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TRIBUTE TO ALEJANDRO G. ABADILLA, & A CRITIQUE--E. SAN JUAN, JR.

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MEMORABILIA & SIPAT SA SINING NI ALEJANDRO G. ABADILLA, MANLILIKHANG MAPANGHIMAGSIK ni E. SAN JUAN, Jr. Mahigit na apat na dekada na ang lumipas pagkamatay ni Alejandro G. Abadilla (AGA ang maikling pantukoy ko rito sa awtor) noong 26 Agosto 1969. Bukod sa pamilya, kaunti lamang ang nakiramay, bagamat pinarangalan siya ng “Cultural Heritage Award” noong 1966. Hindi siya “National Artist.” Walang makatawag-pansing libing ang nasaksihan noon. At bihira lamang, sa pagkaalam ko, ang nagtanghal ng pagdiriwang sa malaking kontribusyon niya sa ating kultura liban na sa puta-putaking pulong ng mga masugid na alagad ng makabagong panulaan sa MetroManila. Sa katunayan, sa milenyong ito ng Internet at globalisasyong neoliberal, maliban sa ilang akademiko, tiyak na wala pang 1% ng mahigit 99 milyong Pilipino ngayon ang may kabatiran tungkol sa buhay at panitik ni AGA. Bakit? Ang literatura ay kahuli-hulihang bagay na ipinapag-ukulan ng pansin ng sosyedad sibil at gobyerno sa tinaguriang “

Foreword to new book SISA'S VENGEANCE: : RIZAL WOMAN, REVOLUTION by E. SAN JUAN, Jr. (Available from LuLu.com)

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Foreword to SISA’S VENGEANCE: Rizal / Woman / Revolution by E. SAN JUAN, Jr. A specter is haunting las islas Filipinas—not just the territory, but also the Filipino diaspora around the world. Jose Rizal as ghost or the phantom in the neocolonial opera stalks across islands and continents. Rizal--the name is familiar, even a household word, like Avenida Rizal, Rizal Coliseum, the “Rizal” brand attached to all kinds of souvenirs, gewgaws, and collectibles. But over the decades and centuries, after 150 years, somehow the figure remains distant, alien, self-estranged. Rizal, the national hero, is routinely celebrated by bureaucrats, cult-followers, trendy pundits and inutile academics. But among so many fetishized images, counterfeit icons, and fabrications, who is the “real” and “true” Rizal? Such a question is perhaps anachronistic, irrelevant, or foolish in our postmodern age of simulacras, hybrid replicas, and virtual dissimulations. Our task in such a bind is to explore the nexus