Capturing the huk amazons: Representing women warriors in the Philippines, 1940s-1950s

South East Asia Research

Volumn 17, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 133-174

  Lanzona, Vina A ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII   (United States)

Author keywords

Huk rebellion; Revolutionaries; The Philippines; Women warriors

Indexed keywords

HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; OCCUPATION; POLITICAL CHANGE; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL PARTICIPATION; WOMENS STATUS;

ASIA; EURASIA; PHILIPPINES; SOUTHEAST ASIA;

EID: 68149157112     PISSN: 0967828X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.5367/000000009788745886     Document Type: Article

References (109)

1. This famous battle led by Felipa Culala appears in several accounts. See Eduardo Lachica (1971), Huk, Philippine Agrarian Society in Revolt, Solidaridad, Manila, p 107;
2. Benedict Kerkvliet (2002), The Huk Rebellion, Rowman and Littlefield, Lanham, MD, p 63;
3. and Luis Taruc (1953), Born of the People, Greenwood, Westport, CT, pp 63-65.
4. Taruc, supra note 1, at pp 63-65.
5. Alfred W. McCoy supports this assertion. According to him, the Philippine military welcomed its first female soldiers only in 1963, while the Philippine Military Academy admitted its first female cadets only in 1993. The stature gained by Dayang-Dayang as a combat commander was therefore unprecedented in the military history of the Philippines. See McCoy (1999), Closer Than Brothers, Manhood at the Philippine Military Academy, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, p 20.
6. Luis Taruc (1967), He Who Rides the Tiger, Praeger, New York, p 129.
7. Taruc, supra note 1, at pp 128-130; and Celia Mariano Pomeroy, letter to Jeff Goodwin, 26 February 1993.1 used some letters written to Jeff Goodwin, with his permission.
8. For the standard works on the Huk rebellion, see the authoritative Benedict Kerkvliet, supra note 1; Eduardo Lachica, supra note 1;
9. Alfred Saulo (1990), Communism in the Philippines: An Introduction, Anteneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City;
10. and Alvin Scaff (1955), The Philippine Answer to Communism, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA. More recent works include Teresita Maceda (1996), Mga Tinig Mula Sa Ibaha, Kasaysayan ng Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas at Partido Sosialista ng Pilipinas sa Awit, 1930-1955 [Voices From Below, A History of the Communist Party and Socialist Party Through Song, 1930-1955], University of the Philippines Press, Diliman;
11. and Jose Dalisay Jr (1998), 'The Lava brothers: blood and polities', Public Policy (University of the Philippines), Vol II, No 3, July-September; and Jose Dalisay Jr (1999),77ie Lavas, A Filipino Family, Anvil, Pasig City. Jeff Goodwin (1997) explores issues of sexuality and solidarity in the article, "The libidinal constitution of a high-risk social movement: affectual ties and solidarity in the Huk rebellion, 1946-1954', American Sociological Review, Vol 62, February, pp 53-69.
12. Kerkvliet, supra note 1, at pp 92-98.
13. Some scholars also argue that the Huk uprising was the first major communist rebellion defeated by US counterinsurgency operations in Asia. For more information on the success of US counterinsurgency measures against the Huks, see Daniel B. Schirmer and Stephen Shalom (1987), The Philippines Reader, A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship and Resistance, South End Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 105-123.
14. This number may have been significantly higher during the Second World War when women joined the Huk army to participate in a widely supported struggle against the Japanese. Because the post-war struggle of the HMB against the Philippine Republic required a higher degree of ideological commitment, it probably attracted fewer women. Unfortunately, there is no official record as to the actual number of women directly involved in both the Hukbalahap and HMB movements. But based on my interviews and conversations with former Huk men and women, the massive amount of coverage of 'Amazon' captures in newspapers, and the considerable attention the Huk leadership paid to issues relating to gender and family, Lava's estimate of 10% is quite possibly an underestimate of female participation in the Huk movement. Jesus Lava, interview with the author, Mandaluyong, Manila, November 1993. See also Kerkvliet, supra note 1, at pp 92-98; and Secretariat (undated, probably 1950), 'Milestones in the history of the CCP', Politburo Exhibit No. O-180F.
