VOL. 16, NO.2, FALL/WINTER 2014

INTERNATIONALJOURNAL OFcome ART

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INTERNATIONAL IOURNALOF COMIC ARTTanzania: David ChikokoTurkey: Turgut CevikerVietnam: Do Huu ChiUruguay: Daniel PuchFounder/Publisher/ Editor-in-chief John A. Lent

Assistant EditorsProduction /Distribution Staff

Exhibition Review EditorJae-Woong Kwon, Xu Ying, Mu LinJae-Woong Kwon, JohnA. Lent, HaeLim Suh,Mu Lin, Xu Ying, Jaehyeon Jeong

Editorial BoardA. David LewisAmy Kiste NybergAna MerinoAnne Cooper-ChenAsli TunyCharles HatfieldChris CouchDavid BeronaDerek RoyalGene Kannenberg, Jr.

Venezuela: Ivan SantiagoUkraine: Oleg DergachovYugoslavia: Yugoslav Vlahovic

Michael Rhode

Advisory BoardArt Spiegelman (US)Arthur Asa Berger (US)Arturo Kemchs (Mexico)Chai Rachawat (Thailand)Clive Collins (England)Dwi Koendoro (Indonesia)Draper Hill (US, deceased)Fred Schodt (US)Gilbert Shelton (France)He Wei (China, deceased)Hugo Yonzon III (Philippines)Jerry Robinson (US, deceased)Kim Song Hwan (Korea)Larry Alcala (Philippines, deceased)Lat (Mohd. Nor Khalid) (Malaysia)~--~~----------

Guy SpielmannJeff MillerJeff WilliamsJeffery KlaehnJoseph "Rusty" WitekKate LaityKerry SoperLarry RodmanMark NevinsMartha Kennedy

Matt McAllisterMichael RhodeNicole FreimPete CooganRandy DuncanSol M. DavidsonRandy ScottSteve ThompsonWilliam H. Foster III

International Editorial BoardAfrica: Leif PackalenArab World: Allen Douglas

Fedwa Malti-DouglasArgentina: Cesar CarrizoAustralia: Michael HillBangladesh: Ahsan HabibBelgium: Pascal LefevreBrazil: Waldomiro C. S. VergueiroCambodia: John WeeksCameroon: Issa NyaphagaCanada: Bart BeatyChina: Alfonz Lengyel

Hongying Liu-LengyelZheng Xinyao

Colombia: PeruchoCuba: Caridad Blanco de la Cruz

Gustavo RodriguezEcuador: Eduardo Villacis

Alvaro AlemanEngland: Paul GravettEgypt: Ahmed abd el NaeemFinland: Ville HanninenGermany: Marlene PohleGreece: Athanasia BatziouIndia: Suresh Sawant

Indonesia: Toni MasdionoIwan Gunawan

Iran: Mohammad NiroumandMassoud Shojai Tabatabei

Italy: Alfredo CastelliJapan: Fusami Ogi

Isao ShimizuLithuania: Vladimiras BeresniovasMalaysia: Muliyadi MahamoodNepal: Ram Kumar PandayNetherlands: Peter NieuwendijkNew Zealand: Dylan HorrocksPhilippines: Soledad ReyesPoland: Janusz KazmierczakSerbia: Zoran Stefano vicSingapore: Cheng Tju Lim

Ian GordonSlovakia: Komel FoldvariSlovenia: Igor PrasselSouth Africa: Andy MasonSpain: Francisco Tadeo JuanSri Lanka: Winnie Hettigoda

Camillus PereraSweden: Fredrik StrombergThailand: Warat Karuchit

Lucy Shelton Caswell (US)Marshall Fishwick (US, deceased)Maurice Horn (US)Max (Francese Capdevila) (Spain)Mikhail Zlavkovsky (Russia)Miroslav Bartak (Czech Republic)Mort Walker (US)Neil Napper (South Africa)Pran (India, deceased)Ralph Steadman (England)Tan Oral (Turkey)Trina Robbins (US)Will Eisner (US, deceased)Xu Pengfei (China)

The International Journal of Comic Art is published two times yearly. Inter-national and multidisciplinary in scope, IJOCA aims to publish scholarly andreadable research on any aspect of comic art, defined as comic books, news-paper and magazine strips, caricature, gag and political cartoons, humorousart, animation, and humor or cartoon magazines.

Manuscripts are welcomed, preferably within the range of 4,000 to 6,000words, although those of other reasonable lengths will be considered. Allcontributions should be sent via email attachments to John A. Lent at john.lent@gmail.com or jlent@temple.edu. All parts of the manuscript shouldbe in the same file. Microsoft Word (PC version) is preferred. Manuscriptsshould be accompanied by a four to five line biographical profile of the authorand a selection of very clear illustrations appropriately captioned. The style isdescribed on the International Journal of Comic Art blog and Website.

