Amado V.

Hernandez
 Kung Tuyo na ang Luha mo, Aking Bayan
 Mga Ibong Mandaragit
 Luha ng Buwaya
 Bullets and Roses: The Poetry of Amado V. Hernandez

LUHA NG BUWAYA NI ARMANDO V. HERNANDEZ

Umiikot ang kwento ng Luha ng Buwaya sa tunggalian ng mayayamang may-ari ng lupa at ng

kanilang mga inaaping magsasaka sa bayan ng Sampilong ilang taon matapos ang pananakop ng
mga Hapones. Nagsimula ang kwento sa pag-uwi ni Maestro Bandong Cruz sa Sampilong upang
humalili sa dating punong-guro na nagbakaston muna dahil sa karamdaman. Nagkataon naman na
magkakaroon ng malaking handaan sina Don Severo at Doña Leona Grande, ang mga
pinakamayaman sa Sampilong, bilang pagsalubong sa kanilang dalawang anak na sina Jun at Ninet.
Ang magkapatid ay umuwi sa Sampilong mula sa kanilang pagtatapos sa Maynila. Ang pamilya
Grande ay lubhang mapang-api sa kanilang mga magsasaka , at hindi lamang ngayong malapit na
ang piging ngunit kahit noon pa man. Sila'y lagging walang-awang sumisingil ng mga
nagkakapatong-patong na utang ng mga mahihirap na magsasaka. Isang halimbawa ng kanilang
kalupitan ay, ilang araw matapos ang handaan, namatay ang asawa ng isang magsasaka dahil hindi
pinagbigyan ng mag-asawa ang hiling ng lalaki na huwag munang kunin ang kanilang pera upang
mayroon siyang maipambili ng gamot para sa kanyang maysakit na asawa.
Dumating ang mga pangyayari sa puntong napuno na ang mga mahihirap na magsasaka at
naisip nilang magtayo ng isang unyon para mapangalagaan ang kanilang mga karapatan. Sila ay
tinulungan ng butihing punong-guro na si Bandong. Sa tulong nito ay namulat ang isipan ng mga tao
sa Sampilong at gumanda ang kalagayan ng mga mamamayan. Ngunit patuloy na umiral ang
kasakiman ng mga Grande at tinangka nilang kamkamin ang lupaing kung tawagin ay 'Tambakan' o
'Bagong Nayon' at hinabla ang mga mahihirap upang mapigilan ang kanilang mga plano. Di
nagtagal at nakarating ang mga balitang ito sa mga Grande sa pamamagitan ng kanilang katiwala
na si Dislaw, ang karibal ni Bandong sa panliligaw sa magandang dalagang si Pina, at sila'y gumawa
ng paraan upang matanggal si Bandong sa pagkapunong-guro sa paaralan. Nalaman ni Bandong
kung sino ang mga may galit sa kanya at tahasa na siyang nakiisa sa mga plano at hinanaing ng mga
maralitang tao ng Sampilong. Sinubukan nilang dalhin ang problema sa korte at ayusin ito sa harap
ng hukuman ngunit nagkaproblema sila dahil sadyang maimpluensya ang mga Grande. Di naglaon
ay napabalitang ang lupaing iyon ay hindi pala sa mga Grande, at sa halip ay pagmamay-ari ito ng
isa nilang kasamahan na si Andres. Sa huli ay napawalang-sala rin ang mga inosenteng mahihirap at
nabigyan ng hustisya.

JOSE GARCIA VILLA

 The Anchored Angel
 Doveglion: Collected Poems
 Appassionata: Poems in Praise of Love
 The Critical Villa

