Magical Realism

1. Magical Realism By Julie Chavez Kathryn Sellin Julio Santoyo Leo Cortez

2. The Super Natural • The Super natural is REAL! • There are some things that not even science or evolution can explain, such as certain events and incidents that happen around us that are unexplainable. • For example, in Caramelo, Celaya talks to her deceased grandmother ,and in The Miraculous Day of Amalia Gomez, Amaliasees a cross in sky and has visions of the Virgin Mary.

3. Pacheco Pass • Also known as the “Bloody Alley”, it has had numerous accounts of drivers who pass through and have had plenty of different unexplained events. For instance, seeing people places they could not possibly be, such as in front of your car on the road and above the hills. Most of all, after researching what they’ve seen, they find a description of those people and where their accidents took place, which match up with what they saw and where they saw them. • Example: As you’re driving toward San Juan Baustista, right after you pass the mission you drive through a small grove of trees and on your left you will see an outcropping rocks. Sometimes late at night it is said that the ghostly spectre of a woman can be seen there. Apparently her fiance was killed in an accident on this road so she put on her wedding dress and went to the scene of the accident and climbed the rocks and jumped to her death. Unfortunately for whatever reason she did not join her beloved in the afterlife and she wanders the road looking for him to this day.

4. The Bermuda Triangle • Also known as the Devil’s Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircrafts and surface vessels are said to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances such as paranormal activity. • Example: Flight 19 was a training flight of five TBM Avenger torpedo bombers that disappeared on December 5th, 1945, while over the Atlantic. The flight never returned to base. One of the search and rescue aircraft deployed to look for them, a PBM Mariner with a 13-man crew, also disappeared over the same area Flight 19 was last reported.

5. Top Five Haunted Places • According to Time Magazine, the top five most haunted places, taken from their top ten list, is as follows: • (5) The Queen Mary, Long Beach, California. A retired ocean liner turned tourist attraction. • (4) The Tower of London, London, UK. A former prison, a number of historical figures were executed here, most notably Anne Boleyn. Her ghost, among others, has been spotted here. • (3) The Whaley House, San Diego, California. Home to the spirit of man who was hanged here, as well as a couple who used to live here. • (2) The White House, Washington, D.C. Said to be haunted by a number of former presidents, including Abraham Lincoln. • (1) Time magazine names the Winchester Mystery House the most haunted place in the world. Whether or not you agree, it is certainly one of the strangest building to be constructed.

6. Culture • Throughout the world, among a multitude of differing cultures, there is a general belief in a life after death and/or people returning from the grave. Many cultures, such as Celaya’s, just accept this as fact and so speaking to deceased family members wouldn’t seem too far fetched (to them).

7. Magical Realism as a Genre • Wendy Faris, when talking about magical realism as a genre, stated that it “combines realism and the fantastic in such a way that magical elements grow organically out of the reality portrayed”. • Paola Corso sums up the genre of magical realism perfectly : “Magical realism is a genre that is certainly full of surprises, and it is a way to experiment in your writing for the sake of telling a good story and illustrating its theme”. It can turn an ordinary novel into something that will take the readers by surprise.

8. Works Cited • http://www.weirdfresno.com/2011/03/haunted-pacheco-pass.html • http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/bermuda_triangle • http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1855221,00.html • Norton, Lucy. "Seeing Is Believing: Magical Realism and Visual Narrative in Margaret Mahy's The Changeover." Bookbird 36.2 (Summer 1998): 29-32. Rpt. in Children's Literature Review. Ed. Scot Peacock. Vol. 77. Detroit: Gale Group, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Oct. 2012. • Corso, Paola. "Does your fiction need to be stretched? Five authors describe the magic of magical realism in expressing emotional truths." The Writer Oct. 2007: 19. Literature Resource Center. Web. 16 Oct. 2012.