54 online
 
Most Popular Choices
Share on Facebook 116 Printer Friendly Page More Sharing
Exclusive to OpEd News:
Life Arts    H4'ed 3/21/19

Review- Gina Apostol's INSURRECTO, a tale of American and Filipino Memories that most of us need to be aware of

By       (Page 1 of 2 pages)   2 comments
Follow Me on Twitter     Message Kevin Anthony Stoda
Become a Fan
  (9 fans)

Reviewed by Kevin Stoda

Apostol, Gina (2018) INSURRECTO: Soho, 316 pages

Insurrecto

As the Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, has surmised, Apostol's book of memes and memories, "INSURRECTO', plunges us into the vortex of memory, history, and war."

INSURRECTO takes American readers to the land of the Philippines as defined by cinema, yellow journalism, popular sports figures (like Mohammed Ali) and Youtube videos. It takes present day Overseas Working Filipinos on a tour of what it is like to live in Duterte's regimeall the while alluding to Marcos and American occupation memories which are too seldom taught in schools.

Gina Apostol takes us on this divided tour by using at least four voices: (1) the voice of an American woman who grew up and was influenced by childhood memories of her fatherwho had created and directed a classic cult film in the Philippines at the end of the turbulent '60s a la Coppola's classic Apocalypse Now film almost a decade, (2) the voice of a Filipino translator, who would like to be a screen writer herself, (3) the voice of Gina Apostle herself, and (4) the voice of official history in the form of Endotes to denote an allusion so-called official histories of American or Filipino history and culture.

To all of this are added the fictional characters in the screen places, all of whom which all three desire to write and produce themselves to a great degree.

In short, INSURRECTO is about who has control to the memories of America's great colonial horrorswhich are often ignored in AMERICAN educationas well as they histories of both Filipino victims or collaborators in occupation during colonial and post-colonial occupation of minds and bodies up through the present. INSURRECTO is certainly a novel that demands or requires novelists and historian to jump start a retelling and re-investigation of our mutual histories.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII and Colonial occupation of the Great-but-oft-forgotten or -ignored Archipelago of East Asia must be restudied as part and parcel of American history and culture.

As Scott Simon noted on NPR, in INSURRECTO, the character "Chiara is an American who wants to make a movie about an event during the Philippine-American War. She hires an interpreter named Magsalin, who takes her to the island of Samar and specifically to the town of Balangiga, where Philippine rebels were massacred in a retaliation for an attack on U.S. forces in 1901. Magsalin reads Chiara's script and writes a different story."

In order to explain her approach in this texture-rich-media-heavy novel, Apostol herself has been emphasizing in a variety of interviews recently, "You know, this notion that in all of us there are multiple identities, you know, and we don't recognize the simultaneity of them. I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm a teacher, I'm a writer, I'm a Filipino, I'm a American. And I really like this kind of seeing things from various points of view."

Therefore, it should not be unexpected that Apostol has chosen a variety of media devicesincluding lithographic images, posters, social media and Googling, and onto cinematographic planning and literary translationto described the complicated real-life experiences of her main protagonists throughout the work.

Balinga township in the Philippines is the key-but-long forgotten USA memory and meme which plays on the multiple narrative versions of its own story throughout INSURRECTO. I should note that "insurrectos" was the term used by Filipinos to describe 14 year war against colonialism that so many participated in between 1898 and 1912. This is a name that the author and her main protagonists relish as they take on the memes and goddesses of history on two or more continents throughout the novel.

Balinga is a small town on Samar Island. Balinga is also the location of a major USA colonial set-back which was then followed by the most brazen of American massacres since the days of the Indian Wars in the Old West and forced marches of Native American to Oklahoma. Balinga is the goal of a journey for the protagonists and their drivers. Balinga is the memory of a daughter. Balinga is the memory of a Filipina lover. Balinga is the location of a classic re-enactment in film undertaken in the late 1960s just as Ferdinand Marcos was taking power in a coup.

I short first note that in westernized Filipino-American history, the first Balangiga massacre is also called the Balangiga incident or the Balangiga conflict. Americans in 1902 claimed that a surprise massacre of USA troops took place in Balangiga in 1901 during the PhilippineAmerican War.

In sum, he term Balinga Massacre initially referred to the killing of about 48 members of the US 9th Infantry by the townspeople allegedly augmented by guerrillas in the town of Balangiga on Samar Island during an attack on September 28 of that year.

However, an even larger massacre by USA military commanders quickly followed in response. In this Second Massacre of Balinga or Samar Island in the Philippines American forces sought revenge and retribution. Specifically one General Jacob H. Smith sailed to the island and indicated to the 300-plus troops whom he brought with him:"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me" The interior of Samar must be made [into] a howling wilderness."

Next Page  1  |  2

(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).

Must Read 2   Well Said 1   Supported 1  
Rate It | View Ratings

Kevin Anthony Stoda Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter Page       Linked In Page       Instagram page url on login Profile not filled in

KEVIN STODA-has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades.--He sees himself as a peace educator and have been-- a promoter of good economic and social development--making-him an enemy of my homelands humongous DEFENSE SPENDING and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global (more...)
 

Go To Commenting
The views expressed herein are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
Follow Me on Twitter     Writers Guidelines

 
Contact AuthorContact Author Contact EditorContact Editor Author PageView Authors' Articles
Support OpEdNews

OpEdNews depends upon can't survive without your help.

If you value this article and the work of OpEdNews, please either Donate or Purchase a premium membership.

STAY IN THE KNOW
If you've enjoyed this, sign up for our daily or weekly newsletter to get lots of great progressive content.
Daily Weekly     OpEd News Newsletter
Name
Email
   (Opens new browser window)
 

Most Popular Articles by this Author:     (View All Most Popular Articles by this Author)

BED-INs and Other Protests Needed Now

Why have German-, Italian- and Latin American Internment during WWII been kept out of the USA History books?

GULF CIVIL SOCIETY FORUM calls for Gulf Monarchies to abandon absolutism and to adopt European-style Parliaments

TRIBE, TRIBALISM AND CULTURAL CHANGE-KUWAIT 2008

A WORLD OF PRETENDERS: Partial Review of the Filipino Novel, THE PRETENDERS by F. Sionil Jose

PHILIPP ROESLER, of Vietnamese Descent. to Head the Health Ministry in Germany, as his own Party Plans to Push for more

To View Comments or Join the Conversation:

Tell A Friend