15. During the mid-1950s, as the government of President Ramon Magsaysay launched agricultural reform programmes and intensified military repression, the Huks' support from the peasantry in the towns and barrios (or villages) of central Luzon wavered, and by 1956 the Huks and their peasant support were in decline. For more in-depth biographies of Ramon Magsaysay, see Carlos P. Romulo and Marvin M. Gray (1957), The Magsaysay Story, Pocket Books, New York; and the most recent one, Manuel F. Martinez (2005), Magsaysay: The People's President, RMJ Development, Makati. Most works on Magsaysay are hagiographic presentations of what many believed to be the 'most popular President' of the Philippines, rarely criticizing his close relationship with the United States government. For the defeat of the Huks, see Scaff, supra note 6;
16. Victor Lieberman (1966), 'Why the Hukbalahap movement failed', Solidarity, Vol 4, October-December, pp 22-30; and Lachica, supra note 1.
17. And yet, several studies on women in revolutionary movements, especially in the so-called 'Third World', have demonstrated the overwhelming participation of peasant women. In her study of women involved in the guerrilla struggles in Latin America, Karen Kampwirth made similar observations about both the conservatism of peasant women and their willingness to join revolutionary struggles. See Karen Kampwirth (2002), Women and Guerrilla Movements, Pennsylvania State University Press, University Park, PA.
18. In a new work entitled Amazons of the Huk Rebellion: Gender, Sex and Revolution in the Philippines (University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI, 2009), I explore in more detail the women of the Huk revolutionary movement - their motivations for participation, their roles inside the organization, and the challenges they faced in terms of fulfilling their duties in the revolution while pursuing deeply personal lives - offering a new analysis of how issues of gender, sexuality and family shaped the nature of the revolutionary struggle. The book uses extensively the oral history interviews I conducted with more than 70 former Huk women to recapture their experiences, often using their own words and memories, as I wrote a new history of the Huks that placed them at the centre.
19. According to Leonora Angeles (1989, p 21), 'the importance of media in shaping people's ideas, beliefs, modes of action and behavior needs not much further substantiation'. She argues that the media in the Philippines, as an institution that is controlled by the state and the elite, advances an ideology that usually perpetuates conventional thinking about gender and the status quo. See Leonora Angeles (1989), 'Ideology, gender and media: some theoretical considerations in the study of women and media', in Sarilaya: Women in Arts and Media, Institute of Women's Studies, Manila.
20. Mina Roces (2004), 'Is the suffragist an American colonial construct? Defining "the Filipino woman" in colonial Philippines', in Louise Edwards and Mina Roces, eds, Women's Suffrage in Asia, Routledge, London, p 29.
21. Mary Grace Ampil Tirana (1996), 'Panuelo activism', in Women's Role in Philippine History, Center for Women's Studies, Unversity of the Philippines, Quezon City.
22. This 'retreat to the home' phenomenon similarly reflects post-WWII developments in the USA. See Elaine Tyler May (1990), Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era, Basic Books, New York.
23. Alfred McCoy, supra note 3, talks about how the new republic propagated an ideology where 'men are the warriors' and 'women are the muses', thereby excluding women not only from the military establishment, but from many areas of public life.
24. Quoted in Carmelita Corpuz (2003), Mula Noon Hanggang Gabriela, Ang Kababaihan sa Kasaysayan ng Pilipinas hanggang mga 1980 [From the Past to Gabriela, Women in the History of the Philippines until 1980], De La Salle University Press, Manila, p 68.
