Terminator Versus Avatar in Contemporary Latin American Science Fiction

Abstract This article examines two tendencies in contemporary Latin American science fiction, drawing on Mark Fisher’s terms Terminator and Avatar . Derived from the eponymous movies, Terminator narratives depict capitalist destruction as inevitable, while Avatar narratives imagine that global collapse can be averted by returning to premodern forms of social organization. Following Fredric Jameson, I interpret both as symbolic acts addressing climate change and the planetary devastation produced by the capitalist management of modernity. Despite their apparent opposition, both assume that modernity and technological development serve only the interests of the current social formation, with its drive for infinite economic expansion and disregard for the planet’s finite resources. Informed by the works of Agustina Bazterrica, Michel Nieva, Erick J. Mota, and Jorge Baradit, I outline a third position, alternative modernity, as theorized by Bolívar Echeverría and akin to Fisher’s postcapitalism, which reimagines technology while preserving modernity’s emancipatory potential—meeting human needs without an antagonistic stance toward nature.