Diable Valley College Evading Censorship During Martial Law Analysis A short paper (2-3) pages, on the topic/s (i will upload topics in the files). encoura

Diable Valley College Evading Censorship During Martial Law Analysis A short paper (2-3) pages, on the topic/s (i will upload topics in the files). encouraged to intertextual analysis (comparing texts– photos, songs, films, other literary forms) or do research to gain a better context of a particular period. Please submit double-spaced papers. Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts
Volume IV, Number 19
June 13 – 19, 2004
Quezon City, Philippines
BOOK REVIEW
Poetry and Revolution: Behind Bars and Beyond
Jose Maria Sisonís poems are suffused with various kinds of imagery, but in these one
thread is common ñ the voice of a poet not only resolved to write good poetry, but also
revolting against oppression in all its forms. He thus shares, in Philippine literary history, a
place with the likes of Andres Bonifacio, Jose Corazon de Jesus, Carlos Bulosan, Amado V.
Hernandez, Eman Lacaba, Lorena Barros, and Romulo Sandoval.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
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Recently made available to aficionados of protest poetry is Sa Loob
at Labas ng Piitan, Gelacio Guillermoís Filipino translation of Jose
Maria Sisonís anthology Prison and Beyond ñ which won for him
the Southeast Asia WRITE Award in 1986. Published by the Amado
V. Hernandez Resource Center (AVHRC), the book was launched
last May 25, at a tribute to Sison held at the University of the
Philippines (UP) ñ where the revolutionary leader obtained
bachelorís and masterís degrees in English Literature with honors.
Sa Loob at Labas ng Piitan contains both English and Filipino
versions of the poems in Prison and Beyond. That way, the reader
not only gets the feel of the poems in both languages ñ he or she also
sees how it is possible to translate, as Guillermo was able to do so,
from one language to another almost literally without losing a single
piece of the workís essence. For another, international readers can
have some help in studying the Filipino language with this book.
The book also has as appendix the poem ìChemistry of Tears,î which
is not known to have been previously published.
But more than that, the reader gets from these poems an idea of how Sison ñ as a writer ñ has lived his
avowed literary conviction. ìI think that great literature in different ages in the world and the major works so
far written in Philippine literary history assume significance, social and historical, insofar as they are
committed to the cause of freedom and they reflect with profound insights the social conditions and the
struggle for greater freedom,î Sison said in a message sent to the UP Writers Club when he was still in
detention in Fort Bonifacio during martial law.
As founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), Sison was a very hot item on the
military list even before martial law was declared in 1972. He would be captured by the military in 1977,
imprisoned and subjected to a long ordeal of physical and psychological torture.
Behind bars
With the exception of a few selections from a 1962 volume, Brothers and Other Poems, the pieces in Prison
and Beyond were written when the author was behind bars. Sison, denied pens in his first year in jail, at first
composed poems in his head as a way of fighting, preoccupying himself, and keeping his sanity. When after
a year ball pens were made available to him, he wrote down the poems he had committed to memory and had
the bright idea of hiding them in a lining in his cot or in his pocket, for eventual distribution through lawyers
and other visitors.
Prison was surely an unforgettable experience for Sison, and this is reflected in the title of the book itself as
well as many of the poems in it.
In the 30-stanza ìFragments of a Nightmare,î which is written from a first-person perspective, the persona
talks of being made by ìdemonsî into a punching bag, of being threatened with death or more inhuman
treatment, even of being cajoled into running ìfor an assembly/Of demons.î The persona does not identify
himself and the poem has been the subject of dispute in certain literary circles, but one thing is clear: the ìIî
speaking in ìFragments of a Nightmareî is none other than Sison himself, as may be gleaned from the book
The Philippine Revolution: The Leaderís View as well as Grace B. Salitaís interview with him last year for
her masteral thesis at De La Salle University. The ìdemonsî are his tormentors and others he considers the
enemies of the Filipino people.
The authorís wife, Julieta de Lima, was captured with him in 1977, but for years they were kept in separate
cells. In ìYou are My Wife and Comrade,î Sison speaks of the anguish from this experience thus:
You are my wife and comrade.
It is harsh that we are kept apart
By a bloodthirsty enemy with many snares.
We care for each otherís welfare.
The wishes of the tyrant are so evil.
He seeks the betrayal of our souls
By torture and the threat of murder
And the wasting away of our youthful vigor.
His cruel minions are gleeful
That we suffer in stifling cubicles.
They are driven by usurped power
And like dogs carry out orders.