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF COMIC ART

Vol. 16, No.2, Fall/Winter 2014

Canadian Political CartooningTerry Mosher, OC

1

Comic Empires-- Cartoons, Caricature, and Imperialism:A Symposium

IntroductionRichard Scully

58

"The Women-flogger, General Hyena":Images of Julius Jacob von Haynau (1786-1853),

Enforcer of Imperial AustriaLaszlo Kiirti

65

Nothing New under the WesternSlJ,n:The (Necessity and Inevitability of the) Conquest

of the Americas in U.KR.(J.N.l.A:(Les Brigades du temps a~d {lel/dorado

Annick Pellegrin91

John Leech's "'General Fevrler ' Turned Traitor"in the Imperiallmagination

John Moores111

Joe Worker and the Story of Labor: Educating Workers for thePost-World War IILabor Program

Elena D. Hristova132

Gallows Humor: Political Satire in Sisi's EgyptJonathan Guyer

153

No Middle Ground: Reexamining RacializedImages in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire

Christina Bearden-White173

Akutagawa Ryfinosuke:Manga Images of a Literary Icon

Anri Yasuda192

Ishinomori Shetaro: (Re)presentingJapanese Graphic History

Roman Rosenbaum212

The Impossible Return: Innocence,Childhood and Predestined Love in Manga

Valerie Cools225

Hayao Miyazaki's Last Animation "The Wind Rises" (2013)and His Message for the Japanese Today

Kinko Ito and Paul A. Crutcher240

Urban Palimpsests of London in Alan Mooreand Eddie Campbell's From Hel/ (1989-1996)

Gorana Tolja253

When the Aztecs Conquered Europe:Literary Tradition and Criticism of Society

in The Art of Smoking Mirror (2012)Wladimir Chavez Vaca

268

268 269

When the Aztecs Conquered Europe:Literary Tradition and Criticism of Society

in The Art of Smoking Mirror (2012)

Introduction

Wladimir Chavez Vaca

"Welcome to the exhibit that celebrates 500 years of the discovery ofthe new continent: Amexica." This is the beginning of The Art of SmokingMirror (2012),1 a second edition- bilingual graphic novel disguised as amuseum catalog.' Its author, the Ecuadorian artist Eduardo Villacis, recountsthe conquest of Europe: Christopher Columbus reaches the Caribbean,but decides to continue his journey to reach the Aztec empire. He andhis crew are kidnapped by the natives, who collect information about theplace of origin of the foreigners. The Aztecs duplicate Spanish technologyin weaponry and shipbuilding, and in the early 16th Century, they send anoverseas army contingent under the command of General Itzcoatl to invadeAmexica (Europe). As mentioned, the book pretends to be a museum catalog:it points out that for the first time, there is a complete exhibition of all artworkand weapons used to conquer Amexica. The catalog collects evidence of boththe discovery and colonization of the "new" continent: paintings, weapons,testimonies, and maps. Curiously enough, that parallel history described byThe Art of Smoking Mirror" is both different and similar to our world.

Aztec craftsmen replicated European technology, according to the graphic novelArt of Smoking Mirror.

Fig. 3. Eduardo Villacis designed the weapons pictured in The Art of Smoking Mirror andFranklin Rosero, a craftsman and state designer, created actual sculptures of them.

Fig. 1. An ancient nautical chart shows the route frnm Mexico to Amexica (Europe).

Eduardo Villacis exhibited his paintings and some three-dimensionalobjects associated with this particular graphic novel at three exhibitions inCalifornia (USA), in 2003, 2004, and 2007.5 His art was also displayed inQuito, Ecuador, at Centro de Arte Contemporaneo, in February 2014. Thegraphic novel cum museum catalog is also a product of those experiences.Because of its unique characteristics, The Art of Smoking Mirror deserves astudy from two different perspectives: its location within a specific HispanicAmerican literary tradition and its relationship to the genre of science fiction.

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trial of Pope Inocenncius I (accused of heresy in 1507), and the destructionof Rome. The fourth episode, "The Daily Life in the Colonies," focuses onaspects such as transportation, lost languages, and ethnic characteristics oftheconquered people. Finally, "Amexica Today" shows the touristy and friendlyface of colonies today.

Although there are a few texts that could be considered literaryantecedents of The Art of Smoking Mirror, none of these works is a graphicnovel. It is possible, however, to find examples in which an American Indianmakes a transatlantic trip, although with two particularities: the travel takesplace in the 15th Century and the native (or group of natives) "discovered"Europe before Columbus arrives in America.' I have identified six HispanicAmerican texts published in the last 60 years:" Los indios estaban cabreros[The Indians were Goatherds] (1958),9 Palabras de Opoton el Viejo [TalesofOpoton the Elder] (1968), Cronica del descubrimiento [The Chronicle ofthe Discovery] (1980), "America descubri6 Europa" [America discoveredEurope] (1988), La verdadera historia del descubri-miento de America[The True Story of the Discovery -- the Lie of America] (1988),10 and EIConquistador [The Conqueror] (2006).11 In order to understand the noveltyof The Art of Smoking Mirror, it is necessary to place the work in a particularcontext and compare the book with similar approaches: it requires theevaluation of architextuality. 12

In The Indians Were Goatherds (1958), a play written by Argentineauthor Agustin Cuzzani, the main character is the rebellious Prince Tupa, whoseeks to organize a revolt in the land of the Aztec Empire, where there is onlyinjustice and oppression. Excellent boat builder and owner of outstandingnavigational skills, he, along with other social outcasts, crosses the ocean inan attempt to interview the Sun god and reaches the Iberian Peninsula. PrinceTupa and his fellow travelers are imprisoned and tried by the Inquisition.Finally Tupa, who meets characters such as Christopher Columbus -- alsomentioned in The Art of Smoking Mirror -- understands that in his homeland,as well as in the new continent, authorities reign with tyranny.

