siege of the colonial city of Santo Domingo by British forces, and the 1842 Cap-Haïten earthquake. López Badano notes that one way in which Latin American authors have highlighted the constructed nature of history is to include improbable causal relations and ruptures in time (217). Another effect of the fictionalization of history is the recognition of underrepresented or non-canonical stories and perspectives. As literary scholar Magdalena Perkowska (2008) writes on the new Latin American historical novel: La nueva función de la historiografía y de la novela histórica consistiría en explorar las discontinuidades e intersecciones obliteradas por el proyecto de la modernidad, recorrer las brechas sociales y recuperar la diversidad del pasado para buscar raíces históricas de las heterogeneidades y racionalidades diferenciadoras del presente. Si se admite el presente como una realidad contradictoria, entonces la indagación del pasado no tiene que ver con la legitimización de ese presente, sino con el reconocimiento histórico de las incoherencias y discontinuidades en el tejido social. (105)

Historical fiction can destabilize popular understandings of

Speculative Propaganda and Rhetorical Legacies

Conclusions

Findings

WORKES CITED