25. Ibid. According to Georgina Encanto, as avid consumers of the print culture, 'the Filipina was bombarded with advertisements that propagated the American lifestyle as the standard to be desired'. Middle class Filipina readers were enticed with Western ideals of femininity that valued glamorous (and often Caucasian-looking) women, who ran their households efficiently. The 'New Filipina' who was propagated in the post-war press and print culture was no longer the modern, educated and professional Filipina of the pre-war years, but the carnival queen and the domestic goddess. As Encanto argues, the press 'dished out fantasy to women', offering them 'a weekly escape from their mundane concerns to an ideal world where all women, regardless of class, could attain the ideals of physical beauty, harmonious relationships within the home and the workplace, [and] romance in the distant exotic places that were the settings of the romantic novels'. Georgina Reyes Encanto (2004), Constructing the Filipina, A History of Women's Magazines (1891-2002), University of the Philippines Press, Diliman, pp 59-61, and Lanzona, supra note 12, Chapter 3.
26. Elizabeth Uy Eviota (1992), The Political Economy of Gender, Women and the Sexual Division of Labour in the Philippines, Zed, London.
27. Carolyn I. Sobritchea (1989), 'Gender ideology and the status of women in a Philippine rural community', in Sr Mary John Mananzan, ed, Essays on Women, Institute of Women's Studies, St. Scholastica's College, Manila, p 100.
28. Mina Roces (1998), Women, Power and Kinship Politics, Praeger, New York, p 8.
29. Roces, supra note 22, at pp 48-49.
30. Francois Hartog (1988), The Mirror of Herodotus. The Representation of the Other in the Writing of History, translated by Janet Lloyd, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
31. Hartog, supra note 24, at pp 205-210.
32. Scholar Lynne Wilde summarizes: 'The women of the mythical race of Amazons were violent resistors of masculine rule, they fought ruthlessly, they killed or mutilated their male offspring, and they had promiscuous, anonymous sex in order to get pregnant. They were as beautiful as they were cruel.' See Lynne W. Wilde (2000), On The Trail of The Women Warriors. The Amazons in Myth and History, Thomas Dunne, New York, pp 1-3.
33. For further exploration on the Amazons, see Sharon W. Tiffany and Kathleen J. Adams (1985), The Wild Woman: An Inquiry into the Anthropology of an Idea, Schenkman, Cambridge, MA;
34. Shirley Castelnuovo and Sharon R. Guthrie (1998), Feminism and the Female Body, Liberating the Amazon Within, Reinner, Boulder, CO; Helen Diner (1973), Mother and Amazons. The First Feminine History of Culture, edited and translated by John P. Lundin, Anchor Press, Doubleday, New York;
35. Abby Kleinbaum (1983), The War Against the Amazons, New Press, New York; Josine Blok (1995), The Early Amazons: Modern and Ancient Perspectives on a Persistent Myth, Leiden.
36. Tiffany and Adams, supra note 27, at pp 72-74, 96-100.
37. Maxine Hong Kingston (1989), The Woman Warrior, Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts, Vintage, London.
38. Most works on the Chinese Revolution mention the inspiration of Hua Mulan and other legendary women warriors to the major female participants. See Christina K. Gilmartin (1998), Engendering the Chinese Revolution, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA; and Helen Young (2001), Choosing Revolution: Women of the Long March, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, IL.
39. The Amazons in Vietnamese history, especially the Trung sisters, are frequently invoked by Vietnamese female rebels, as discussed in such works as Karen Turner (1998), Even Women Must Fight, Wiley, Oxford; and Sandra Taylor (1993), Vietnamese Women at War: Fighting for Ho Chi Minh and the Revolution, University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, KS.
40. Gabriela's image persists in the Philippine feminist movement. In fact, the largest women's organization in the country is simply called 'Gabriela', and Gabriela Silang is still considered the most important 'Amazon' in Philippine revolutionary history. See University Center for Women's Studies (1996), Women's Role in Philippine History, University of the Philippines, Manila.
41. Abby Kleinbaum (1983), The War Against the Amazons, New Press, New York, p 223.
42. These headlines appeared numerous times in the Philippines Free Press, Manila Times and Manila Chronicle between 1946 and 1959.