Cuzzani's work is humorously written and is full of anachronisms,i.e. the presence of misplaced objects within the timeframe of the story: thenarrator describes posters in public spaces and a written language of a pre-Columbian village. These elements make it difficult to identity what Genettecalls diegesis (1982:294-296), which is the historical and geographicalcontext ofthe text. In the same line of thought, it is worth mention that in TheArt of Smoking Mirror, there is only one anachronism: the record ofthe arrestof Columbus, shown as a contemporary document disguised like a codex, butwith a place for the "portrait" (e.g. passport photo).

The Conqueror (2006), a novel by Federico Andahazi, tells about theadventures of Quetza, a skilled Aztec boat builder who arrives in Europeafter recruiting both Huastecas crew, whom the Aztecs considered people

The American Indians Who Crossed the Atlantic Oceanand Landed in Europe: Literary Antecedents

In addition to the prologue and the final section of sketches and Villacis'biography,' The Art of Smoking Mirror has five chapters: "Encounter of TwoWorlds," "The Navy," "The Conquest," "The Daily Life in the Colonies,"and "Amexica Today." The first part, "Encounter of Two Worlds," explainsthe arrival of Columbus and his captivity by the Indians, and the momentwhen the God of War, Lord Huitzilopochtli, contacted the supreme priestTlacaelel and ordered the Aztecs to conquer the lands where the sun rises."The Navy" shows the construction of ships and weapons, in the latter case,the book shows photographs of "old firearms" (designed by Villacis). "TheConquest" describes the ancient beliefs and idolatries, basically Christianity,Europe's lost religion. It has been mixed up by the Aztecs with "Henryism"or an alleged cult of English King Henry VIII, the British monarch who brokewith the Catholic hierarchy and became the head of the Anglican Church.Additionally, there are the imposition of the conquered Aztec religion, the

Fig. 4. Portrait of General Itzcoatl. He led the army to key victories during the campaignfor Amexica.

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of lower rank, as well as Mexican criminals. This produces a new inversionin history: according to popular belief, Columbus' crew was composed ofvagrants and delinquents. Much similar to what happened in the work ofCuzzani, in the work of Andahazi, the character of the emperor Axayaca (orAxayactlen) ends up being an excuse to portray the injustice of the Aztecsocial and political system and the cruelty of its authorities. In this typeof literature, real situations and historical places pass through the filter offiction. The occasional presence of characters such as Isabella I of Castile andChristopher Columbus are just two examples. The Conqueror also alludes,on several occasions, to the presence of the "viquincatl" (Vikings in Nahuatllanguage) in America. However, a peculiar phenomenon occurs: when thesehistorical characters and their actions are transformed into fiction, it becomesalmost irresistible for the books' authors to develop the literary motif of the"world upside-down." We can find the same desire to reverse the officialhistory of both indigenous heroes in Andahazi and Cuzzani plots; for instancethey considered Spaniards cruel and savage, a complete change from theEuropean prejudiced perspective which judged indigenous peoples of theAmericas as uncivilized.

The Art of Smoking Mirror follows this trend. Furthermore, in the caseof Andahazi, there is an additional element of inverted parallelism, becauseQuetza has a travel diary just like Admiral Columbus. The plot follows astrict chronological order. Villacis, in his work, maintains the chronologyof what happened thanks to the strategy of its style of a museum catalog:first the presentation of the conquest of Amexica and then the subsequentdevelopment of the Old Continent as a colony. Moreover, his self-designationas "chronicler" implicates a subjective account featuring testimonials. Writerssuch as Cuzzani and Andahazi had included famous historical figures such asIsabella I of Castile or Columbus himself, and Villacis draws upon characterssuch as Pope Inocenncius I and King Henry Vl ll.

Certain absurd clements of the work of Villacis and Cuzzany mayalso be found in Tales of Opoton the Elder a novel published in 1968 bythe Catalan AvelIi Artis-Gener (1912-2000). A synthesis of the principalcharacteristics ofthc work is found in the study "Literatura catalana y exilio"(Catalan Literature and Exile):

Fig. 5. Pope Inocenncius I is accused of heresy. The Aztec conquerors imposed theirreligious beliefs in Amexica.

Although they tell different anecdotes, Tales of Opoton the Elder andThe Art of Smoking Mirror share the humor and the historical game of the"world upside-down." For instance, according to Motolinia (1970:303), thegeographical name Yucatan stems from a linguistic misunderstanding amongthe Spanish conquerors, who after repeatedly asking the indigenous the name01" the land, the natives responded Tectetan, meaning "I don't understandyou." In the case of the work of Avelli Artis-Gener:

The key is humorous: the Aztecs discover Europe some time before the arrivalof Columbus in America, and the discovery takes place on a rugged coastlineand "broken and you notice right away that they have ruined it," which is theway the Aztec chronicler describes the impression of the coast of Galicia andBayonne. The History upside-down: the Aztecs find it difficult to distinguishmen from women, because they are covered up from head to toe; and theyare surprised that they do their laundry in the river without getting into it andthen put the sheets to dry in the ground -- but maybe it's a welcome gesture-- (Espadaler, 2007. All translations arc mine).

Everyone asked [the Aztecs in Spain] for Santiago, and in Puebladeldean "achief dressed in black to whom everyone paid much attention" asked them"Sant Iago?" "It was -- mentions Opoton -- their stubborn way of asking wherewe came from." A slight revenge on Yucatan (Espadaler, 2007).

