Alvarez 1

Jeanne Pauline M. Alvarez

2018 – 03856

Sir Jeffrey Teh

English 11

16 December 2019

In times of crisis, revolutionaries are born. The conditions of the society have opened their eyes

to see the rotting system that’s been blinding them for so long. And it is birth when a man

decides to get rid of the slave mentality. In a world of callous and contemptuous circumstances,

being a revolutionary is a manifestation of crying for human concern. Adhering to the revolution

in absurd situations and debased environment seems to be the only legitimate alternative.

These revolutionaries came from the country-sides and from the urban places. They came

from fields and factories. They came from schools and universities, from churches and

cathedrals. These revolutionaries are knit together like brothers and sisters. They call themselves

“comrades”, and the word is neither empty nor meaningless. It binds them closer together like

fighters with one battle, one enemy. They love peace that they are unafraid of war. They are not

frightened to be in an armed struggle.

But it is not always about weapons and violence. Revolutionaries blow hot and cold.

They are swayed by a great passion that they are willing to anything to bring the ideologies of

the revolution closer to men. They offer facts and statistics, economics and scientific arguments.
 Alvarez 2

If the workingman is merely selfish, the revolutionists show him, mathematically demonstrate to

him, that his condition will be bettered by the revolution. If the workingman is the higher type,

moved by impulses toward right conduct, if he has soul and spirit, the revolutionists offer him

the things of the soul and the spirit, the tremendous things that cannot be measured by dollars

and cents, nor be held down by dollars and cents (London).

They also created literature which is more imposing, scientific, and scholar. It counters

the idea that literature must only be beautiful and pleasing. Revolutionary literature aims to

comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. It is robust in its rage, temper, and meaning

(Mohan 94). Using the stance of literature for the masses, revolutionary writers emphasized the

cause over aesthetics (Majul 111)

In the Philippines, revolutionary literature emerged during the days of Andres Bonifacio.

The voice of revolutionary literature was evident in the writings of Bonifacio, together with

Marcelo H. del Pilar and Emilio Jacinto. However, this type of literature was questioned and

argued by some scholars, thus it cannot be fully embraced and accepted. Teodoro Agoncillo, for

example, claimed that Bonifacio’s pieces were revolutionary, but it cannot be considered

literature. He also added that the only reason we honor Bonifacio’s works is because we honor

him as a hero, otherwise, his writings would be scrapped.

Regardless of the dispute between scholars about the revolutionary literature in the

country, its reemergence was not prevented. In the late 1960s, when Ferdinand Marcos became

the president of the country, the economy plummeted down. The living conditions worsened.

More and more people became poor due to the high inflation rates and low income, caused by
 Alvarez 3

the corruption of politicians. Several human rights violations took place—extrajudicial killings,

political abductions, attacks on the people, etc. Confronted with all these unjust and inhumane

situations, there rose a need for people to revolt once again. Students from different universities

started studying progressive and critical texts. Workers in the factories dared to hold picket lines.

Farmers demonstrated.

As a response to the rising power of revolutionaries, Marcos declared martial law in

1972, claiming that it was the last defense against the rising disorder in the society, including the

threat of the reestablishment of the Communist Party of the Philippines. The cases of human

rights violations increased tremendously. Critical journalists were abducted, or worse, killed.

Progressive papers were shut down. People were not allowed to voice their opinions, especially

if it was against the government. And as the poor Filipino were perishing, dying body and soul

because of the economic crisis, the people in power continue to live lavishly, sheltered in their

comfortable mansions.

However, Marcos’ attempt to shake and abolish the revolutionary movement was not

successful. It only made the existing organizations go underground. The majority of the activists

at the time were students, and they chose to go full-time, fleeing to the mountains. They let go of

their petty-bourgeoise lives to go to the mountains and join the armed struggle.

One of the most remembered student-activist was Emmanuel Lacaba, who was born and

raised in Manila. Lacaba was a student at the Ateneo de Manila University, where he took a

Bachelor of Arts in Humanities. He was in his college when we started being involved in social
 Alvarez 4

in political issues. He was a member of a group that fought for the Filipinization of Ateneo’s

administration, which was then led by Americans.

When he chose the path of being a full-time activist, Lacaba carried with him his passion

and skill for writing—something he was very known for. It was in the mountains when he wrote

the “Open Letters to Filipino Artists,” his most famous work.

