It All Began with Twitter, a Chancla, & Some Aliens

The Choloverse began with a story called Chanclas & Aliens, which I wrote as a joke on Twitter.

I thought that would be the end of it. The characters, however, had other ideas.

One of them, Dopey, had been sucked up into an alien spaceship. Back in the barrio, everyone thought he was dead. Dopey, who was very much alive, had a few thoughts about that.

So he began keeping a journal of his experiences aboard the spaceship, rather like a captain’s log. Except, of course, this was Dopey, and he wasn’t exactly the captain.

That became a separate story, and Dopey had officially begun making himself difficult to ignore.

Then Came Lorca Green

Santino Rivera invited me to contribute to his anthology Lowriting, a collection about lowriders.

There was just one problem: I didn’t know much about cars or lowriding.

But Dopey was there again, tugging at my imagination, whispering the story of his tragic love for Elena.

And suddenly I had another story to tell.

What had begun as a joke was becoming something else entirely. These characters had histories, memories, loves, losses, and adventures that extended far beyond the stories I’d originally imagined for them.

And Then Came the Abuelas

By then, I’d written several stories about cholos, aliens, and ghosts. The Choloverse was growing, and the characters were becoming increasingly demanding.

Then one day, an abuela tapped me on the shoulder.

“Hey, where are our stories?”

The abuelas had been there from the beginning, appearing in Chanclas & Aliens, but apparently they’d grown tired of watching the cholos have all the fun. They wanted more than supporting roles. They wanted adventures of their own.

And so I wrote Tamales and Ray Guns.

It seemed only fair. After all, who was going to tell the abuelas they couldn’t have their own science-fiction adventure?

And Then There Were the Templars

Just when I thought I had some idea where all these stories were going, Dopey whispered in my ear again.

“What if we descended from Templars and went on a quest for the Grail?”

Templars? The Holy Grail? Cholos?

Apparently, Dopey wasn’t content with aliens, ghosts, and tragic love stories. Now he wanted to get involved in medieval history and Arthurian legend.

And so began the adventures of the Arthurian Cholos, including A Brief History of Time & Tacos and Templars, Tacos, & Tonterías (the last two are WIPs).

By this point, I’d learned that when Dopey whispered a story in my ear, it was probably best to listen.

And Then the Trees Started Talking

One day, I was walking through the Arroyo Seco when I noticed a tree that looked remarkably like Cipactli, the monstrous creature of Aztec mythology. Nearby, another oak tree appeared to be eating stones.

I stopped and looked.

What if that was a head? What if these trees were monsters?

And then another thought occurred to me.

What if ordinary Chicanos were dryads? What if the trees around us were something more than trees, and the people walking among them were connected to those ancient, hidden lives?

Dopey, naturally, had something to say about that.

“Yeah, what if, esa?”

And so the Dryads were born.

But these weren’t the original cholos, and this wasn’t another adventure for Dopey’s crew. The Dryads were something different: a new cast of characters living in the neighborhood, inhabiting their own stories and mythologies on a different timeline.

I’m still developing their world, discovering who they are and what happens when the familiar trees and streets of a neighborhood turn out to contain something extraordinary.

The Choloverse, it seemed, had grown another branch.

And What Happened to the Thirteen?

Just when I thought I could turn my attention to the Dryads, the homies had another complaint.

“Hey! Thirteen of us left on a trip through the Grail, but you never told anybody where we went!”

They had a point.

I’d sent thirteen of them off on an adventure and left their whereabouts unexplained. Apparently, they weren’t going to let me get away with that.

And so their adventures continued, and more companions were born, each bringing new possibilities, new stories, and, I suspect, new demands on my time.

By now, the Choloverse had become a rather crowded place. And its inhabitants clearly had no intention of letting me decide when their stories were finished.

And Then There Was the Iceman

But there was still another problem.

Dopey had crash-landed the spaceship, and some of the homies were still trapped aboard, frozen.

How were they supposed to get unfrozen? What happened to them after the crash?

I’d left them in a rather unfortunate predicament, and someone had to get them out of it.

And so I wrote The Iceman.

By this point, I’d discovered that creating a fictional universe meant being held accountable by its inhabitants. You couldn’t just crash-land a spaceship full of frozen homies and expect everyone to forget about them.

Meanwhile, Back in the Barrio…

Dopey was lost in space, but he’d left something important behind: his car.

And what if someone was jealous of Dopey’s ride? What if that someone believed he could control the ghost of Elena, who inhabited it, while Dopey was somewhere out among the stars?

And so Dopey’s Ride came about.

Apparently, even being lost in space wasn’t enough to keep Dopey out of trouble back home.

And Thus, the Choloverse Was Born

What began as a joke about chanclas and aliens became an ever-growing collection of stories about cholos, abuelas, ghosts, spaceships, lowriders, Templars, the Holy Grail, and even the dryads living among the trees of Southern California.

I never set out to create an elaborate fictional universe. The characters simply kept coming back, asking questions, demanding adventures, and occasionally complaining about the situations I’d left them in.

Some stories take place in the barrio. Others wander through history, mythology, or outer space. Some follow the original crew, while others, like the Dryads, have their own characters and timelines.

And somehow, they all belong here.

About the Writer

I’m Gina Ruiz, a writer and lifelong reader whose interests have always wandered across literature, history, mythology, science fiction, and the peculiar things people do.

I’ve been making up stories for as long as I can remember. The Choloverse is what happens when some of those stories take on lives of their own and refuse to leave. Or, when you’re just plain loca and write down some crazy shit.

Welcome to the Choloverse

This is where those stories live, beginning with Chanclas & Aliens and continuing wherever the characters decide to take me.

The Choloverse continues to grow, sometimes because I have an idea, but more often because one of its inhabitants has a question, a complaint, or an unfinished adventure.

I never quite know who is going to speak up next or what outrageous tales they have to tell.

But I’ve a feeling the abuelas will be back.

…and there will be monsters.