The Uruguayan Alejandro Patemain develops in The Chronicle of theI iiscovery (1980) a burlesque plot of this story and continues the traditionof the "world upside-down" where the absurdity 0(" the inverted situationprovokes laughter: "The subsequent year, the novel nil' ('/1/"11/1;('/(' o] the

IJOCA, Fall/Winter 2014 /.I(){ 'I, /',,//'11';,,11., .'/1/1

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Discovery was published, that was the famous travel of the Indians whodiscovered Europa, with a touch of humor ("Alejandro Paternain," n.d). It isexactly this register of humor from Villacis, Cuzzani, Paternain, and Artis-Gener, that is shared by the theater play The True Story of the Discovery-- the Lie of America (1988) by "Koldo," a Dominican writer whose realname is Juan Carlos Campos Sagaseta de Ilurdoz. In this work, the first ofthe three acts depicts a Native American who arrives in Europe and meetsthe Catholic Monarchs. The native calls the Spaniards "savages" and tries to"civilize" them: he wants them to use loincloths and feathers. He proclaimsto Isabella and Ferdinand that they have been "discovered" by him, givesthem cassava and tries to change their names. The book resembles Cuzzani'sand only partially Villacis' graphic novel in terms of the ambiguous diegesis,a result of persistent use of anachronisms: the Indian speaks a few wordsin modem English, dances merengue, has toilet paper, and a lottery ticket.Furthermore, he remembers the difficulties of acquiring the necessary travelvisa, an anecdote in the same line of the arrest record of Columbus' crew inThe Art of Smoking Mirror.

The anachronisms reinforce some criticism of domination orEurocentric positions. Both in The True Story of the Discovery -- the Lie ofAmerica, and in The Indians Were Goatherds, as well as in the isolated storyabout Columbus' document in The Art of Smoking Mirror, the anachronismseffectively update the misunderstandings and setbacks between Americaand Europe, becoming a reflection of contemporary practices. On one hand,Koldo's Indian acquires a visa and sponsors for his voyage to distant shores.On the other hand, Cuzzani denounces social injustice: a policeman demandsdocuments in the strange timeless land of Prince Tupa, and later the samething occurs with a despotic Iberian officer, which demonstrates a level ofcontrol perfectly applicable to our societies. As mentioned, the anachronismof The Art of Smoking Mirror appears headed in the same direction: tocriticize current policies and legislation. And despite the seriousness of theissue, the humorous tone does not diminish the aim of the text.

A similar incident as the one narrated in Tales of Opoton the Elderregarding Yucatan and the minimal rewriting of an historical anecdote occursduring the first act of The True Story of the Discovery --the Lie of America.The indigenous character gets a Bible from the Catholic Monarchs. Unableto understand its purpose, he dislikes it because "it doesn't have batteries"and throws it to the ground. It is clear the reference is to the famous storyof the friar Vicente de Valverde, who is said to have offered a Bible to theInca Atahualpa. The Indian Emperor could not understand the meaning of theobject and threw the Sacred Scriptures to the ground.

Previously, it was mentioned that the main character in The Conqueror,Quetza, met Isabella I of Castile and Christopher Columbus, just like PrinceTupa did in Indians Were Goatherds. However, Quetza is not satisfied with

reaching Europe; in fact, he goes around the world westbound and returnsto Mexico. Quetza is the typical traveler character; strange enough, it mightwell have been that the indigenous explorer of the new land across the oceanis not fiction. This is stated in "America Discovered Europe" (1988), by theEcuadorian Alejandro Carri6n, a borderline text midway between fictionand essay. A character proposes a thesis: the two historians Pomponius Melaand Plinius Secundus (Plinius the Elder) have described the transcontinentalnavigation of the Native Americans fifteen centuries before Columbus:

Well: Pliny the Elder, in chapter XLVII of Book II of his Naturalis Historiae,confirms, agreeing absolutely with Pomponius Mela, that in the year 62 BC, astrange marine vessel never before seen, with bronzed men never before seen,with strange habits, speaking an unknown language never before heard, reachedthe Baltic coast of Germania, the name which they gave to this country. Thesemen were no less than the American Indians who just had discovered Europe.Due to the unfortunate delay of geographical and ethnological studies in whichthe Roman Empire found itself at that time and the total ignorance of Americanindigenous languages, the Romans did not realize the great and glorious eventthey were witnessing, and instead of receiving the crew triumphantly, theillustrious and brave sailors were taken to the nearest slave market, where they,for a very small fee, were acquired by the patrician Metellus Celere [sic], thenproconsul of Gaul. It is essential to note here that these Indians, explorers ofEurope two thousand and forty-seven years [sic] before Columbus discoveredAmerica, were the first of their race to speak Latin (Carrion, 1988, 18-19).

Historical information gathered by Carrion is complemented by a passagefrom Augustine Cuzzani in his "Epilogo para criticos y bachilleres" (Epilogueto Critics and Graduates), dated 1958:

Ajourney of American Indians to Spain while the Spanish were planning theirtrip to America, it is harmonious, logical and natural, if we start from veryancient legends and mythologies Hebrew, Egyptian, Babylonian and Greek, aswell as Aztec, Maya, Toltee, or the entire Nahuatl-speaking culture. The entireEast urges man to seek lands beyond the sea to the west. The entire AmericanWest urges man to seek lands to the east. And by these premises, my PrinceTupa traveling towards Spain, driven by very old Mexican traditions, is just aspossible as this strange and almost legendary Christopher Columbus lookingfor the earthly paradise somewhere in the West (Cuzzani, 1960:179-180, myemphasis).