The poem, divided into three parts, is not like the typical epistolary form. Instead it has a

style like entries in diaries. Each part has an indicated place and date of when it was written.

Thus, it is safe to say that the poem is an account of Lacaba’s personal experiences. The three

distinct parts tackle the challenges besetting him as a part of the revolutionary force.

Lacaba was in North Cotabato when he wrote this poem. According to his brother, Jose

“Pete” Lacaba (1985), it was at this time when a new stage in Lacaba’s poetry began. Lacaba’s

poetry were:

Complex, allusive, hermetic, obscure; we had, after all, nurtured our verse on objective

correlatives and the seven levels of ambiguity. In the English and Tagalog poems that

Eman wrote in Mindanao [where he had joined the New People’s Army], you can feel the

tension created by his attempt to turn his back on his former style, and work for greater

simplicity, directness, and clarity​. ​(Lacaba)

What served as the artist’s extension of home and school was the country-side with its

mountains, waters, and people. The context of struggle and the people helped Lacaba transform

his subject, theme, and aesthetics into a body of work that mirrored the struggles and experiences

of the masses (Majul 115).

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1
The poem starts with an epigraph by Ho Chi Minh, a fellow revolutionary from

Vietnam. There are no end rhymes used, but its cadence is determined as the number of words

per line could only be as short as seven and as large as eight. Only a few lines contain ten words,

and these serve as the distinct beat in the song which the poem could be (Jaucian 39).

Literary devices were also used in the poem, specifically metaphor, allusion, and

symbolism. Readers may feel the tension of Lacaba’s blending of ‘non-poetic’ activist words
2
with literary devices that do not reveal their meanings meanings at first reading (Lacaba).

Lacaba’s use of English as a language in his poetry can also be noted. Given that he is a

revolutionary, living in the mountains with the masses, stripped off the comfort of being a

middle class man, one may pose the question: why would he write a poem in English?

According to Majul (115), “Experiential learning from living with the masses taught Lacaba

what to write; however, there was still a need to “transcend the bourgeois origin” and write in the

language the masses can understand.”

But then, maybe it’s not that Lacaba is used to writing in English. It should also be

analyzed to whom is the poem directed to? Who is the target audience of Lacaba’s writings?

Maybe the poem is not directed to the proletariat and the masses, but to the middle class who can

understand English well. It is well known that during the martial law, the cultural revolutionaries

used literature as a propaganda material. And in order for them to penetrate each social class,

they must learn how to communicate with each other.

1
​A poet must learn how to lead an attack. – Ho Chi Minh
2
​ e are tribeless and all tribes are ours.​ / ​We are homeless and all homes are ours.​ / ​To the fascists we are the faceless enemy​ /
W
Who come like thieves in the night, angels of death:​ / ​The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the storm.
 Alvarez 6

Lacaba is well aware that artists would feel overwhelmed with the ideas that their pen

and mind would have a have a hard time to be actualized(Jaucian 41). But with strong beliefs,

artists can side with the greater masses and then actualize their creative process—from an
3
ordinary citizen to someone who could spark people’s minds. In the second part of his poem,

Lacaba described the internal struggle he experienced (and other artists might as well) as he

embraced revolutionary life. As a revolutionary writer, to write solely for self-expression and

aggrandizement were considered acts of selfishness; thus, he must cease writing for and about

the “lumpen culturati,” the elite and so-called patronizers of “high art” (Majul 115). To share the

aspirations and the struggle of the masses who live in the country-sides and in the mountains,

and to weave them into works of literature like pieces of a jigsaw puzzle is what is expected from

a revolutionary poet.

The idea that Filipinos own the resources and the power to name, yet are deprived from

enjoying such, is shown in the last portion of the poem. To the fascists, the revolutionaries are

“faceless enemies” who are like brigands, killers, and “moving, shining, secret eye of the storm.”

(Majul 115). He also acknowledged in the last stanza that “awakened, the masses are Messiah.”

He justified that serving the masses is the best decision an artist could make by borrowing lines
4
from Robert Frost’s “The Road not Taken” .

“Open Letters to Filipino Artists” is believed to be the last poem written by Lacaba as its

last part is dated January 1976, two months before he was killed by the military in Davao del

Norte.

