The Rumpus—that most enduring of indie online lit mags—is launching a new editorial initiative.
El Arboroto is a new vertical catering to Spanish-language readers and writers. Per the press release, the new publication will be dedicated to publishing original work in Spanish, “not as a translation or secondary offering, but as an integral part of the magazine’s future.”
In their inaugural editor’s note, leaders Alejandra Márquez and Vasthi Jean-Michel explained the mission, noting that writing and publishing in Spanish in the U.S. is “not a neutral act.”
El Alboroto will provide space for creatives to engage with the cultural and political realities around them while remaining expansive in its editorial scope. Rather than translating existing work from The Rumpus, El Alboroto will commission and publish original Spanish-language writing spanning cultural criticism, personal essays, interviews, fiction, poetry and comics.
After a complex slump, The Rumpus was revived and rebranded earlier this year by a literary power couple—Roxane Gay and Debbie Millman. This new project is characteristic of the Rumpus 2.0, which aims to broaden the magazine’s appeal and ground the pub in its California community.
Contributors to El Alboroto’s first edition include writers from Mexico, Colombia and Puerto Rico who work across fiction, nonfiction and poetry.
Get to know writers Francesca Dennstedt García, Andrea Villa Franco, Gabriela Boscio Santos, and Ave Barrera here.