IJOCA, Fall/Winter 2014

Thus, it is necessary to consider to what extent the explanation basedon oral tradition and legend, on the one hand, and the version of Romanhistorians, on the other, can support the story of the Indian who travels toEurope as a possible historical fact rather than fictional. In the first case,Cuzzani's claims on pre-Columbian legends have not been confirmedby reviewing compiling anthologies of myths and popular tales as Indexof Mexican Folktales, by Stanley L. Robe, the work of John Bierhorst inCuentos folkloricos latinoamericanos (Latin American Folktales) or WalterKrickeberg's register in Mitos y leycndas .k los 1/::/('('(1.1', incas, mayas y

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muiscas (Myths and Legends of the Aztecs, Incas, Mayas and Muiscas).One might speculate, perhaps, that the statement in the epilogue is Cuzzani'sown interpretation from the mythical Tlapallan, which is the city "whereQuetzalcoatl, the Mexican Redeemer, was born, [and it] is called the Countryof Reborn Light and the Eastland" (Cuzzani, 1960:181). There is a Tolteclegend collected by Ermilio Abreu Gomez and Joseph Flores, which mentionsthat Quetzalcoatl came to the seashore and "he commanded a raft to be madeout of snakes called Coatlapechtli, and he entered it and sat as if it were acanoe and so he went navigating the sea, and no one knows how or in whatway he reached this Tlapallan s c (1952: 101). Anyway, another version of thestory tells that Quetzalcoatl did not really cross the ocean. Instead, the god"caught fire upon arrival on the coasts of Mexico and was later reborn as theMorning Star or Lord of the Dawn" (Florescano, 1995:113)_13

Nevertheless, even though the legend of which Cuzzani speaks explicitlyappears in other studies or collections, it is not possible to find a specificfolktale of the Indigenous' voyage across the Atlantic and not some vaguestory about supernatural characters such as Quetzalcoatl, It is worth recallingthe assertions of George Foster, shared by Julieta Campos, concerned withthis kind of fiction: "Such is the nature of [the mutual influence of] indigenousand Spanish cultures in which it is almost always impossible to distinguishthe origin of the various episodes" (Campos, 1982:12-13).14

As for the historical statements collected by Carrion, the RomanPomponius Mela, in fact, mentions in De Chorographia (41--44 d.C) anunusual event: the arrival of distant travelers to the shores of Europe. Theseoutsiders were sold as slaves by the king of the Celtic tribe of the Boii toMetellus Celer, then proconsul of Gaul. The bronzed colored skin of thevisitors, however, is not mentioned by him nor by Plinius Secundus. F. E.Romer's edition states: "By asking what route they had followed to reachthere, Celer learned that they had been snatched by storm from Indian waters,that they had traversed the intervening region, and that finally they hadarrived on the shores of Germany" (Mel a, 1998: 114). In fact, Mela's previousreflections (113) complement the notion of this passage by recalling that, fora long time, the territories beyond the Caspian Sea had remained unknown.The transatlantic voyage alluded to by Mela, thus, appears not to suggestEuropean contact with Native Americans, but with Asians. This sounds like areasonable explanation also after reading Plinius Secundus (1938:305).

Either way, Mela is not the only ancient source which gathersspeculations about intercontinental voyages. La Historia Natural y Moralde las Indias (The Natural and Moral History of the Indies) (1590), by theJesuit Jose de Acosta, feeds the assumption that certain travelers arrived inunknown continents. Because of the terrible storms, the sailors lost theirdirection, causing their landing in unexplored places (2002: 104-106). Theintercontinental journey, thus, is the common thread running through the

handful of works mentioned, The Art ofSmoking Mirror included, althoughin the latter the discovery is not due to an accident or the innovations of aleader who gropes blindly a sea route: Aztecs know the existence of anothercontinent thanks to information from the captive Hispanics. This is not tosuggest that any of these texts has directly influenced the work of Villa cis, butit does confirm that The Art of Smoking Mirror belongs to a literary tradition.The affiliation to that tradition may have occurred without the author havingknowledge of the previous works because, in this case, the point of departureis a common idea: the Indigenous arrived in Europe before people from theOld Continent knew about the existence of America. 15 From this perspective,the leitmotif of "world upside-down" develops and it explains the fact thatthe similarities between all these works are only partial and in many casesrooted in facts and historical figures (the Inquisition, Columbus, the CatholicMonarchs, etc.). History is used in order to be rewritten and even parodied.However, the main difference between the corpus of texts mentioned andThe Art of Smoking Mirror, besides the obvious distinction of the latter as agraphic novel, lies in the very plot itself: not only do the Indigenous peoplearrive in Europe by their own means, but they conquer the Old Continent andchange the history of the world. Speculation about transcendental historicalevents, a topic of interest in science fiction, will be addressed in the nextsection.

Science Fiction: Dystopia and Social Critics

The Art of Smoking Mirror has a peculiar structure. When FarahMendlesohn reflects upon the genre, she points out: "In science fiction, howthe reader is brought into the speculative world influences the ways in whichthat world can be described" (2008: xiv). Her thoughts lead us directly to thisgraphic novel disguised as a museum catalogue. Hence, the texts are shortand the drawings and photographs take most of the space. In the taxonomyoffered by Mendlesohn, The Art of Smoking Mirror fits as an example of theimmersive fantasy: it shares a set of assumptions (xx). The reader acceptsthe discovery and the conquest of Amexica stated in the preface and waitsfor details.

