Ode to Obrero poets and fiction writers

Philippines Graphic
By Philippines Graphic

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History has delegated the 1st of May as Labor Day, in recognition of the workers of the world.

But in this month of May, the Philippines Graphic takes a step back in time and opens a door not many Filipinos have entered. It is a door that leads us to the womb of the Filipino working class—in the beginnings and development of the Philippine trade union movement, in hopes of understanding the voice and viewpoint of labor unions today.

In an essay penned by noted public anthropologist and film critic Tito Genova Valiente, we witness poetry and fiction welling from the hearts and minds of Filipino poets, novelists, short story writers, and essayists whose life experiences involved organizing and leading in trade union movements here and even in America.

We give you the Obrero poets and fiction writers—Andres Bonifacio, Lope K. Santos, Amado V. Hernandez, Manuel Arguilla, Carlos Bulosan, Edgardo M. Reyes, Jose Ma. Sison, and Emmanuel Lacaba

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Started in 1927, the Philippines Graphic is the longest-running printed magazine of national circulation that provides relevant news and features and promotes Philippine literature.

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The World in the time of Nick Joaquin

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They who wrote for the Philippines Graphic

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“Our sense ... of our country is a sustained act of imagination. From that vantage, it can be said that our writers and artists, who are men and women of imagination, create our country (italics mine). That is to say: they evoke those images of ourselves as we live life day and night, those images of ourselves which we share and by which we recognize our nativity. We are our own best interpreters of our history and culture because it is we who have lived through that history and created our own values by which we live.” —National Artist for Literature Gemino Abad