SPEAKER_00: Hello! From WonderMedia Network, I'm Jenny Kaplan, and this is Womanica. This month we're
talking about women of science fiction. These women inspire us to imagine impossible worlds,
alien creatures, and fantastical inventions, revealing our deepest fears and hopes for the future. Today we're talking about a writer whose blend of the surreal and fantastical
made her the queen of Argentine science fiction. Let's talk about Angelica Gorodízur.
Angelica was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 28, 1928. When she was still very
young, her family moved to Rosario, where she lived the rest of her life. From a young
age, Angelica loved reading and often found herself getting lost in the pages of a book.
When she was seven years old, she decided that she would one day become a writer. That
day eventually came, after she had a husband, three children, a few pets, and a job as a librarian. Angelica's first foray into writing was when she was 36 years old. She entered
a short story in a crime fiction contest and won. A year later, she published her first
short story collection, Cuentos Con Soldados, or Stories with Soldiers.
In 1967, Angelica made the jump to science fiction with her work Opus Dos. The novel
details a world where a previously oppressed Black population rules over the formerly dominant white population. Rather than focus on the threat of new technology, as many science
fiction works did, Opus Dos focused on philosophical and psychological anxieties of the era. This
theme would appear in many of Angelica's later works.
In 1973, Angelica published the feminist science fiction story The Violet's Embryos. In it,
a group of military men are sent on a rescue mission to a distant planet. There, they find
a mysterious violet circle that allows them to reproduce anything they wish as long as they can feel the object. Despite this new power, there's one thing the men can't
do. They're afraid. Women. Soon, they turn to each other to fulfill their sexual desires.
SPEAKER_00: The story questions traditional patriarchal patterns and masculinity.
Angelica's most well-known work, Calpa Imperial, was published in 1983. Over the course of
several short stories, fairy tales, and commentaries, Angelica tells the tale of an imaginary empire's rise and fall. Notably, when Angelica was writing it, Argentina was in the grip of a
multi-year military dictatorship. Calpa Imperial was well-received and cemented Angelica's
legacy as the queen of Argentine science fiction. Angelica continued writing through the decades
and became a famous writer amongst Spanish-language readers. Her works never strayed from her
traditional social criticism, even when writing in different genres.
In 2003, Angelica's works reached a new audience when Calpa Imperial was translated into English by fellow sci-fi writer and womannequin Ursula Le Guin. Following its success, three more
of Angelica's novels were translated into English—Trefoger, Prodigies, and Jaguar's Tomb. In 2011, Angelica was honored with the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement
for her contributions to the science fiction genre. In total, Angelica produced nearly
30 books.
On February 5, 2022, Angelica Egoroducher passed away in her home in Rosario, Argentina.
She was 93 years old.
All month, we've been talking about women in science fiction. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram at Womanica Podcast. Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my
favorite sister and co-creator. Tune in tomorrow for the first episode of a brand new theme.
Talk to you then!