3
Like husks of coconut he tears away / The billion layers of his selfishness
4
The road less traveled by we’ve taken / And that has made all the difference.
 Alvarez 7

Together in the struggle with Lacaba was Jose Maria Sison, another well-known

revolutionary up until now. Sison was born on February 8, 1939 in Cabugao, Ilocos Sur. He

founded the Kabataang Makabayan in 1964, of which Lacaba was a member. The Kabataang

Makabayan is a comprehensive organization of patriotic and progressive youth from the ranks of

students, workers, peasants, professionals, and other sectors. Its mission was to continue the

unfinished [1986] Philippine revolution against foreign and feudal domination and to support the

working class as the leading class in the new democratic revolution (Sison).

In 1969, Sison reestablished the Communist Party of the Philippines and became its

chairman. It was a breakaway from the older Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas which faced several

challenges and conflicts that its revolutionaries turned into revisionists. It was also under Sison’s

direction that the New People’s Army, the military arm of the Party, was organized. He

undertook a comprehensive class analysis and strategy in waging the revolution, which he

outlined in his Philippine Society and Revolution (Gorman).

When Sison became a political prisoner charged with subversion and conspiracy to

commit rebellion in 1977, he wrote a whole volume of poems. His works spoke not only of his

privations during his incarceration, but also of his steadfast political views (Maranan).

But even before he was put behind bars, he was already a poet. One of his famous work,

“The Guerilla is Like a Poet,” was written in 1968. It marks the midpoint between Sison’s earlier

formalist phase and later evolution into a more politically committed writer with poems

characterized by “stark diction and militant tone” (Mongaya).

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It celebrates with natural imagery and in a lyrical way the Filipino people’s revolutionary

struggle for national liberation and democracy against foreign and feudal oppression and

exploitation (Staal). The poem also exerted a profound influence among young writers of that

generation, possibly including Lacaba, by simultaneously elevating subversion to a fine art and

giving poetry (Dalisay).

Like Lacaba, Sison did not use any form of rhyming scheme at the end of the lines. There

was also no consistent beat and rhythm, thus it is free verse. There was no definite number of

words per line, and lines per stanza, as the last one was only three lines. One thing notable is the

recurrence of the first line, “The guerilla is like a poet.” This imitated the repetitive routine of the

guerilla’s life of painstaking political organizing and building of alternative power structures

centered on the exploited peasantry in the countryside (Mongaya).

Another thing to notice in the poem is the speaker’s voice—his diction, choice of words

and grammar constructions. The way he used literary devices gave life to the poem, especially
5
his simile forms that is very consistent throughout the text, comparing a guerilla to a poet. It is
6
also loaded with symbolism and metaphors that triggers the imagery of the countryside. A
7
number of alliterations , the repetition of consonants, can also be seen in the poem.

Similar to Lacaba, Sison also wrote this poem in English language. There is already a

significant difference between the overly ornate and aesthetic poetry of his contemporaries and

that of Sison’s whose use of transparent direct speech “theoretically at least, makes his poems

5
The guerilla is like a poet // Swarming the terrain as a flood
6
The green brown multitude
7
ripples of the river // master of myriad images // ensnares the enemy
 Alvarez 9

accessible to a wider audience who could read in English, but lacks the specialized literary

training that is requisite for the appreciation of much of Filipino poetry in English” (Mongaya).

Contrary to the predominantly aesthetic deal of literature as a mere object of beauty, “The

Guerilla is Like a Poet” embodies a didactic purpose of calling on the readers to rise up against

injustice in the material world by means of armed struggle (Mongaya). Waging a guerilla war, as

imposed by Sison, is like writing poetry— a discipline of its own. Like a poet, a writer needs a

muse of its own, and that would be the masses who are often oppressed and exploited. It is the

youth deprived of their democratic right to free education. It is the women suffering in the

patriarchal macho-feudal society. It is the workers that are experiencing terrible, inhumane

working conditions with little wages. It is the farmers that provide food on people’s table, yet

don’t have food for themselves.

Revolutionary literature, whether written in varying languages, are exceedingly important

not only during the martial law years, but always in times of crisis. Be it in the form of poetry,

lyrics for songs, prose, plays, novels, and short story, each contributes to the success of waging

the revolution. Protest literature, especially as a poem and song, is effective in spreading the

revolutionary message—moving instantly the hearts and minds of the people. The message

reaches the masses in a form they could easily grasp. Without the protest literature, the

revolutionary movement would have been drab and dull. But with it, the movement becomes

lively and militant (Maranan).

