Por Alejandro Montes Santamaría
Aurora.horror@gmail.com

For me, talking about Mario Cruz should be easy, but it isn't, because the subject stirs a profound feeling of fear inside of me that I will not do justice to his work. Much of my graphic work is inspired by his texts and some call him the Mexican H.P. Lovecraft, but as he says, "many thanks, but he is THE MASTER".

To speak of, or rather write about, this Mexican writer who experienced the '68 massacre firsthand, and was marked strongly by the incident, which is reflected throughout his own literature, is not easy.

He was born in Mexico City , on the mountain of the eternal midnight, on January 19th,1962, a veterinarian by training but a writer and a dark clairvoyant by profession. Please allow me to explain how it is that I discovered the work of Mario, and if I dare speak of him so personally, it's because I've had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

I hope that some of you recall back on Wednesday nights between 1986 and 1990, when the renowned television network that boasts to be the channel of the pentagrams, played a program called Hora Marcada, the womb or better yet training camp for great visionaries such as Guillermo del Toro (director of Cronos, official selection of Cannes in 1992 and director, producer and editor of Pan's Labyrinth, which received a 22 minute-long ovation during the last Cannes) with his NECROPIA*, Emmanuel "El Chivo" Lubeski (nominated for the Oscar for best photography in Sleepy Hollow), Alfonso Cuarón (director of Great Expectations and A Little Princess), Alejandro Gonzáles Iñárritu (director of the Oscar-nominated Amores Perros, 21 Grams and the new critically acclaimed Babel) and Mario Cruz, writer of some of the stories which were created for this program and who had contact with the network after winning a novel contest when he was only 23.

Do some of you recall the El extraño retorno de Diana Salazar? That was the novel that won the contest for Mario and was unfortunately mutilated when commercialized into a putrid, pretentious soap opera. At least they preserved the basic story of the reincarnation of a witch incinerated at the purifying stake during the Mexican Holy Inquisition. That was my first contact with the work of Mario, of course I didn't know this until eight years later when walking through chaotic Mexico City, and I risk to say that this, his city, is the one that inspired him to create Ciudad Morgue**, in the distant country of Morguenia**. Or could it be that it was only an emanation from "the dark side of time" and it is for this reason that Mario places it in his work?

But let us not digress, in a bookstore near the Insurgentes metro stop, Librería Universo, I saw a book with a black cover with a reproduction of a beautiful etching by Albrecht Dürer. And on the cover you could read the title El emperador de la noche infinita. Those of you that know me, know my obsession for these types of genres, so I bought the book and I sat right down to read it, and what I read was so intense that I had to buy all the books published to date, which I present for you here in chronological order. I plead to the devil that I'm not mistaken, for I wouldn't want by some error that my legs become gangrened.

I also recommend you read his work in chronological order, although there is no problem with reading it out of order, but the perception of the work is distinct when you read it chronologically because there are some elements or concepts which are constant throughout his texts, such as the dark side of time and the page of ruptura (or formulas to travel to other dimensions).

We hope that soon Mr. Cruz visits us in this city of mummies, and who knows, maybe he'll be joined by one of his unspeakable horrors.

*Necropia: Special effects company created by "el gordo" to make all the special effects for his first feature film Cronos.

**Ciudad Morgue and Morguenia: both appear for the first time in his novella @leister

Books by Mario Cruz

El lado oscuro del tiempo * Memorias del abismo * Obra del maligno * Fanzine memorias de infernalia 3 * Emperador de la noche infinita * Al maestro con sadismo

@leister * Morgue en el paraíso de la razón * El evangelio de los vampiros: la recopilación * Memorias de infernalia 4 y 5 * Haciéndolo con alimañas (con un seudónimo como Oiram Zurc)