Ka Amado by Jun Cruz Reyes (review)

Jun Cruz Reyes takes a new approach in writing his latest literary gem, Ka Amado. He uses a historico-biographical style not only to narrate Amado V. Hernandez’s life but also to elicit from the reader an appreciation for the importance of geography in shaping individuals and society. Reyes presents literature as a reconstruction of history based on collective memory. He argues that personal experiences are products of human interaction with the environment, which also serves as a means of developing social awareness. Literature as history is thus a codification of human experiences.

Reyes contends that the physical environment and sociohistorical aspects of Tondo and Hagonoy, two key places in Hernandez’s life, are sources of information to deepen one’s understanding of Hernandez’s personal experiences. Hernandez was born on 13 September 1903 in Daang Juan Luna, Gagalangin Tondo. His parents, Juan Hernandez of Hagonoy and Clara Vera of Baliuag, were both natives of Bulacan province. On the one hand, Tondo was, according to Reyes, his idealization of bayan and kasaysayan (nation and history). Historically it has been a locus of anticolonial uprisings, from the Battle of Bangkusay in 1571 and the rebellion of Sulayman and Lakandula in 1574 to the formation of La Liga Filipina and the Katipunan in 1892, as well as the founding of the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas in 1930, which Reyes mistakenly dated 1932 (67). On the other hand, Hagonoy served as Hernandez’s inspiration for his major works, and his parents influenced him to use the imagery of Bulacan province in his literary pieces (96). Thus, Ka Amado is not just a biography but a work on social history that depicts struggles and revolution in connection with a society’s particular geography.

Reyes is the author of critically acclaimed works such as Isang Lumang Kuwento (1973), Tutubi, Tutubi . . . Huwag Kang Magpahuli sa Mamang Salbahe (1987), Utos ng Hari at Iba Pang Kuwento (2002), and Etsa-Puwera (2000). His humor and satire in these works, apart from his usual free creative writing workshops for young writers, have made him popular among Filipino readers. In contrast to this earlier genre, Ka Amado features Reyes’s attempt at writing a biography. Himself a son of Hagonoy, Reyes was interested in analyzing how Hernandez’s life, works, and political struggle were influenced by his and his father’s hometown.

As mentioned, one of the distinguishing features of Ka Amado is its emphasis on the role of the environment in shaping one’s life. Reyes’s description of the geography of Hagonoy and Tondo provides the backdrop for an analysis of the socioeconomic conditions of Hernandez, and Filipinos in general, across different historical periods. Geographical analysis in the context of Reyes’s work is therefore no longer an end in itself but a means to rediscover the slow unfolding of structural realities, to see things from the perspective of a Braudelian longue durée. Reyes believes that Hagonoy inspired Hernandez in his literary works such as the poem “Bayang Malaya” and “Sagrada Familia.” In “Bayang Malaya” Hagonoy is the source for the different images of land and water, while “Sagrada Familia” refers to an actual place in the said town. Reyes even asserts that the place Pinagbangunan Hernandez mentions in “Bayang Malaya” is actually Sagrada Familia. Malayak and Patining are the old names of Sagrada Familia. The place name Malayak comes from a word that denotes the portion of a river that is connected to the sea, which, in the case of Hagonoy, is the meeting point of Manila Bay and the Pampanga River; while Patining refers to the end portion of the barrio (96). Like other early Tagalog communities, this area developed near the river or the sea where most of the people’s activities relied on, including transportation and trade. The different creeks or inlets of Hagonoy connected it to other provinces such as Pampanga, Bataan, and Zambales.

The said provinces were also parts of the communities from where Hernandez’s ascendants came. Tracing...