Gulf Gothic examines haunted, secret-laden narratives that emerge from the gulfs between peoples all along the Gulf of Mexico and on both sides of the Rio Grande. The Gulf is presented as a single transnational region and as dynamic ground zero of North American (and global) cross-culturality and trauma. Responding to the long history of Mesoamerican writing, plantation systems, and racialized divides across the region, this study argues that gothicwith all its affect, undead figures, heavy weather, and hauntingsprovides a powerful lens through which to awaken the kinds of gulf-traversing vision so necessary to us here and now.