Etiqueta Negra Series

Dear readers:

Early this year, the Lima, Peru-based magazine I work for, Etiqueta Negra, ran into a bit of a problem with our website. In the process of a major redesign, it came crashing down, and due to technological glitches none of us can completely understand, was lost and erased. As if this horror were not enough, the new site, which we were almost finished building, was lost as well. All of our plans for 2008 were predicated on this new site—we were going to offer, for example, subscriptions in the US and Mexico, as well as online subscriptions and free, web-only content. Now, all of this evaporated. At a time when every teenage garage band in America has a page on MySpace, it's rather shameful for a magazine like ours to have no web presence to speak of. (If you want to see our modest internet space-holder for yourself, check out www.etiquetanegra.com.pe. Behold: a budget website from Lima!) We really couldn't believe our misfortune, even though we are all Peruvian, and should be accustomed to this by now. Last week, while we were busy rending our garments and bemoaning our terrible luck, our colleagues at n+1 came to the rescue, offering, quite generously, to host us for the next thirty days or so, while we get our new-new site up and running.

Etiqueta Negra has been called (not by us) the finest magazine in the Spanish language. We've been called other, unprintable things as well, but this isn't really the point. We are a magazine for the Spanish-speaking world, and therein lies the problem. n+1 will be featuring a few of our texts in the coming weeks: Leonardo Halberkorn examining the lives of various Uruguayans named Hitler; Daniel Titinger on the mysterious death of a half dozen camels—gifts from the King of Morocco—in southern Peru; and an essay by Alejandra Costamagna on the magic of Chilean slang. These three texts will be presented in Spanish, and we'll be asking you, the readers, to offer translations, so that those of you who don't yet read Spanish (though you really should be able to read Spanish . . .) can also see some of what we do. For the time being, our first offering is presented here bilingually, for your enjoyment.

On behalf of everyone at Etiqueta Negra, a giant and heart-felt gracias, hermanos goes to n+1, and also to you, the reader. When our fancy, jaw-droppingly modern website finally goes up, we will let all of you know. The drinks will be on us. Sincerely,

Daniel Alarcón
Associate Editor
Etiqueta Negra