NICK JOAQUIN
Published work  La Naval de Manila and Other Essays (1964)
 A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1966)
 May Day Eve (1947)  Tropical Gothic (1972)
 Prose and Poems (1952)  A Question of Heroes (1977)
 The House On Zapote Street (1960)  Joseph Estrada and Other Sketches (1977)
 The Woman Who had Two Navels (1961)  Nora Aunor & Other Profiles (1977)
 Ronnie Poe & Other Silhouettes (1977)
 Reportage on Lovers (1977)
 Reportage on Crime (1977)
 Amalia Fuentes & Other Etchings (1977)
 Gloria Diaz & Other Delineations (1977)
 Doveglion & Other Cameos (1977)
 Language of the Streets and Other
Essays (1977)
 Manila: Sin City and Other Chronicles (1977)
 Pop Stories for Groovy Kids (1979)
 Reportage on the Marcoses (1979)
 Language of the Street and Other
Essays (1980)
 The Ballad of the Five Battles (1981)
 Reportage on Politics (1981)
 Tropical Baroque (1982)
 The Aquinos of Tarlac: An Essay on History as
Three Generations (1983)
 Almanac for Manileños
 Cave and Shadows (1983)
 The Quartet of the Tiger Moon: Scenes from
the People Power Apocalypse(1986)
 Collected Verse (1987)
 Culture and History: Occasional Notes on
the Process of Philippine Becoming(1988)
 Manila, My Manila: A History for the
Young (1990),
 Mr. Rural Reform: The Times and Tidings of
Manny Manahan (1990),
 The D.M. Guevara Story (1993),
 Mr. F.E.U., the Culture Hero That Was Nicanor
Reyes (1995).
 Rizal in Saga (1996)
 ABE: A Frank Sketch of E. Aguilar Cruz (2004)
MY DAY EVE
Summary
The story started with a flashback. The ball had
ended and the guest started leaving the house.
Old Anastasia sent the girls upstairs to sleep. At
the girls’ room, old Anastasia started telling a
story telling that when you looked into a mirror
and say the chanting spell, you will be able to
see the one you will marry. Agueda, very curious
of the story, went down the hall silently. When
Agueda was in front of the mirror, she closed her
eyes and chant the chanting spell “Mirror,
mirror, show to me whose woman I will be.” If it
goes all right, her lover will appear above her
left shoulder, but if not, the devil will appear
above her right shoulder.
Then, she heard a voice of a little child. It was
asking her who appeared when she cast the
spell. Agueda said that it was a devil. It has a
scar and a beard like his father, but it’s very
different. Also, the devil has a darker skin.
Agueda told her child that if don’t want to see
the devil, she must stop the habit of looking in a
mirror.
Don Badoy entered the room, saying that her
charm doesn’t need a candle. Agueda got
angry and it leads to a talk fight. At last, Agueda
ended up crying. Don Badoy begged for
forgiveness,

but instead, she bit his knuckles and went upstairs. Don Badoy got angry and decided to take revenge,
but she had thought of how beautiful Agueda is and that she fell in love with her.

Years had passed and Don Badoy was already sixty years old. He walks to the hall and felt something.
It was his son in front of the mirror. His schoolmates told him how he would see his future wife. Then, Don
Badoy remembered when he was about his age, that he saw a witch, witch ate his heart and drank
his blood.

Voltaire shared to his grandfather what his mother told him. Now that Agueda was dead, She was free
from the brutality of the world and now she could rest in peace.
CARLOS P ROMULO

 I Saw the Fall of the Philippines.

 Mother America
 My Brother Americans
 I See The Philippines Rise
 The United
 Crusade in Asia (The John Day Company, 1955; about the 1953 presidential election campaign
of Ramon Magsaysay)
 The Meaning of Bandung
 The Magsaysay Story (with Marvin M. Gray, The John Day Company 1956, updated re-edition by
Pocket Books, Special Student Edition, SP-18, December 1957; biography of Ramon Magsaysay,
Pocket Books edition updated with an additional chapter on Magsaysay's death)
 I Walked with Heroes (autobiography)
 Last Man off Bataan (Romulo's experience during the Japanese Plane bombings.)
 Romulo: A Third World Soldier at the UN
 Daughters for Sale and Other Plays
 I am A Filipino

I AM A FILIPINO

I am a Filipino-inheritor of the glorious past, hostage to the uncertain future. As such, I must prove equal
to a two fold task- the task of meeting my responsibility to the past and the task of performing my
obligation to the future.

