Alberto Fuguet

Alberto Fuguet, a brash rising star of Latin American literature, spent his childhood in Encino. And he's proud of it. Challenging the leftist, anti-U.S. tradition of many Latin American writers, the Chilean leads a group of young authors who call themselves the McOndo generation: They embrace McDonald's, Macintosh computers, MTV Latino and other U.S.-produced cultural staples.

Alberto Fuguet, a brash rising star of Latin American literature, spent his childhood in Encino. And he's proud of it. Challenging the leftist, anti-U.S. tradition of many Latin American writers, the Chilean leads a group of young authors who call themselves the McOndo generation: They embrace McDonald's, Macintosh computers, MTV Latino and other U.S.-produced cultural staples.

Ah, the '80s. Has this century spawned a more tedious, vapid and superficial sensibility, especially among urban and professional people of means and among the young most of all? The decade's closest parallel in affluence, the 1920s, had to recommend it at least the uncorseting of women and the recrudescence of a distinctly American literary voice.

Ah, the '80s. Has this century spawned a more tedious, vapid and superficial sensibility, especially among urban and professional people of means and among the young most of all? The decade's closest parallel in affluence, the 1920s, had to recommend it at least the uncorseting of women and the recrudescence of a distinctly American literary voice.

Standing at a chubby 5 feet 6 and emanating a manic, geeky charm, Nicolas Lopez is perhaps an unlikely lightning rod. He has shaken Chile's film industry by importing American-style marketing and publicity tactics to promote his films. He has popularized genre films in an industry more accustomed to sober dramas. His horror movies and teen comedies have been breakout hits at the box office, hitting a nerve among the country's youth.

Not long ago, fusion cuisine and music seemed daring and exotic. Now, both are unremarked-upon staples of American life. Fusion literature is the next new thing. Think of it as aesthetic blow-back the unlooked-for but delicious consequence of American popular culture's globalization. Rayo--an imprint of HarperCollins--is one of the publishers in the movement's forefront, and this week it signed the edgy young Chilean author Alberto Fuguet to a two-book deal.

"Bienvenida al [fin] del mundo," he blurted into the phone. (Loosely translated: Welcome to the rump of the earth). After flying for 13 hours, not sleeping in 24 and only vaguely remembering when I had my last meal, I agreed with him that I had indeed, landed at the end of the earth -- Chile, to be exact, on the southernmost edge of South America. I did it all for him -- Gael Garcia Bernal, 23 and already the star of some of Mexico's most celebrated films.