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The novel Mejicanos en el espacio (1968) by Carlos Olvera (México, 1940-2013 is premised on the science fiction trope of traveling in spaceships to faraway planets and having close encounters with extraterrestrial entities. 1 In this touchstone work of contemporary Mexican science fiction, the action is located in the twenty-second century when space travel has become routine to the point where Mexican spaceships whisk astronauts off to other planets like so many camiones. Raúl Nope, the protagonist, is a restless young man who, out of boredom on earth, seeks adventure in space. As an astronaut, he soon finds himself on Mars, a colony of earth, where he discovers that his country's missions to explore space are more fabrication than reality. He begins to empathize with the Martians who have been written off as primitive and stupid by both Mexican and American colonizers. After a botched secret mission with a Martian he is detained and accused of desertion. What begins as a comic adventure ends in tragic confinement in a jail cell. Olvera's novel is not so far-fetched as to be completely unrealistic, whether it be the credible technologies described here or a Mexican government that is still undemocratically repressive in the twenty-second century.
Here I analyze Mejicanos through the dynamics of space imperialism. I focus on the levels of estrangement created upon contact with the Other, whether it is a Martian, a Mexican or an American and how, in spite of technological advances, human relations, in the context of empire, are still defined by distrust and solitude. Raúl Nope, feeling alienated from his own society, seeks and finds companionship with the Other in the form of a Martian but in the end he is pulled back into his own society where solitary confinement is a perfect metaphor of how hegemonic entities, such as empires, often repress any possibility of subalterns affirming solidarity among themselves and thus posing a challenge to the status quo.