43. As many Philippine scholars would claim, the presence of women warriors is not new in Philippine history and historiography. During the pre-colonial period, female shamans called babaylans were important spiritual leaders and played central roles in the political and social life of indigenous societies. When their power was threatened by the Catholic Church, they became central figures in the millenarian movements that undermined Catholic hegemony during the Spanish colonial period. Women also assumed important roles in the Katipunan, the independence movement against Spain, as well as in anti-USA resistance struggles, especially the Sakdal movement. The current scholarship, however, contains only brief, sketchy biographical information about these women. See the (1996) special issue 'Women in history and revolution', edited by Thelma Kintanar, Review of Women's Studies, Vol V, No 2, and Vol VI, No 1;
44. Rafaelita H. Soriano (1995), Women in the Philippine Revolution, Printon, Quezon City; Luis Camara Dery (2000), Remember the Ladies and Other Historical Essays on the 1896 Philippine Revolution, M and L Enterprises, Manila;
45. Mina Roces (2001), 'Reflections on gender and kinship in the Philippine Revolution, 1896-1898', in Rodao and Rodriguez, eds, The Philippine Revolution of 1896, Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times, Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City;
46. and brief treatments in Anne-Marie Hilsdon (1995), Madonnas and Martyrs, Militarism and Violence in the Philippines, Ateneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City;
47. Mananzan (1989); and Corpuz, supra note 18. For the Sakdal movement, see David Sturtevant (1976), Popular Uprisings in the Philippines, 1840-1940, Cornell, Ithaca, NY.
48. 'Pretty girl denies any Huk connection', The Manila Times, 20 October 1948.
49. 'Hunger taking lives of Huks', The Manila Times, 9 October 1948.
50. '4 Amazons, Huk held, one slain', Daily Mirror, 31 August 1953.
51. 'Amazon finance officer nabbed', Daily Mirror, 31 October 1953.
52. 'Huk message unit broken, 3 Amazons arrested', The Manila Times, 2 October 1953.
53. Leonila's capture appeared in several newspapers. See 'Amazon captured', Philippines Free Press, 21 March 1948;
54. 'Wife of Huk regional area supervisor captured by PC, Manila Times, 21 March 1948; 'Pretty girl denies any Huk connection', The Manila Times, 20 October 1948.
55. 'Huk Amazon unit encountered by PC, The Manila Times, 15 September 1948.
56. '183 Huks slain in Pampanga, five Amazons among fatalities', The Manila Times, 25 September 1948.
57. Leon O. Ty (1947), 'Guerrilleras', Philippines Free Press, 12 October.
58. 'Guerrilleras' Ibid.
59. Elieser M. Chavez (1949), 'Women in war', Philippines Free Press, 10 December.
60. Philippines Free Press Ibid.
61. 'Woman Huk found dying', The Manila Times, 17 September 1948.
62. 'Catapatan, 4 others slain', The Manila Times, 4 April 1952.
63. 'Amazon killed, Bulacan judge frees another woman Huk', The Manila Times, 29 April 1948.
64. 'Huks led by woman clash with PC, The Manila Times, 25 March 1950.
65. 'Woman Huk fights and flees', The Manila Times, 20 April 1950.
66. Beauty pageants occupy an important and fascinating place in studies about Philippine culture and society. Roces, supra note 22; and Fenella Cannell (1999), Power and Intimacy in the Christian Philippines, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
67. 'Waling Waling nabbed', The Manila Times, 1 May 1952.
68. Many former Huks agree that having female military commanders was extraordinary in a movement led and dominated by men. Thus, these occurrences were viewed by most as anomalies, since women more often found themselves in support roles, serving as nurses, first-aiders, propaganda workers, secretaries, and especially as couriers in the revolutionary movement.
69. Taruc, supra note 1, at p 103.
70. Celia Mariano-Pomeroy, letter to Jeff Goodwin, 26 February 1993 (used with permission).
71. Taruc, supra note 1, at p 63.
72. Celia Mariano-Pomeroy, letter to Jeff Goodwin, 21 June 1993 (used with permission).
73. Taruc, supra note 1, at p 103.
74. 'Six foot Amazon', Manila Times, 6 December 1948.
75. Simeona Tapang, interview with the author, San Simon, Pampanga, January 1994 and April 1997.
76. Much of the information about Liwayway was from personal interviews. Remedios Gomez, interview with the author, Anao, Mexico, Pampanga, November 1993 and July 1997.
77. Teodosio Lansang, 'Exclusive interview with "Liwayway" Huk Commander', Truth Magazine, 1 and 14 August 1947.
78. The use of 'Joan of Arc' as the archetypical warrior woman appears in many nationalist narratives in which women were major leaders and participants. See how the image of Joan of Arc played a role in the historical imagination of female power in Marina Warner's (1999), Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism, University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.
79. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 11.
80. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 14.
81. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 15.
82. 'Woman Huk commander facing trial for sedition, rebellion', The Manila Times, 1 August 1947; 'Habeas corpus writ for Huk girl', The Manila Times, 27 October 1947.
83. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 12.
84. As described by Celia Mariano Pomeroy, letter to Jeff Goodwin, 21 June 1993 (used with permission).
85. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 13.
86. Taruc, supra note 1, at p 102.
87. Remedios Gomez, interview.
88. Remedios Gomez, interview.
89. Lansang, supra note 64, at p 12.
90. Barbara Watson Andaya (2001) made this observation about women in the Philippine Revolution. See 'Gender, warfare, and patriotism in Southeast Asia and in the Philippine Revolution', in Rodao and Rodriguez, eds, The Philippine Revolution of 1896: Ordinary Lives in Extraordinary Times, Anteneo de Manila University Press, Quezon City, p 11.
91. The love affair of Leonora and Emilio was covered by several news accounts. Emiliano D. Reynante (1954), 'Lovelorn Huks marry', Philippines Free Press, 16 October; David Baquirin (1954),
92. 'Cupid alias J. Crisol writes happy chapter in Huk romance', The Manila Times, 7 October; 'Huk sweethearts to wed tomorrow', Daily Mirror, 5 October 1954; '2 surrendered Huk lovers wed', Manila Chronicle, 6 October 1954.
93. 'Huk sweethearts to wed tomorrow', Daily Mirror, 5 October 1954.
94. Reynante, supra note 78.
95. Reynante, supra note 78, at p 1.
96. 'Cupid alias J. Crisol writes happy chapter in Huk romance', The Manila Times, 7 October 1954.
97. Reynante, supra note 78.
98. The origin and exact meaning of the term kualingking is a bit of an enigma. Almost all former Huks I interviewed understood the term to mean an 'extramarital relationship (or affair)' between a married Huk man and a single Huk woman, although no-one knew where the term originated or who coined it. Since the word itself does not exist in the Tagalog or Kapampangan language, I can only conclude that kualingking was an invented word, which then assumed its own meaning among the Huks.
99. For an in-depth treatment of the sex problem, see Lanzona, supra note 12, Chapter 4, and Goodwin, supra note 6.
100. Secretariat, PKP (1950), 'Revolutionary solution to the sex problem', Politburo Exhibit No 1-15, 12 September. This document, as well as other documents of the Politburo, is found in the Special Collection, University of the Philippines Library. See also William Pomeroy (1963 and 1978), The Forest: A Personal Record of the Huk Guerrilla Struggle in the Philippines, International Publishers, New York.
101. 'What the Huks think of sex', Philippines Free Press, 29 July 1967. The article came after the military released to the media the crucial 'Sex document' written by the Huk leadership in 1950.
102. 'Sex document' Ibid.
103. 'Editorial', Philippines Free Press, 29 July 1967.
104. Filemon V. Tutay (1952), 'Poor babies!' Philippines Free Press, 28 June.
105. Philippines Free Press Ibid.
106. Watson Andaya, supra note 77, at p 9.
107. Anne-Marie Hilsdon also acknowledges the use of the imagery of the amasona to refer to the female guerrilla of the New People's Army (NPA), the armed group of the new Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) established in 1969. Like the Huk Amazons, these amasonas earned their label because of their fighting skills and horsemanship, which were equal to those of men. But she writes, 'underlying the use of such iconography is often a fear of female sexuality', and the term becomes derogatory, justifying the discipline and punishment of women warriors. See Anne-Marie Hilsdon, supra note 35, at p 34.
108. See Cynthia Enloe (1983), Does Khaki Become You ? The Militarization of Women's Lives, South End, London; and Hilsdon, supra note 35.
109. Several new books about the NPA guerrillas highlight some remarkable women, who often called themselves Amazons, in part as a tribute to the Huk women. See Communist Party of the Philippines (2004), Pulang mandirigma (Red Rebel): Images of the New People's Army, Information Bureau, Communist Party of the Philippines, Manila; ICPS (1987), Kasama: A Collection of Photographs of the New People's Army of the Philippines, International Concerns for Philippine Struggles (ICPS) Southern Tagalog, Makati; and Hilsdon, supra note 35.