Philippine E-Journals

Faustino Aguilar: Historian of the Revolution and the Renaissance of the Proletariat and Emancipated Women

E. San Juan, Jr.

 

Abstract:

One of the most daring, yet still unpublished, novels of the renowned Tagalog novelist Faustino Aguilar is Kaligtasan written during the 1950 decade. It is the only novel so far dramatizing in alternating mimetic/symbolic modes the crisis ridden years of the Huk uprising and the CIA-led anticommunist campaign of Ramon Magsaysay. Synthesizing the complex strands of the novel genre, Aguilar represents the fierce class antagonisms between impoverished peasants in Luzon and the predatory feudal lords represented by Amando Magat and Don Rehino, respectively. It subjects to satirical and parodic testing the hypothesis of reformist solutions to the unequal division of labor and wealth. It criticizes the patriarchal system of domination and its subversion. By deploying allegorical techniques in exposing contradictions in the ideas and practices of typical individuals, the novel exemplifies the highest achievement of the realistic tradition of Filipino writing infused with socially committed ideals and radical principles.