{"id":8662,"date":"2021-09-03T22:31:22","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:31:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/?p=8662"},"modified":"2021-09-03T22:31:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T08:31:28","slug":"book-review-a-question-of-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/2021\/09\/03\/book-review-a-question-of-heroes\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOK REVIEW: A Question of Heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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by Rose Churma<\/em>

The last Monday in August is known in the Philippines as Araw ng Mga Bayani<\/em><\/strong>. It falls on August 30 this year, a day to honor the bravery of all Filipino heroes who struggled for the nation’s freedom, including those who vanished into anonymity.

The date chosen is intended to mark the Cry of Pugad Lawin<\/em><\/strong> in August 1896, which was the first act of insurrection against the Spanish colonizers by the Katipunan<\/em>, a secret Filipino revolutionary movement.

In commemoration of the Philippines\u2019 National Heroes Day, this issue\u2019s featured book review is on Nick Joaquin\u2019s compilation of essays on ten heroes namely Fr. Jose Burgos, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Graciano Lopez-Jaena, Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Antonio Luna, Gregorio del Pilar, and Artemio Ricarte.

Through his critical essays on these heroes of Philippine history, Nick Joaquin provides a unique point of view on their roles in the fight for independence, first against Spain and then with the Americans.

Of the two essays on Rizal, \u201cAnatomy of the Anti-Hero\u201d was a comparative analysis of Leon Maria Guerrero\u2019s The First Filipino<\/em><\/strong> and Ante Radiac\u2019s Rizal from Within<\/em><\/strong>.

The Guerrero book, in English, is written in the \u201cmodern manner where the details are massed not for their scholarly but their emotional value\u2026\u201d and is a massive publication of over 500 pages.

The Radiac study, written in Spanish, can be considered an extended essay and is subtitled \u201cAn Introduction to a Study of Rizal\u2019s Inferiority Complex\u201d and is barely 70 pages long.

Radiac\u2019s work is a psychoanalysis of Rizal with emphasis on his formative years. He suspects that Rizal suffered from bouts of inferiority due to his puny physique. Guerrero\u2019s view of Rizal on the other hand is colored by his life history as a fellow illustrado<\/em> and member of the b<\/em>ourgeoisie<\/em>.

The author also devoted two essays on Andres Bonifacio. In \u201cThe Eve of St. Bartholomew\u201d he describes the uncertainties of pinpointing exact dates when the revolution by the Katipunan<\/em> started but agrees with researchers that \u201cThe Revolution began in Balintawak in the last week of August 1896.\u201d

What is interesting to note is that St. Bartholomew or San Bartolome<\/em> in Tagalog is the patron saint of Malabon, now a city within Metro Manila. In Philippine folklore, August is a red month or amok<\/em> month.

One school of thought was that the KKK revolt was proclaimed on the eve of San Bartolome\u2019s<\/em> day, August 23 and that the bolo-wielding saint aided the bolo uprising by making it much easier for Katipuneros<\/em> to pass through Spanish lines by using the excuse that they were on their way to attend the fiesta of San Bartolome de Malabo<\/em>n.

Emilio Aguinaldo was also accorded two essays, one of which is titled \u201cOur Second Greatest Anti-Hero,\u201d of which the first anti-hero was Jose Rizal.

The author notes that both Jose Rizal and Emilio Aguinaldo shared the same physical \u201cdefect\u201d \u2013 in that both were very small in stature. His physical smallness encouraged Rizal to excel in intellectual pursuits. That was not the case with Aguinaldo who failed at the private school he was sent to in Binondo.

He was then enrolled in Letran but had to be taken out and placed with tutors. Because of the cholera epidemic, he was able to go home to Kawit and abandon formal schooling totally when he was only 13.

Yes, the first president of the Philippines was a drop-out!

In his memoirs, Aguinaldo writes about his dislike for learning that \u201cIt\u2019s bad to be learned; you\u2019re either hanged or exiled.\u201d

In this collection of essays, the author reduces the heroes into regular guys and brings out facts not usually found in history books. Another classic Nick Joaquin publication.

ROSE CRUZ CHURMA<\/strong> is a retired architect who now has the time to do the things she always wanted to do: read books, write about them and encourage others to write. Her online bookstore, <\/em>Kalamansi Books and Things<\/em><\/a> (<\/em>facebook.com\/kalamansibooks<\/em><\/a>), promotes Filipiniana books and publications by Filipino-Americans. Email her at <\/em>kalamansibooks@gmail.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>

Read more Book Reviews:
<\/em><\/strong>BOOK REVIEW: English-Tagalog and Tagalog-English Dictionaries<\/strong><\/a>
<\/strong>BOOK REVIEW: PHILIPPINE HERITAGE HOMES, A Guidebook<\/strong><\/a>

<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Rose Churma The last Monday in August is known in the Philippines as Araw ng…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20,4,7],"tags":[],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=767%2C1174",767,1174,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=150%2C150",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=196%2C300",196,300,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=640%2C980",640,980,true],"large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=640%2C980",640,980,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=767%2C1174",767,1174,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=767%2C1174",767,1174,true],"ultp_layout_landscape_large":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=767%2C800",767,800,true],"ultp_layout_landscape":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=767%2C570",767,570,true],"ultp_layout_portrait":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=600%2C900",600,900,true],"ultp_layout_square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=600%2C600",600,600,true],"covernews-slider-full":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=538%2C715",538,715,true],"covernews-slider-center":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=428%2C500",428,500,true],"covernews-featured":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=767%2C1174",767,1174,true],"covernews-medium":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=540%2C285",540,285,true],"covernews-medium-square":["https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?resize=375%2C250",375,250,true]},"author_info":{"info":["admin"]},"category_info":"Featured<\/a> Features<\/a> Philippines<\/a>","tag_info":"Philippines","comment_count":"0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/BR_Question-of-Heroes-color_09042021.jpg?fit=767%2C1174","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8663,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8662\/revisions\/8663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thefilipinochronicle.com\/backup\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}