But despair Sison does not here. There is determined defiance in the following stanzas:
But even in our forced separation
We remain one in our fierce devotion
To the noble cause of the revolution.
Firmly the struggle we must carry on.
Our chief tormentor on the throne
Will someday be overthrown
For the seed has been sown
And the future is well-known.
(The poem was written in 1978. Eight years later, the Marcos dictatorship would be ousted through a popular
uprising.)
The theme of prison serving to strengthen character instead of breaking it is a favorite of Sison. This is the
theme behind his poems ìA Furnaceî and ìIn the Dark Depths.î
ëTis a seething furnace
For tempering steel
And purifying gold,
ëTis a comforting metaphor.
This is what Sison says of his cell in ìA Furnace.î
ìIn the Dark Depthsî he describes his fellow political prisonersí life thus:
The enemy wants to bury us
In the dark depths of prison
But shining gold is mined
From the dark depths of the earth
And the radiant pearl is dived
From the dark depths of the ocean.
We suffer but we endure
And draw up gold and pearl
From depths of character
Formed so long in struggle.
In ìChemistry of Tears,î Sison goes beyond the prison imagery. He tackles the theme of injustice breeding
revolutionary armed struggle, with touches of science:
Tears have too long been
the food of the meek.
But hunger has become
anger so fierce,
Turning the tears of the meek
into nitroglycerine
To explode the vile system
of terror and greed.
Such is the chemistry of tears
catalyzed by iniquity.
If ìChemistry of Tearsî contains allusions to chemistry and physics, the images in ìFrom the Philippines to
Vietnam: Birds of Preyî- written in 1967 at the height of the U.S. war against Vietnam ñ are biological:
Curse the birds of prey
That drop their iron eggs
Wantonly
That crush the fields
Viciously
Sowing hunger
Hatching death
Ripping the breast
Of our dear brotherland.
Vietnam! Vietnam!
Every bomb on your breasts
Is a blow on our hearts.
The crags of terror
Are in Mactan, Clark Field
Sangley Point and manywheres;
The nests of evil here
Comfort the black birds
That torture you.
Isabelo de los Reyes
But science is not the only field from which Sison draws allusions. He apparently shares the interest of
fellow Ilocano and scholar-activist Isabelo de los Reyes in folklore, as shown in the poem ìAngalo, O
Angalo!î about a giant hero of Ilocano legend whom he describes as a ìTimeless foe of the oppressor.î
Leafing through Sa Loob at Labas ng Piitan, one may notice that the poems written from 1962 onward ñ are
more direct in their language than those created in 1958-1962 ñ the ones lifted from Brothers and Other
Poems (ìBy Cokkis Lilly Woundis,î ìCarnival,î ìThe Imperial Game,î ìThe Massacre,î ìThese Scavengers,î
ìBrothers,î ìThe Dark Spears of the Hours Point High,î and ìHawk of Goldî) ñ although by no means are they
less poetic.
From 1958 to 1962, Sisonís poetry tended to be somewhat elusive like much of the periodís poetry, although
even then it already contained deep insights into social realities of the times ñ in stark contrast to what was in
vogue then, the poetry patterned after that of Jose Garcia Villa, preacher extraordinaire of non-political
literary writing.
The poems Sison wrote after the publication of Brothers and Other Poems show a decisive break with the
poetic tradition that influenced him in his earlier writing years. They still use imagery and other poetic tools,
to be sure ñ but in these Sison has taken extra care to do so in a manner that more readers would be able to
grasp.
Sisonís poems are suffused with various kinds of imagery, but in these one thread is common ñ the voice of a
poet resolved not only to write good poetry, but also to revolt against oppression in all its forms. He thus
shares, in Philippine literary history, a place with the likes of Andres Bonifacio, Carlos Bulosan, Amado V.
Hernandez, Eman Lacaba, Lorena Barros, and Romulo Sandoval. Bulatlat.com
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Last Quarter Storm
Published Works & Personal blog of Lilia Quindoza Santiago
Tag: protest poetry
September 22, 2014
RENDERING THE NATION: The Uses of Poetry in Building the
Modern Filipino Nation, 1966 – 1986
(https://lastquarterstorm.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/joshoncreek-rizal-bonifacio1e1411442382319.jpg)
ABSTRACT
Poetry can function as catalyst for change in a politically repressive regime such as what happened during the
Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines. From 1966 to 1986, poetic production in three languages – Ilokano,
Tagalog and English committed to the goals of achieving democracy, social justice and freedom from dictatorial
rule. Tagalog writers produced poems of verbal bravado, some of the pieces were like placards and slogans.
