Amado Hernandez, A revolutionary Artist

A research on writings of Amado Hernandez

Submitted by: Emily T. Dael

B.S. Accountancy

Submitted to: Dr. Maria C. Cuntapay

English 010, Professor

I.

Introduction Philippine literature has been through different transitions. As the face of colonialism changes, literature also changes. We can prove it through the writings of Filipino artist, with their poems, novels, essays and drama, which generally reflects the situation of our society. From the pre-spanish period, Spanish period, American period, Japanese period, rebirth of freedom, period of enlightenment, period of activism, period of the new society to the contemporary period, literature has written its history. Literature was defined to be the representation of ones self, and that was truly shown on the writings of the Filipinos who fought using their pen. Filipinos showed nationalism through their works. They opened the eyes of the Filipino natives to what was happening and triggered their eagerness to fight for what they believe, to stop the slavery on our own land, and to regain our freedom. One of the most popular Filipino writers was Dr. Jose Rizal who has also become our national hero because he sacrificed his own life for his beloved land. His novels Noli me Tangere and El Filibusterismo showed the exploitation of freedom by the Spanish colonialists. Another writer who became famous on the Japanese period was Amado V. Hernandez who wrote about the Philippines and was thought to be writing against the Japanese government. As a result, he was imprisoned but it did not stop him from writing. Just like Dr. Jose Rizal, Amado Hernandez was jailed because of writing. This research will be focusing on Amado V. Hernandez and his writings. It is important for the students of Philippine Literature to recognize and study the works of our Filipino writers to better appreciate them and our country. We owe the freedom that we are experiencing today to them and to those people who fought for the sake our freedom and for the future generation

II.

Presentation of Data Amado V. Hernandez is the most serviceable Filipino revolutionary artist of the twentieth-century whose poetry, fiction, and plays in Filipino continue to inspire the popular struggle for national democracy and genuine independence against U.S. imperialism. Born in Tondo, Manila, on September 13, 1903, Hernandez began his career in journalism in the twenties when the initial massive Filipino resistance against U.S. military rule had declined. He became editor of the Manila daily Mabuhay from 1932 to 1934. In 1939 he won the Philippine Commonwealth Award for a nationalist historical epic, Pilipinas; in 1940 his collection of mainly traditional poems, Kayumanggi, won a Commonwealth Award. During the Japanese occupation of the Philippines (1942-45), Hernandez served as an intelligence officer for the underground guerilla resistance, an experience reflected in his major novel of neocolonial dependency and revolt, Mga Ibong Mandaragit. After the war, Hernandez assumed the role of public intellectual: he organized the Philippine Newspaper Guild in 1945; and he spoke out on national issues as an elected councilor of Manila in 1945-46 and 1948-51. It was during his presidency of the Congress of Labor Organizations (1947), the largest federation of militant trade unions in the country, that Hernandez graduated from the romantic reformism of his early years to become a national-democratic militant. Meanwhile, the establishment of a U.S. neocolony in the Republic of the Philippines in 1946 extended the Cold War in the repression of local nationalist, progressive movements. It intensified the feudal landlord exploitation of the peasantry and reinforced the

impoverishment of workers and middle strata, leading to the Huk uprising in the late forties and early fifties. An allegorical representation of the sociopolitical crisis of the country from the thirties up to the fifties can be found in Hernandezs realistic novel, Luha ng Buwaya, and the epic poem of

class struggle, Bayang Malaya, for which he received the prestigious Balagtas Memorial Award. Owing to his anti-imperialist work, Hernandez was arrested on January 26, 1951 and accused of complicity with the Communist-led uprising. During the time in which he was imprisoned in various military camps for five years and six months, Hernandez wrote most of the satiric, agitational poems in Isang Dipang Langit and the pedagogical drama, Muntinlupa. His singular achievement is what I would call the invention of the Filipino concrete universal, the dialectical representation of socially typical situations that project the contradictions of ordinary life in a neocolonial formation, with its peculiar idioms and idiosyncratic nuances. Stories like Langaw Sa Isang Basong Gatas (see San Juan 1974) and poems like Mga Muog ng Uri, Bartolina, Ang Dalaw, and Kung Tuyo na ang Luha Mo exemplify this dialectical poetics in the service of what Mao calls in the Yenan Forum the twin tasks of partisan art: the uplifting of standards and the popularization of revolutionary ideas. From 1956 to 1960, Hernandez wrote countless stories under various pseudonyms for the leading weekly, Liwayway; he also wrote columns for the daily Taliba, and edited the radical newspapers Ang Makabayan (1956-58) and Ang Masa (1967-70). But it was his participation in the Afro-Asian Writers Emergency Conference in Beijing, China, in June-July 1966, followed by his active intervention in the International War Crimes Tribunal (organized by Bertrand Russell, Jean Paul Sartre, and others) in November 1966, that demonstrated Hernandezs renewed commitment to the advance of the internationalist struggle against global capitalism. His numerous honors culminated in the Republic Cultural Heritage Award (1962) and National Artist Award given posthumously in 1973, a recognition of his life-long service to the cause of liberatory poetics and social justice. Up to the day (March 24, 1970) he died, Hernandez was involved as a leading protagonist in mass rallies

