u/Great-and-Powerful-

From left to right: a lonely Juan Rulfo, Mario Vargas Llosa, Octavio Paz, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, Carlos Fuentes, and Jorge Luis Borges

Some context, these are all homages to fictional books that show up in several of my favorite books in Latin American fiction. I made these while playing around with some templates in Canva. The books referenced here are:

• "The Conversation with the Man Called Al-Mutasim" - From the short story "The Approach to Al-Mu'tasim" by Jorge Luis Borges; this one has a small homage to the editorial "Sur" which is where a lot of Borges' short stories were published
• "The Ilimited Rose" or "La Rosa Ilimitada" - From "2666" by Roberto Bolaño; there were several novels listed as written by Archimboldi in "2666". I chose this one because it holds the added detail of having it's translator be the character Oscar Amalfitano. As an easter egg, the printing house is named after the only known magazine organized by Cesarea Tinajero as listed in "The Savage Detecives"
• Complete essays of Morelli - From "Hopscotch" by Julio Cortázar. This one has some artistic liberties taken, Morelli's work is discussed ad nauseam in the book but no specific title is listed in the novel. Anyways, it felt realistic to make a "Complete works" collection. The editorial house logo for this one is a white rabbit in honor of Cortázar's story "Letter to a young lady in Paris"
• "Florilogio" - From "Where the Air is Clear" by Carlos Fuentes. One of the more niche examples here, particularly because Fuentes' novel is so massive that this detail can easily be brushed off.
• "Tekoporá: Anthropological Explorations of the history, religion and ontology of the Guaraní people" - From "Our Share of Night" by Mariana Enriquez. This one holds the small detail of having being published by "Orbis Tertius", same secret organization from Borges' short story.
• "The Donkey of San Blas: Articles, Texts and Aphorisms" - From "The Rest is Silence" by Augusto Monterroso. Though Eduardo Torres doesn't write novels, he is however credited with a myriad of articles, essays and platitudes. This collection is titled after a poem written by the character and used as a core statement of the novel's themes
• Humberto Peñalosa's Untitled Novel - From "The Obscene Bird of Night" by José Donoso. This one was a challenge because the book is so important to the novel's plot but no title is ever provided, it's only described as having a simple green cover and being published with Jerónimo de Acoitía's money (hence the editorial name). I figured leaving the titled blurry was sort of symbolic of Peñalosa's journey in the novel; it's as if reality itself forgot about this book
• Arturo Cova's Poetries - From "The Vortex" by José Eustacio Rivera. The novel doesn't mention that Cova had published any works, much less in book form, but seeing how he's continuously described as a poet and how his character is based in real-life poet José Asunción Silva, I took inspiration of some of his anthologies to create one similar

No soy muy lector de la ficción de género, pero a mi madre le encantan los procedimentales policíacos y las series de detectives. Hablando con ella me doy cuenta que, dentro de la literatura hispánica o latinoamericana, no se ha manifestado el arquetipo del detective a como ocurrió dentro de la literatura británica o estadounidense.

Quizá sea porque la economía o la poca demanda no permiten que el género crezca en esa dirección, o tal vez sea porque este tipo de personaje va más acorde a la cultura anglosajona. Pienso en los arquetipos comunes en la literatura latinoamericana. Estos son, por lo general, aventureros como Maqroll el Gaviero y el general Lituma, o poetas como Arturo Belano. Estos personajes viven al margen de la sociedad, y no forman partes de instituciones que buscan entablar el orden común.

El único ejemplo hispanoamericano que se me ocurre es el personaje de Mario Conde, protagonista de las novelas policíacas del escritor cubano Leonardo Padura. No he leído sus novelas y, por ende, no puedo hablar de qué tan acorde vayan a la estructura general de las novelas de detectives.

¿Conocen ustedes algún otro ejemplo de un detective que sea de origen latinoamericano? ¿Qué elementos del canon literario latinoamericano les gustaría ver implementados en un personaje detectivesco hispanoamericano?