Filipino women writers
They employed the "power of the pen" and the printed word in order to shatter the so-called "Great Grand Silence of the Centuries" of Filipino female members, participants, and contributors to the progress and development of the Philippine Republic, and consequently the rest of the world.
Silang was a contrast to the chaste and religiously devout image of the Filipino lady as portrayed by Jose Rizal through his Spanish-language novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, after two male presidents (Fidel V. Ramos and Joseph Estrada, respectively), followed in the footsteps of Corazon Aquino to become a leader and political figure of an Asian nation.
There was criticism against the Maria Clara image portrayed by the Philippine paladin, José Rizal, as well as critiques and feminine disapproval of how Filipino men writers wrote about women.
Contemporary feminist female writers were also inclined to break away from the traditional, idealized and typecast image of the Filipina of the past as matriarchal mystics and figures who performed sacrifices, underwent suffrage and works of martyrdom which was to be expected, given their pious upbringing.
Other women writers like Kerima Polotan Tuvera, Rosario Cruz Lucero, Ligaya Victorio-Reyes and Jessica Zafra even stepped forward to boldly make it a "fashion" to discuss aspects of womanhood that were previously regarded as taboo in Philippine society, such as those dealing in female anatomy, erotica, divorce or separation from former husbands, abortion, premarital affairs, and childless marriages.
[1][2] Contrary to the treatment received by Filipinos during the Spanish colonial period, the education of the Philippine citizenry was prioritized during the time of the American occupation, as seen in the activities of the Thomasites and U.S. military personnel in the islands in the early 20th century.
Nevertheless, despite this lack of financial support for writers, many works in the Filipiniana style proliferated and were written dominantly in Philippine English, but fewer however saw print in the local maternal languages.
The persistence of this competitive phenomenon was due to the close economic, military and cultural association of the Philippines to the United States, the encouragement of the use of English in combination with the dialects in schools and universities, and the need to gain a larger audience of readership.
[2] Literature penned by women authors in the Philippines embraced the many realities and faces of Filipino society: the gap and the friction between the rich and the peasantry, personal experiences and dilemmas, love stories, their formative years, married life, employment; culture, beliefs, religion, rituals and tradition, womanhood, livelihood, family and motherhood, the duties of a female spouse; periods in history such as the Second World War, the war for Vietnam, the presence of the American military bases, nationalistic ideals and questions of cultural identity, the Marcos despotism, the EDSA revolution of 1986; poverty, prostitution, the effects of globalization and pollution, volunteer work, and the need to migrate for economic survival.
Leona Florentino, a female poet who was the product of that public education system during the final moments of the 19th century, is now regarded as the "founder of women's literature" in the Philippines.
[1][2] From the onset of the early years of the "benevolent" American occupation of the Philippine archipelago – after Spain lost control of the islands through war and opted to sell its Asian colony to the U.S. – the ambience was approving to the publication of vernacular literature which included the abundance of local magazines.
[1][2] During World War II, the Japanese were able to influence and encourage the Philippine literati in developing the vernacular literature, in parallel existence with the English language introduced by the Americans through public education.
There were also published manuscripts that confer personal familiarity with events that occurred during the four-year-long Japanese period such as those achieved by Estrella Alfon, Maria Luna Lopez, and Rosa Henson.
[1][2][3][4] The 20-year authoritarian rule of Ferdinand Marcos in the 1970s brought forth literary themes of cultural revolution, social awakening and political consciousness, reinvigorated nationalism, opinionated movements and protests, disapproval of the patriarchal society, and mass migration.
In the 1930s, Filipino women authors opted to travel after obtaining the liberty to do so, and for other reasons such as the lack of a grant system within the confines of a developing country and the "resistance of a patriarchal society".
[1][2] The destinations of journeying migrant settlers were North America - primarily the United States – and Europe, Australia, Arab nations, Japan, Singapore and other Asian countries.
In general, this "Great Migration" of Filipinos created "films, novels, short stories, poetry and comics" in the Philippines that portrayed wayfarers as economic heroes and heroines of the country.
