radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA: Living EDSA

It would take me forever to get to the point where I stopped caring about the establishment. The first indication I had that I was coming into my own would ironically happen when I had both my feet in activism, and I was teaching in the Ateneo de Manila University as part of its Department of English.

It was February 2006. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo had declared Proclamation 1017, purportedly because of intelligence reports that members of the military were planning to withdraw support from the president, and they would be participating in EDSA 1986 anniversary celebrations. It was the 20th Anniversary of EDSA, and rallies were being violently dispersed. Arrested were UP Professor Randy David and Atty. Argee Guevara (yes, that same Argee from my freshman year in college), but they were released soon after. The same was not true for the real militants. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA: EDSA on repeat

By the time Angela won in the Centennial Literary Awards for her Tagalog essay on EDSA entitled “Himagsikan Sa EDSA: Walang Himala!” in 2000, I was more certain about my political beliefs and my relationship with the academe. I was not fearless, oh no! but I sure was becoming more critical. I knew enough about the literary and academic establishment to keep a healthy distance from it – thanks in large part to teachers who were still open to criticism. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA: A daughter of uncertain times

Mine was a generation mostly uncertain and finding its footing in the political landscape. Done with whatever EDSA euphoria we inherited from our elders, apathy was the word used to describe us teenagers, also called generation X, who were in the University in the late ‘90s. We knew of how Marcos had stopped Voltes V from showing on TV, we knew of classmates in grade school whose fathers and mothers were in jail because of Marcos. But much of it – at least to me – was stuff for elders.  (more…)

radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA: Silent in the State U

When I entered the State University in 1995, EDSA ‘86 was farthest from my mind. But of course the President then was EDSA icon Fidel Ramos, Juan Ponce Enrile was in the Senate, and Gringo Honasan was running for a seat in it. I remember being enamoured of Gringo, his rebellious self something that I could relate to. I remember a blockmate saying she couldn’t imagine voting for someone who attempted those coup d’etats against Cory, for how could someone so violent stand as lawmaker of the land? I remember not knowing what to say. (more…)

radikalchick.lit

Owning EDSA

In 2014, Angela and I were asked to write an essay each for the anthology Remembering / Rethinking EDSA (Anvil Publishing, 2015). We have since published those two essays as a zine for #BLTX, and to celebrate the EDSA Revolution of 1986 this year, we’re posting our essays in parts on our blogs, to commemorate the four days of EDSA, now on its 31st Anniversary. Her blog is at stuartsantiago.com. :) 

***

When I was invited to write a piece for this anthology, my first reaction was: are you guys sure?

I was only half-kidding. On the one hand, what of an anthology that has both Angela and me in its pages, when we might represent the most anti-social of writers who consciously and consistently refuse the trappings of the literary and academic establishment. On the other, EDSA 1986 was always my mother’s thing, which is to say it is her life’s work, the kind of work that few would know like the back of their hands, and then like the lines on their palms. (more…)