I am sprung from a hardy race- child of many generations removed of ancient Malayan pioneers.
Across the centuries, the memory comes rushing back to me: of brown-skinned men putting out to sea
in ships that were as frail as their hearts were stout. Over the sea I see them come, borne upon the
billowing wave and whistling wind, carried upon the mighty swell of hope-hope in free abundance of
the new land that was to be their home and their children’s forever.

N.V.M GONZALEZ

 The Winds of April (1941)

 A Season of Grace (1956)
 The Bamboo Dancers (1988)
 The Land And The Rain
 The Happiest Boy in The World

THE BAMBOO DANCERS

The narrative follows the journey of protagonist Ernie Rama. Ernie is a sculptor with a study grant in
the United States. He is aloof and avoids becoming involved with anyone. He has only a passing
understanding of his Filipino roots and does not have any clear identity. As part of his journey, Ernie
receives the opportunity to travel. His travels and his work bring him into contact with other Filipinos
who, like him, have left the rural culture behind and are fulfilling their ambitions in the West. Firstly, while
still in the US, Ernie meets an old acquaintance – a girl working in the US on a writers’ fellowship. Notably,
Gonzalez does not name these other characters or make direct comments about them – the reader
must fill in the blanks.

Ernie and this young girl begin an affair. They spend a week living together in a borrowed New York
apartment. Because of their sexual relationship, the young girl questions her morality, and the pair
decide to marry. However, it is not long before she changes her mind. She instead becomes engaged
to a young and emerging American writer, Herb Lane, who joins the USIS and has an interest in the Far
East. They begin their travels to the Philippines, so they can be married. However, Herb dies on the way
and the girl is referred to a hospital on obstetric grounds.

Meanwhile, Ernie learns his brother is in California. He works as a resident physician in a local
hospital. After leaving his wife and child in Manila, he pursued a sexual relationship with a young nurse.
The relationship, however, does not last long, and he sets off home to reunite with his family. When he
goes home to Manila, he returns with many luxury goods, including a car and a television. After being
apart for so long, he finds he no longer has a functional relationship with his wife, and he does not feel
any real affection towards her. He is also not on good terms with a housemaid, who feels threatened
by him sexually and goes out of her way to avoid him. Again, the reader observes all of this through
Ernie’s perspective, but is left with the sense none of it affects him as it perhaps should.

While in New York, Ernie meets three other Filipinos – a young man and his two girlfriends with which
he shows restrained public affection. There is a sense that all these characters are inherently
disconnected and floating through life on the surface. Ernie travels to Japan where he learns of the
tragedies around Hiroshima. Again, he seems unmoved by the bomb casualties and does not let
anything affect him. Furthermore, Ernie learns Herb is not the gentleman he believes him to be. Herb,
who dies in Taipeh, attacks his fiancé in a drunken brawl and subsequently runs over a Chinese girl. His
actions, combined, cause an anti-American demonstration.

Ernie continues to show no genuine interest in his brother’s problems or his old fiancé’s plight. He
shows no remorse and is seemingly unaffected by the breakdown of their own relationship. To make
matters worse, at the end of the novel, Ernie suffers a near-death experience. He almost drowns.
Surprisingly, no one seems to notice or be affected by it, and Ernie does not tell anyone. There is a
sense that Ernie questions his identity, but this is a question left unresolved by the end of the story. Death
in this context may be a metaphor for the death of one cultural identity and the embracing of another,
with no real harmony between the two.
 Throughout, Gonzalez uses bamboo dancing as a symbol. Bamboo dancing, or tinikling, is a
traditional Filipino dance which involves the beating of bamboo sticks together. This symbolises the
clashing of two ideologies – local Filipino culture and imported Western elements. It may also serve as
a reminder of the dangers inherent in traveling and losing a sense of identity. In The Bamboo Dancers,
Gonzalez deliberately uses a detached narrative perspective to reinforce Ernie’s personality problems
and the overall apathy experienced by the characters in the book. Readers are left with the feeling
that these characters could be anyone suffering a similar cultural disenchantment.