[2] However, upon reading Fuguet's work, the editor was convinced that the lack of magical realist or fantastical components in the narrative made it seem as if, "the story could have taken place right there in [the United States of] America.

[3] Edited and introduced by Alberto Fuguet and Sergio Gómez, the anthology of new Latin American literature was first published in Spain in 1996.

[3] The contributing authors distanced themselves from the magical realism genre as they believed it did not correctly represent modern Latin America, which in the 1990s was full of "shopping malls, cable television, suburbs, and pollution".

[3] Alternately, the authors wished to focus on the erasure of nations, borders and geographical identities as a result of expanding transnational networks while exploring the effects of globalization on economy and culture.

Fuguet wrote that he does not deny that there are picturesque, colourful, or quaint aspects to Latin America, but that the world he lives in is too complicated and urban to be bound by the rules of magical realism.