Villalobos Considers All People of the World as Belonging to One Country

According to the reporter of Iran’s Book News Agency (IBNA), the novel ‘Invasion’ by Juan Pablo Villalobos, translated by Hessam Sheikhan and published by Safir Publishing, has recently entered the market. In this work, the author, with a subtle language and metaphorical perspective, creates a world where alienation is rooted not only in the faces of immigrants but also within humans themselves.

On the occasion of this work’s publication, we have discussed Villalobos’s writing style, as one of the Latin American post-Boom writers, in an interview with Hessam Sheikhan, which you can read below:

Why did you translate this book?

Latin American literature has always been an engaging and captivating world for me. Years ago, after reading the novel ‘The Feast of the Goat’, I became fascinated by Latin American authors’ perspective on the surrounding world and their storytelling methods. Since then, I have continuously studied and searched among writers from this region; the appeal of this world was endless, and their contemporary authors each had something new to say, like César Aira or Alejandro Zambra. However, the author who captivated my attention differently was Villalobos himself, whose tone is sharp and humorous, addressing important issues from a unique perspective. ‘Invasion’ immediately captivated me with its narrative style, and I found the story’s atmosphere very appealing.

Please explain the author’s style and prose. Did you face any challenges in translating terms and sentences into Persian?

Villalobos appears to write fluently and simply; however, it is essentially ‘easy yet impossible’ (sahl-e momtane’). He may not employ strange linguistic innovations, but behind that very simplicity and subtlety, he presents the translator with complexity. Another translation challenge is translating from a second language; even though the English translator did a very proficient and precise job, this form of translation is inherently challenging. Villalobos also uses some invented words, which presented their own difficulties in translation, but I believe they came out suitably and accurately in Persian.

Please explain Mexican migration literature and the cultural, social, and political contexts of this novel. Is the theme of migration also reflected in Juan Pablo Villalobos’s other works?

Given its border with the United States and the constant conflicts between the two, Mexico has always been a suitable ground for addressing issues of asylum and migration. Life in Mexico can be so difficult that many endure the hardships of illegal migration, hoping to build a normal life elsewhere. Villalobos has a non-fiction collection called ‘The Other Side’, in which he has documented the real experiences of 11 undocumented Mexican migrants. All 11 are teenagers who faced strange and sometimes terrifying events while crossing the border. Villalobos himself is also an immigrant. Born in Mexico, he later moved to Spain, then to Brazil, and finally returned to Spain.

To which movement and tradition of Latin American literature does the novel ‘Invasion’ belong, and what are its characteristics?

Latin American literature flourished in the 1960s and 70s, a period commonly known as the ‘Boom’. Mario Vargas Llosa, Carlos Fuentes, Julio Cortázar, and Gabriel García Márquez are among the main pioneers of this movement. However, this movement eventually fell into repetition, and new writers tried to follow the same path. José Donoso, himself one of the most important writers of this movement, declared that the movement was saturated and a new approach was needed. Now, younger writers emerged, striving for creativity in narrative techniques. Regarding content, they addressed the issues and concerns of their era, much like their predecessors, but with completely different and fresh methods. This new movement, after the 1980s, became known as ‘Post-Boom’, meaning writers established a new school that, in fact, continued the path of the Boom movement without simply repeating it; Villalobos can be considered one of the Post-Boom writers.

Was the omission of city and place names in the novel ‘Invasion’ an attempt to universalize issues?

One could say that, but from another perspective, not naming countries and cities actually strips them of their validity, rendering meaningless the lines humans have drawn on maps, given names to, and shed blood over. In ‘Invasion’, we can only guess that a certain character, for example, comes from East Asia, but we don’t precisely know which country; from Villalobos’s viewpoint, we all belong to one country, and that country is planet Earth. Other details are not particularly important.

In your opinion, why did the author introduce a sick dog into the story, and what is its role?

