Catfish and Nanobots: Invasive Species and Eco-critical Futures in Alejandro Rojas Medina’s Chunga Maya

Abstract

In the collection of short stories Chunga Maya (2017), Alejandro Rojas Medina imagines a dark future for Cuba, overrun by invasive nanobots and militarized fumigators authorized to exterminate both the technological pests and those humans that propagate them. However, part of Rojas’s strategy for seeing into the future involves extrapolating on biological invasions that are currently affecting Cuban ecosystems. Extreme versions of real-life invasive animal and plant species that do plague present-day Cuba—mutant clarias, radioactive marabú, genetically enhanced hurones cubanos—populate Rojas’s stories. While projects for controlling invasive species often take on xenophobic or nativist undertones in political and cultural discourse, Rojas pushes for a more nuanced understanding of ecological and technological hybridity. Juxtaposed with the nanobot plague, these references suggest that the lessons learned from Cuba’s relationship with foreign biological species can inform the future incorporation of invasive technologies. With a closer look at the short stories of Chunga Maya, this chapter shows how Rojas’s connecting of current crises to future threats highlights the social potential of Cuban science fiction and its capacity to spark dialogs on ecological, technological, and political issues.