The plot proposed by Villacis is a speculation leading to a significantchange of historical events, which is called alternate history or uchronia" inscience fiction. A general understanding of the concept is clearly synthesizedby Erwin Buendia:

In the uchronia, science fiction is not conjugated in future -- 'what happenswhen ... ' -- but in the conditional tense -- 'what would have happened if ... ' --, itspeculates on what would have happened if history had developed differently.It invites us to imagine alternatives, posing a parallel development to theknown facts. Hence, small fictions arc described on the backdrop of a world

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turned upside-down (2012:168). part ofthe subchapter "Encounter of Two Worlds" and it is called, effectively,"Our Manifest Destiny." From the geopolitical point of view, the expressionis not unknown. When historian Johannes Nymark describes the early yearsof international influence of the United States, he recalls the words of thejournalist John L. O'Sullivan in a famous article published in The UnitedStates Democratic Review in 1839:

In the present case, the critical moment lies not in the encounter ofColumbus with the Aztecs, but the decision to invade Europe (Amexica),which breaks radically with world history as we know it. At the same time,we discover that various passages of Villa cis 'work fit within the evaluation ofRicardo Bernal regarding the objective of speculation: "The genre of sciencefiction has transformed itself into a critical eye on contemporary civilization( ... ) This critical eye is nothing more than an exaggerated portrait, and,occasionally, very close to the world and the current humanity" (2008:8).

An example of the opinion of Bernal applicable to The Art of SmokingMirror may be found in the beginning of the book. The author of the prefaceis not Villacis, but a well-known Ecuadorian journalist: Cesar Ricaurte. Thepreface, in fact, follows the same tone as the book itself and points out somefeatures which produce, due to the ironic technique by which the officialstory is depicted, a critique towards imperialism. Ricaurte minimizes anyexcess occurred during the conquest, and talks, through a "americacentric"vision, about the benefits of "the civilization that we have built throughoutthese centuries" (2012:2) and ensures that "the young and conqueredcontinent [Europe] is still a fountain of possibilities" (ibid.), in the manner ofan unscrupulous pioneer planning to exploit the resources without thinkingtoo much about the social consequences.

One valuable object in the fictional collection of The Art of SmokingMirror is the document reporting detention -- partially disguised as a pre-Columbian codex -- showing the illegal entry of Columbus and his peoplein the Aztec territory. As already noted, it is an anachronism, a combinationbetween an item (the document) and a process of the contemporary world(bureaucratic rigmarole) with an indigenous society of the late 15th Centuryand the beginning of 16th Century. The Spanish crew is accused of being"Mayan terrorists disguised in circus costumes" (20 12:7). The theorist EdwardJames claims that science fiction "is still a place for satire" (1994:208) andVillacis' work is a good example of this view: humor serves as a weapon tocriticize, in this case, the procedures related to illegal migration and the fightagainst terrorism today. Actually, humor and continuous associations withthe contemporary society are found throughout The Art of Smoking Mirror.

In the same vein, the economic reasons for the conquest of newterritories are found on the divine revelation of the supreme priest Tlacaelel,another parallelism based on the concept of the world upside-down. AfterSpaniards have been captured by the Aztecs, Tlacaelel informs us that hewas visited by the god Huitzilopochtli, "who orders him the sacred duty ofconquering the land to the East where the sun rises. Inspired by his vision,Tlacaelel later gave a brilliant speech to the Council calling for the need toconquer such lands Our Manifest Destiny" (2012:8). This section is the final

(....) the right of our manifest destiny to over spread and to possess the wholeof the continent which Providence has given us for the development of thegreat experiment of liberty and federaltive development of self governmententrusted to us. It is a right such as that of the tree to the space of air andthe earth suitable for the full expansion of its principle and destiny of growth(Nymark,2006:127-128).

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Nymark points out that "Our Manifest Destiny" is a justification of theexpansionist desire of that time. Furthermore, it is the start ofthe defense ofU. S.interests in the region, violently at times. Nymark describes the importance ofLatin America as an economic colony: a good place to extract raw materialsand, simultaneously, a good market. In the same line, the work of Villacissuggests the exploitation by the Aztecs of Amexica and the influence of theconquerors, not only economically but also culturally: thanks to Europeanslave labor, and above the ruins of cities such as Paris, Amsterdam, or Rome,pyramids were built following the model of constructions in Tenochtitlan.Among the most eloquent graphics on the exploitation of Amexica is thesection called "Transport," found in subchapter "Daily Life in the Colonies."It describes how Aztecs learned to ride horses for fighting enemies, but,within cities, they preferred the use of robust slaves as transport, especiallythose of German origin, whom they called "The car of the people." Herethere is certainly a double meaning: Volkswagen, the German car company,is translated precisely as "The car of the people." The drawing is witty andrough at the same time: the Aztec lord and master seated on a German slavewho has a saddle on his back like a horse. This is the clear picture of thedomination of one man over another, physically, socially, and economically.