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Appendix

Open Letters to Filipino Artists

by Emmanuel Lacaba, 1975

A poet must also learn Like husks of coconut he tears away

how to lead an attack The billion layers of his selfishness.
- Ho Chi Minh Or learns to cage his longing like the bird
Of legend, fire, and song within his chest.
I
Now of consequence is his anemia
Invisible the mountain routes to strangers:
From lack of sleep: no longer for Bohemia,
For rushing toes an inch-wide strip on
The lumpen culturati, but for the people,
boulders
yes.
And for the hand that's free a twig to grasp,
Or else we headlong fall below to rocks He mixes metaphors but values more
And waterfalls of death so instant that A holographic and geometric memory
Too soon they're red with skulls of carabaos. For mountains: not because they are there
But because the masses are there where
But patient guides and teachers are the
Routes are jigsaw puzzles he must piece
masses:
together.
Of forty mountains and a hundred rivers;
Though he has been called a brown
Of plowing, planting, weeding, and the
Rimbaud,
harvest;
He is no bandit but a people's warrior.
And of a dozen dialects that dwarf
This foreign tongue we write each other in South Cotabato and Davao del Norte
Who must transcend our bourgeois origins. November 1975
South Cotabato III
May 1,1975
We are tribeless and all tribes are ours.
II We are homeless and all homes are ours.
We are nameless and all names are ours.
You want to know, companions of my youth
To the fascists we are the faceless enemy
How much has changed the wild but shy
Who come like thieves in the night, angels
young poet
of death:
Forever writing last poem after last poem;
The ever moving, shining, secret eye of the
You hear he's dark as earth, barefoot,
storm.
A turban round his head, a bolo at his side,
His ballpen blown up to a long-barreled gun: The road less traveled by we've taken-
Deeper still the struggling change inside. And that has made all the difference:
The barefoot army of the wilderness
 Alvarez 11

We all should be in time. Awakened, the

masses are Messiah.
Here among workers and peasants our lost
Generation has found its true, its only home.
Davao del Norte
January 1976
The Guerilla is Like a Poet
by Jose Maria Sison, 1968

The guerrilla is like a poet

Keen to the rustle of leaves
The break of twigs
The ripples of the river
The smell of fire
And the ashes of departure.
The guerrilla is like a poet.
He has merged with the trees
The bushes and the rocks
Ambiguous but precise
Well-versed on the law of motion
And master of myriad images.
The guerrilla is like a poet.
Enrhymed with nature
The subtle rhytym of the greenery
The inner silence, the outer innocence
The steel tensile in-grace
That ensnares the enemy.
The guerrilla is like a poet.
He moves with the green brown multitude
In bush burning with red flowers
That crown and hearten all
Swarming the terrain as a flood
Marching at last against the stronghold.
An endless movement of strength
Behold the protracted theme:
The people’s epic, the people’s war.
Alvarez 12
 Alvarez 13

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Akda Nina Bonifacio at Jacinto.​ University of the Philippines Press, 1993.

Bulatlat.com​, Dec. 2002, https://www.bulatlat.com/news/2-44/2-44-brownrimbaud.html.

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Gorman, Robert A. ​Biographical Dictionary of Marxism.​ Greenwood Press, 1986.

Jaucian, G. M. ​Resisting Arborescent Hierarchies: A Rhizomatic Analysis of Eman Lacaba’s Protest

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https://martiallawfiles.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/emmanuel-lacaba/.

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https://josemariasison.org/on-jose-maria-sison-as-poet-2/.

Mohan, Narendra. “Protest and Literature.” ​Indian Literature​, vol. 18, no. 1, Jan. 1975, pp. 92–95.,

http://www.jstor.org/stable/23333844 .
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Mongaya, Karlo. “Musings on ‘The Guerilla Is Like a Poet.’” ​Bombard the Headquarters,​ 31 Mar.

2011, https://karlomongaya.wordpress.com/2011/03/31/musings-on-the-guerilla-is-like-a-poet/.

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https://josemariasison.org/kabataang-makabayan-and-its-relevance-today/.

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