How Latinidad and Border Politics Construct Cyberpunk 2077

In thinking about the cyberpunk genre, what media artifacts define the genre and its aesthetic?Within the global north, material such as Neuromancer, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and Blade Runner come to mind as foundational to the cyberpunk genre.This body of work established the familiar aesthetic of a pessimistic over-developed dystopian setting with human cybernetics, and grim future.The question I proposed earlier is important to understand as I argue that the recent game Cyberpunk 2077 (CD Projeckt Red 2020) is an important media object within the cyberpunk genre that has resounding cultural significance for the genre for years to come.Therefore, I argue that the familiar cyberpunk aesthetic that Cyberpunk 2077 enacts is achieved through Latinx tragedy, border violence, and surveillance in its play, visuals, and narrative which sets a harrowing precedent for the cyberpunk genre.Cyberpunk 2077 veers into the dangerous territory of becoming a playground of maintaining borders yet is through critical engagement with Latinx characters and culture in Cyberpunk 2077, we are instead able to reimagine Cyberpunk 2077 as a playground of radical and queer possibilities that celebrate Latinx subjectivity.