Both the prologue, as well as the description of the process of conquestand colonization, along with the final subchapter, "Amexica Today," displayvoices recounting the arrival of the Aztecs in Europe as if it were a positivehistorical fact. Of course, those voices are ironic, but the irony is interpretedat the reader's level. Literally, The Art of Smoking Mirror is a catalog that"shows" the benefits of the conquest of Amexica and justifies the destructionnot only of the human groups who inhabited the land, but also the Europeancultural and religious manifestations. Amexica is presented as a utopia, anidyllic place. For instance, the tourist poster "Travel to Amexica" (2012:43)describes in pictures a world where oil has not been discovered, where thecity streets are pedestrian only, with no pollution and multiple green areas.There are ecological aircrafts: gliders with indigenous designs. The poster

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exploits the friendly face of the region; it is what we would expect of touristpropaganda, in this case a world of peace, love, and respect for nature. Thatutopian universe is, however, motivated by cash: the one recommendingtraveling to the new continent is "Amexian Airlines," official sponsor of theWorld Ballgames.'?

We hope to examine utopias (and dystopias) not for what they tell US about anintellectual construct in assorted individuals' heads, but rather for what theyreveal about a set of abiding concerns and cultural formations that generatedboth the desire for utopian transcendence and the specific fonn that utopia!dystopia took (Gordin, Tilley, and Prakash, 2010:4).

Fig. 6. European slaves, preferably Germans, are used as mode of transport.

The utopian society is a leitmotif in the literature of science fiction inthe same way as its opposite: the dystopian community. Michael D. Gordin,Helen Tilley, and Gyan Prakash (2010: I) recall the formal emergenceof the term utopia in the Renaissance through the work of Thomas More(1516), but find that in his time, Plato had already reflected upon plannedsocieties. As for dystopia," Erika Gottlieb (2001:3) mentions as typicalexamples, worlds proposed in classic books written by Yevgeny Zamyatin,Aldous Huxley, and George Orwell, although she recognizes a predecessor inDante Alighieri and his description of the city of Dis in The Divine Comedy(ibid). Geoffrey Winthrop-Young notes that "utopian and fantastic narrativespreceded uchronian narratives" (2009: 102). It is easy to identify Amexica asan uchronian narrative, but also as an example of failed utopia. In fact, it is aclear dystopia. In the same way:

James Gunn recalls: "Science fiction is the branch ofliterature that deals withthe effects of change on people in the real world as it can be projected intothe past, the future, or to distant places" (2005 :6). The projection of the pastin The Art of Smoking Mirror exhibits a curious picture of the indigenouswhich is not related to the image of the noble savage typical of a certainliterary tradition: "The origin of the concept of the noble savage comes froma civilization mixed with some kind offecling ofguilt which civilized peopleattribute to the primitive man, not yet touched by the conquests and prejudicesof progress, a way to live that is happier and morally superior" (Frenzel,

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1980:313). That image was taken by Latin American intellectuals during the19th Century, and it is the origin of the concept called "indianism" that LuisVeres (2003:30) describes as the literary exploitation of the exotic image,the ornamental of aborigines, without showing their marginalized situationin Latin American society. In contrast, the concept of "indigenism" intendsto demonstrate the social and economic problems the Native Americans face(ibid. 31).

The Art of Smoking Mirror, however, does not develop any of thosetwo positions: Amexica is not a utopian society ruled by noble savages wherepeople live in absolute harmony between men and nature. But neither does itdescribe a society where the Aztecs, in particular, and indigenous, in general,suffer from marginalization: Native Americans themselves hold politicaland economic power. Villacis doesn't demonstrate in his work a criticismof the indigenous or to a specific ethnic group, because it is a metaphor ofhuman behavior in general. Indigenous or not, humans seek resources, andfor that, invade territories, exploit other humans, and impose their culture andworldview.

read the work of their colleagues. Despite the fact these texts occasionallyinclude multiple absurd elements and humorous discourses, they uphold astrong tendency toward social denunciation. However, although the otherworks draw on the inversion of official history, only The Art of SmokingMirror brings speculation to its ultimate consequences: its approach impliesthe existence of a whole new universe. Not even Quetza in The Conquerorproduces this change; it is true that he "discovered" Europe and succeeds ingoing around the world, but when Quetza returns home, he has no evidenceto show the Aztec emperor. Hence, the official story remains unchanged.The same occurs with the remaining texts: the voyage of these indigenouspioneers to Europe does not lead to any radical socio-political consequences.

Finally, the title The Art of Smoking Mirror seems simply a tribute tothe Aztec god Tezcatlipoca, whose name means "Black Smoking Mirror."However, at the same time, it synthesizes the ambivalence of a societyreflecting itself in the mirror without finding a crystalline image. It is a utopiaturning into a dystopia, as many human projects. Observing an imperfectmirror image gives us a mixture of light and shadow, showing human nature,difficult to unravel, and the complexity of our own projects.

ConclusionsEndnotes

The Art of Smoking Mirror is a work that displays different strategies,both in the visual as well as its spoken discourse, offering its interpretationas an example of social criticism. The development of an alternative history-- distorting historical facts about the discovery of America -- allows theformation of a world that may first appear as an ideal, utopic world, but it is,however, as imperfect as the world of the reader. In the end, the work turnsout to fall within specific literary trends: a Hispano-American tradition aswell as a science fiction subgenre.

Amexica is depicted as a society with a shameful past of violence andintolerance and a consumerism present that are attempted to be disguised.In this line of thought, Gottlieb's concept of dystopia exposes anothercharacteristic of such peculiar social order: "As for a thematically moreneutral definition of this 'bad place,' Lyam Sargent suggests that we look atdystopia as a social structure that is worse than the present social system"(2001:5). Although the humor and irony converge with seriousness inAmexica's dystopia, the imagined world is no worse than the real one (asnoted by Sargent). Neither is it a better place.