The character of ‘Pishi’ (the dog character) can, in a way, be a harbinger of the end of one era and the beginning of a new one. The main character knows his dog can no longer live. He has indeed accepted this well, but it is not easy for him to say goodbye to his companion of many years. He knows that everything in his surrounding world has changed, and he must inevitably accept these changes. However, there are things that connect him to his sweet past, such as his friendship with Max, his restaurant, and this dog. Gaston must accept that if this period, with all its joys and sorrows, ends, a new period will begin that certainly has its own good and bad aspects.

Are elements of humor present in the author’s other works as well?

Yes; humor, and sometimes black humor, is one of the main characteristics of Villalobos’s stories, and he uses it very effectively, meaning it is both amusing and very biting.

Why do all inhabitants of the unnamed city in this novel fiercely care about carrying a token of their birthplace? Why are roots and identity so important?

In this unnamed city, old migrants worry that new migrants might take their place and leave them jobless, so they decide to counter the ‘invasion’ of new migrants. Now, this confrontation occurs through ethnic grouping, and how do people prove to each other that they belong to the same group and background? By resorting to these root symbols: a common language, shared memories, common land and soil, and such. For the main character, who never felt belonging to the place he was born, all these words are meaningless, so he doesn’t get involved in these games, doesn’t participate in these groupings, and consequently doesn’t enter into conflict with anyone.

Can the axis of this story be considered colonialism? Because it refers to ‘an extraterrestrial civilization sending genetic material to Earth and thus managing to colonize Earth’. What explanation comes to your mind regarding this?

Colonialism is one of the important themes of ‘Invasion’, but Villalobos, rather than criticizing colonialism, turns it into a lever to advance his story. The narrative of an extraterrestrial civilization and the colonization of the entire Earth is, in fact, the author’s technique to render borders meaningless. If we were told that an extraterrestrial force was truly going to colonize our planet, we would probably abandon completely unimportant issues like differences in skin color, language, belief, politics, etc., and unite against that extraterrestrial force to defend Earth. But now that this is not the case, now that we live on Earth ourselves, we kill each other for the most meaningless reasons, and it seems as if an ‘super-colonizing’ force must descend upon us and intend to take the Earth from us for us to remember that we are all inhabitants of the planet.

Does the author have philosophical studies? Because somewhere in the novel it says: ‘There is no cause and effect; everything happens simultaneously in an eternal moment as if reality is complete and perfect in it.’

Before anything else, Villalobos is a storyteller, and like any good storyteller, he pursues a personal philosophy that manifests itself in various situations in his stories.

As the translator of the work, what is your opinion about the character Paul in this novel? What is his prominent characteristic? Philosopher or foolish?

Paul is neither a philosopher nor a simpleton; he is a frightened young man. The cruelty of the surrounding world, the dishonesty of multi-million dollar multinational companies, the fear of the future, and similar issues have driven him to babble and hallucinate. Most importantly, he is a product of an entirely masculine world; a harsh, emotionless, and distorted world. He has lost his mother, and his father and his father’s friend (the main character of the book) are responsible for his care. He represents such young people: those who have only seen betrayal and contradiction, and no longer know what is real and true and what is not; young people who want to work, study, and progress, but face many obstacles.

Please also explain the postmodern elements of the book.

In ‘Invasion’, Villalobos constantly involves the reader in the story, meaning he moves beyond mere narration, reminding his audience that they are reading a tale. And we, the readers, along with him, have the duty to bring this story to completion, but ultimately, he is the main decision-maker. From the very beginning of the story, in the first chapter, he informs us that we are reading a story and are going to follow Gaston, the only character whose thoughts we can access. However, at one point in the story, he deems it appropriate to leave Gaston alone. So we exit the scene with him and enter the next chapter, and elsewhere, he removes the character from the lines, deleting him from the story. This is Villalobos’s main technique and trump card in ‘Invasion’.

Which postmodern writers has this author been influenced by?

Certainly, a writer emerging from the Latin world is inevitably influenced by a vast number of prominent storytellers; from Cervantes to Fuentes and Llosa. But if I were to name postmodernists, Villalobos himself mentions César Aira in one of his interviews, who has brilliant works such as ‘The Literary Congress’ in his repertoire.