Rewriting History, Reimagining Reality

Authors Veronica Chapa and Ruben Reyes Jr. transform Mexican and Salvadoran history through their genre-defiant novels of magic, resistance, and love. In Malinalli, Chapa brings Mexican mythology and history to life in a reimagining of Malinalli, her sisterly circle of priestesses, and her fight for her people against the Spanish and Moctezuma. In Archive of Unknown Universes, Reyes Jr. jumps between two timelines, exploring love and loss in alternate universes, one where the Salvadoran civil war ends in a peace treaty — and one where it doesn’t. In both books, the authors use their narratives to question, honor, and reinvent the past.