Writers in English went so far as to insist they have “colonized” the English language for purposes of free
expression and resistance to fascist rule. Ilokano poets defied Marcos, a fellow Ilokano in protest against
imperialism and dictatorship. Poets rendered the Filipino nation and spelled a democratic space toward
modernity. A few poets died in the resistance movement, some became political prisoners and victims of human
rights abuses. Their voices join a tradition of patriotic nationalist resistance literature began by no less than
Filipino heroes Jose Rizal and Andres Bonifacio.
RENDERING THE NATION
The Uses of Poetry in building the modern Filipino nation
Introduction
In his last poem, Ultimo Adios ( Last Farewell), Jose Rizal, the most famous Philippine national hero
writes of the motherland as “la patria adorada’ (beloved country) that is the “perla del mar de
oriente” (pearl of the orient seas) and yet a “nuestro perdido eden.” (our eden lost).This is one of the
most poignant rendering of the Philippines that resonates over time. The Philippines is rendered both
at once a precious pearl of the orient and a paradise plundered. In such a poetic rendering, Rizal, left
a legacy of poetic resistance to colonialism and defined a militant poetics that takes action to end
tyranny and suffering.
In a similar vein, Andres Bonifacio in his famous poem on patriotism, “Pag-ibig sa Tinubuang Bayan”
(Love for the Land of Birth) asserts there is no love nobler and greater than love for one’s land of
birth, an assertion of birthright and how one’s life should be dedicated to loving and defending the
motherland, evan sacrificing one’s life for its redemption.
These two themes of a beautiful country plundered, and of love and sacrifice for native land defined
and dominated poetic practices in the Philippines during martial law.
Students of world history and geography know certain facts about the Philippines. The country is an
archipelago of 7,107 islands that is usually divided into three island groups Luzon, Visayas and
Mindanao. The islands were colonized by Spain, the United States of America, and Japan. But there
are very few and random reflections on what the Philippines is like as a nation. What distinguishes
the Filipino nation? How has the Filipino nation tackled issues of development and modernity
towards the 21st century?
What makes the Filipino nation a modern nation? What, first of all, is a nation? In the classic
definition of Ernest Renan,3 it is not race, nor political governance, nor language, nor territory, nor
religion that defines a nation. Rather, a nation is “soul, a “spiritual principle”.4; its people agree in
consensus to elect as in a plebiscite to undergo pain and sacrifice and to remember what must be
remembered, forget what must be forgotten5. Renan’s definition is also a take-off point of Benedict
Anderson’s theory of nation. as an “imagined community”6 where individuals may not really know
one another, may never meet each other in their lifetimes. Yet because of their imagined kinship they
act and unite as community to further their interests.
So guided by Renan and Anderson’s concepts of nation, it is possible now to begin reading the quest
for the modern Filipino nation in this poem by Alfredo Navarro Salanga:
THEY DON’T THINK MUCH ABOUT US IN AMERICA
Alfredo Navarro Salanga
Q. Do you feel you are free to express your ideas adequately?
A. Of course yes, I live in America
– From an interview with an exile
The only problem is
they don’t think much
about us
in America.
That’s where Manila’s
Just as small as Guam is
dots
on a map, points east
China
looming up ahead
Vietnam
more popular
(because of that war)…
….
The poem draws a map of significance and importance for the U.S. insofar as countries in the Pacific
region are concerned. China looms much larger, Vietnam is more popular because of the war. The
bonding between the Philippines and America is weak, there is no genuine friendship to speak of.
This is a sentiment that runs through writings on Philippine American relations in the 20th century.
In fact, an earlier poem “Filipinas ken Amerika”8 (The Philippines and America) (1970) by Ilokano
poet and former editor of the Ilokano maganize, Bannawag (Dawn) Jose A. Bragado even tells of the
breaking of the friendship forged on July 4, 1946 because of US imperialism and its effects on the
Philippines. Salanga’s sentimentis are bitter and resentful and one that comes from a disenchanted
voice. In Tagalog parlance – Filipinos are ksp acronym for kulang sa pansin (lacking in attention).
America does not care much about the citizens of the islands. Yet in a way this poem also spells a
desire for disconnection.