As it was shown, to imagine a historical fact based on the motif ofthe "world upside-down" (the arrival of Columbus in America) has madepossible the development of a series of works with some similar features.Once accepted, the shared source leads to more or less similar events onthe plot without the implication that Villacis or any of the other authors had

1 In the press, the work by Villacis is referred to as Smoking Mirror. Here weapply the full name. Villacis is working on a new, extended graphic novelbased on the bogus museum catalogue theme. The forthcoming will be titledThe Smoking Mirror.2 The first version was published in 2007 as part of an art exhibition: "EduardoVillacis: Smoking Mirror Exhibit," held at Bert Green Fine Art Gallery,California (USA). This is a discontinued edition, with differences comparedto the latest version.3 The text is a Spanish-English version. The Spanish title is El espejohumeante.4 The name of god Tezcatlipoca means "Black Smoking Mirror" in theNahuatl language.5 The exhibitions took place in Grand Central Art Center (Santa Ana),Atrium Gallery (Fullerton), and Bert Green Fine Art Gallery (Los Angeles),respectively.6 In the book, Villacis calls himself "chronicler" [cronista], not "author."7 I have reflected on the roots of American Indian travelers in literature in twoprevious studies: tangentially in Un ladron de literatura: el plagio a partirde la transtextualidad (The Literature Thief Plagiarism from a TranstextualPoint of View -- University of Bergen), but especially in "Plagio y practicaintertextual. A prop6sito de la novela HI Conqnistador (2006), de Federico

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Andahazi" ("Plagiarism and Intertextual Practice. Reflections on FedericoAndahazi's Novel The Conqueror, 2006" -- Iberoromania). In neither ofthese cases did I include The Art of Smoking Mirror because I was unawareof its existence. In the present section, I not only connect with some thoughtsand conclusions from my previous studies, but I also contextualize the workdone by Villacis.8 As far as I know, none of these works has ever been published in English.In this article I have included the translations of the book titles in order tosimplify the references.9 I have included the year of performance, not the year Cuzzani published hiswork (1960).10 Here I have also included the year of the first performance.IIAll works appear as prior to The Art of Smoking Mirror, with one exception:although the book by Andahazi was printed in 2006, Villacis had an exhibitionin Grand Central Art Center in 2003, which was the germ of his graphic novel.12According to French philosopher Gerard Genette (1982:4-5), architextualityrefers to a corpus of texts that share common features. There can be more orless generic features that encourage classifications such as "Latin AmericanNarrative" or "Science Fiction." They can also have their origin in a specificwork with later imitations, "quixotic works" (ibid., 148-152), for example. Inour case, the corpus shares a common plot element: American Indians whotravel to Europe in the 15th Century.13 One might point out another legend, though not of Mesoamerican origin:according to stories by Spanish chroniclers (Leveratto), the Inca godViracocha was white and had a beard. Suggestions without scientific supporttalk about the possibility that Viracocha could have been a descendant of atraveler of Nordic origin (ibid.). In any case, the only accepted Europeanpresence in America before Columbus is that of the Vikings, of which theclearest evidence is the L'Anse aux Meadows settlement in Canada.14 A good example is the story of Tunapa or Tonapa, which is supposed tobe a Quechua legend: It is about a bearded man who preached among theindigenous peoples and wrought miracles before the arrival of Columbusin America. The Spanish tried to adapt him to the image of the apostle St.Thomas. Joan de Santacruz Pachacuti Yamki Sallkamaywa wrote a chronicleconcerning this legend in 1613.15 They built their own ships and reached the shores of Europe over 500 yearsago. In most of the stories, the Native Americans arrived before Columbus,with one exception: The Art of Smoking Mirror. Anyway, in Villacis' fiction,it doesn't matter whether Spaniards "discovered" America first, because thecrew is not able to come back and spread the news. At the beginning, theEuropean population is unaware of the existence of America, just like theother plots which follow this literary tradition.16 The theorist Andy Duncan clarifies: "An alternate history is not a history

at all, but a work of fiction in which history as we know it is changed fordramatic and often ironic effect" (2003:209). The notion seems to relate tothe characteristic of discontinuity, as proposed by James Gunn (2005:88),which is described as a feature of the genre of science fiction: in the story,there is a major event which breaks with normality as perceived by the reader.Subsequently, the consequences of this turning point are developed.17 "Ballgame" ("Juego de Pelota" in Spanish or "Tlatchtli" in Nahuatl) wasboth a religious ritual and a sport among the Aztecs and other aboriginalpeoples of Mexico and Central America.18 Andrew Milner reports that the Welsh novelist Raymond Williams createdanother term: "dystopia is specifically defined as the putrefaction of utopia,in William's neologismo 'Putropia'" (2010:2).

Acknowledgment: My gratitude to the research group Narratives (0stfoldUniversity College) for its support in this project, especially to AssociateProfessor Robert Mikkelsen.

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Wladimir Chavez Vaca obtained his Ph.D. in Humanities at the Universityof Bergen (Norway) and he holds a Bachelor Degree in Communication andLiterature from Pontificia Universidad Cat6lica (Ecuador). He is an associateprofessor at the Faculty of Business, Languages, and Social Scienc~s at0stfold University College (Norway). He is author of several articlespublished in scholarly journals, such as Dialogia (2012), Variaciones Borges(2012), and Revista Caracteres (2013).

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