against imperialism, feudalism, and bureaucrat-capitalism, for democratic socialism and national independence.

Amado V. Hernandez works: Luha ng Buwaya Luha ng Buwaya or "Crocodile's Tear" in translation, was a novel written in 1953. It consists of 53 chapters. The story is about poor farmers uniting against the greedy desires of the prominent family of the Grandes. In Filipino idioms, "crocodiles" were used to symbolize those people who are corrupt. The "buwaya" (crocodile) in the title refers to the Grandes family, who were greedy for money. The novel was based on his personal experiences while imprisoned in the New Bilibid Prison from 1951 until his release on parole in 1956. The novel was about peasants from a barrio and their leader, in the person of a school teacher, fighting against oppression and greed. Through their action, the people find renewed belief in their capabilities. In a larger persepective, Luha ng Buwaya was Hernandez's realistic embodiment of the socio-political crisis happening in the Philippines during the 1930s until the 1950s. Hernandez wrote the novel employing an "easy style" and contemporary Pilipino language. While writing the manuscript for Luha ng Buwaya, Hernandez was also acting as the editor of the prison newspaper named Muntinglupa Courier.

Mga Ibong Mandaragit Mga Ibong mandaragit or Birds of Prey is a socio-political novel is written in1969. The novel was described as Hernandez's masterpiece about the neocolonial dependency and revolt in the Philippines. Also reflected in the novel was Hernandez's experience of being a guerrilla intelligence officer when the Philippines was under the Japanese occupiers from 1942 to 1945.

Through the narrative, Hernandez yearned for change and the elevation of the status of Philippine society. The book narrated the living conditions and livelihood of the Filipino people. Upon the arrival of the middle of 1944 in the Philippines, the armed forces of the Japanese Empire was already

weakening. The Japanese would soon be losing in the Second World War in Asia. The novel had a connection with Jose Rizal's Noli Me

Tangere and El filibusterismo. There was a part in the novel wherein the protagonist Mando Plaridel was tested by Tata Matyas, an old revolutionary, on his knowledge about Rizal and Rizal's novels. The pattern of Hernandez's Mga Ibong Mandaragit also had a similarity to Rizal's novel, wherein the main character looked at the Philippines from the outside by traveling to Europe then coming back. Hernandez's novel also tackled the lead character's search for Simoun's treasure, showing it as a continuation of Rizal's El Filibusterismo. It further tackled the state of the citizenry upon the onset

of industrialization brought forth by the Americans in the Philippines.

III.

Insights Gained We should love our country as the writers did. They risked their lives fighting for our freedom. They showed nationalism through their literary works. Amado Hernandez never loosed hope for our country even in the chapter of his life where he spent years in prison which he called his own garden, until the end of his life, he still showed courage and looked forward to see his beloved country free once more. He put his heart and soul to his dream of a free nation. He was a representation of a Filipino who were craving for powers, love and life of the dreamers, and hoping and aiming Filipino nation. Knowing his life, his works and advocacy made me appreciate more our life and our freedom. It has given me courage to face life and the challenges it brings. It had made me realize that life should be lived in the right way and in a meaningful way as they did. We may not be heroes or as famous as them but in doing good deeds or in every simple way that we can do to serve others is also serving our nation.

IV.

Conclusion Amado V. Hernandez was truly an inspiration to the Filipinos. He spent his life writing good things about our country, he encouraged us to stand on for our beliefs, and to fight for what is right. His writings were all about Philippines, our culture, sufferings in their times and love for country. He never stopped contributing to our democracy not only by his writings when he served as an intelligence officer for the underground guerilla resistance.

V.

Refferences

Hernandez, Amado V., Bayang Malaya, Ateneo De Manila University, 1969