This disconnection from America, is one thought that underlies 20th century discourse on the
building of the modern Filipino nation. It is a desistance, that is at once bitter yet engaging. This
feeling of being ignored by its colonizer, 40 years after political independence was granted on July 4,
1946, this sense of non-importance is a quaint rebellion. This can be construed as a structure of feeling
that is a response to Paul Laxalt’s admonition to Marcos when America finally withdrew support for
the Marcos government – “ to cut, and cut cleanly. ” The people also had a turn around to collectively
“cut and cut cleanly” from the U.S. and rendered the nation through an uprising in the now famous
people power revolution of 1986.
From February 22 – 25, 1986, the whole world watched as over a million people gathered at the main
highway of the main metropolis in the country. It was the one kind of a revolution in late 20th century
that resonated all over the world. There were no shots fired even as state soldiers with high powered
firearms and tanks and machine guns, helicopters, and warplanes surrounded and hovered over the
multitude. There were only leis of sampaguita, flowers and food given to soldiers as rosaries, and
religious images were paraded, prayers, slogans and songs chanted. The people held on to each other,
marched and danced in the streets. Some labeled the event a miracle, others thought it was just a
simple military mutiny but many believed it was a people power revolution and it is this phrase that
would catch the imagination and become the consensual name for the events that led to the
overthrow of the Marcos dictatorship.
Events of this magnitude can be considered poetic moments that compel an examination of a kind of
poetics that is a product of an historical period and a social movement.
Jacques Derrida in his study of the poet, Paul Celan calls attention to a kind of “poetics and politics of
witnessing.” With a poetics of witnessing, there is as well, and I argue for a “poetics and politics of
remembering.” There is a wealth of metaphor, images and verses that are testamentary, testimonials
and remembrances and this is particularly true of martial law in the Philippines. Here is a poem of
vivid remembrance for example:
Concerning the Death by Assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr., August 21, 1983.
Cirilo F. Bautista
The sound was dead before it was uttered
Under the noon heat, having flown a sky
Of short fear and long desire: six syllables
twitched, bloodied, cut down by a secret spy
What message did they whisper in the earth
when silence shocked the bullet in the brain
the ‘end of empire? The text for violence?
Concord and clemency blooming in pain?
For one word, the ritual rose in heights
fewer at first, then death disguised in blue
till the world fell down, unspoken, unheard
misunderstood, misjudged declared untrue
rushed to the grave without knowing why, while
a nation mourned because it knew.
Poems like this inscribe an event that is to be remembered. The date, August 21,1983, is the date of
the assassination of Benigno Aquino Jr., a day of mourning by the nation. But it is also a day of
“knowing”, and of enlightenment.
The nation that “mourns but knew” is what the persona in the sonnet bears witness to, a sonnet of
remembering that conveys a thought and a feeling and persuades its readers to believe that there is
on this particular date, “a nation that mourned because it knew.” What that nation knows is not
easily unraveled and can go in many which ways but what is important is believing having faith in
the re-enactment of the event to store in memory this feeling that engulfs a people.. The uncertainty,
the whys and the wherefores of the assassination and the certainty of knowing as a nation becomes
an individual as well as a collective experience. .
In the next poem bearing witness assumes another aspect of remembrance through circumvention.
Poetry can be direct in subject and reflection as in the poem just read, but is also an effective medium
when it circumvents and uses dense words and metaphor that will have to be closely deciphered for
meaning.. The impact of this poem by Ruben Cuevas sinks in only after meticulous and careful
examination.
PROMETHEUS UNBOUND:
Ruben Cuevas
I shall not exchange my fetters
for slavish servility.. T’is better
to be chained to the rock than bound
to the service of Zeus.
-Aeschylus, Prometheus Bound
Mars shall glow tonight
Artemis is out of sight
Rust in the twilight sky
Colors the bloodshot eye
Or shall I say that dust
Sunders the sleep of the just?
Hold fast to the gift of fire!
I am rage! I am wrath! I am ire!
The vultures sit on my rock
Licks at the chains that mock
Emancipation’s breath.
Reeks of death, death, death.
Death shall not unclench me
I am earth, wind and sea!
Kisses bestow on the brave
That defy the damp of the grave
And strike the chill hand of
Death with the flaming sword of love.
Orion stirs. The vulture
Retreats from the hard, pure
Thrust of the spark that burns
Unbounds, departs, returns
To pluck out of death’s fist
A god who dared to resist.
Aeschylus, Prometheus, Orion, Aries, Mars, Zeus, all these characters are from Greek mythology. For
ordinary Filipinos many of whom do not have higher, much less literary education.these Greek
personas are unheard of.. However, a scroll through the f…
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