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THE LEGEND OF TINAMNAN GABE

-as recorded in Negros Oriental and Siquijor Island: Legends, Beliefs and Folkways (ed. Caridad Aldecoa-Rodriguez)

I changed Eyo's name because the nature of legends and folktales is that when you retell it, you end up leaving your own fingerprints on it. altho the real reason I changed his name is that I have an idea for a longer story that spans a few centuries that starts with this legend, but I need to do some more research before I really get into it, so for now this is just a standalone comic bc I really like this story :)

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dalandan-oranges >>> radyo-kabaw

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Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country, Patricia Evangelista

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THE BROTHERS BASONG AND BALIW

-Ayuquitan/San Jose: Baliw, in Negros Oriental and Siquijor Island: Legends, Beliefs and Folkways (ed. Caridad Aldecoa-Rodriguez)

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Utak ng Rebolusyon

this comic is more about Aguinaldo, but I’ll find a way to draw Mabini too :) he was in Laguna for health reasons, but in the last panel, he’s probably taking some time to reply to some letters because that man didn’t quit.

Apolinario Mabini, Revolutionary, Cesar Adib Majul

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app / insta

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Cattleya Killer (2023), Richard Lattimore’s introduction to the Orestia (in Aeschylus, edited by David Grene and Richard Lattimore)

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GomBurZa (2023) dir. Pepe Diokno, Negros in Transition: 1899-1905, Violeta Lopez-Gonzaga & Michelle Decena*

*while this film isn't about the history of Negros, the thematic core (the structure of class and the exploitation of the poor) in these scenes is the same.

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ngl I thought I'd be more active on this account than I currently am, and part of it is that I saw one of the worst takes on film I've ever seen on twitter and it pissed me off so much I started doing an intensive history and film study deep dive to explain why it was so wrong, but really it boils down to the fact that this clown said that the jerrold tarog films were bad because they criticized the filipino people for their role in the failure of the revolution and therefor bad, unlike gomburza, which shows that the filipino people were victims of colonial spain

and it's fucking stupid because gomburza ALSO shows that the ilustrado/landowning class oppressed and exploited the lower class workers, which is parallel to how tarog's films show that self interest and exploitation go hand in hand, and it's not incorrect or revisionist to explore that the ilustrados were educated in the colonial capital. while some brought their education back with them, it's batshit to assume that others did not also learn how to exploit systems of oppression for their own economic benefit, or that some people are somehow immune to the something as universal as greed.

but what drives me NUTS is that tarog's films lean HEAVILY on filipino criticism and thought, and draw from mabini's own writing and experiences and the idea that mabini's criticisms of a government he was a part of are somehow invalid because they don't paint the philippines as a perfect victim in an imperialist conflict drives makes me want to start swinging a metal bat at high speeds because that once again follows the pattern of disregarding people from different backgrounds as not having a legitimate say on top of absolving the wealthy landowning class of their own actions.

anyway, I finished my history deep dive, lmao. it's like, fine if you don't like tarog's films, but to make incorrect claims about what the narrative is doing because a film asking the people to understand the tragedy of their own history makes you uncomfy is embarrassing.

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kinda obsessed with the uneven cuff lengths on this bonifacio figure that the ayala museum sells

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have you read a question of heroes by nick joaquin?

I have!!

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I had a family thing come up last month, so I missed posting this for Bonifacio's death anniversary. alas! better late than never! and every day is a good day to post about Bonifacio tbqh

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Ayon kay Alejandro, nakababatang kapatid ni Mabini, ang kinagigiliwang laro ni Kaka Pule (palayaw ni Apolinario) ay sipa. Dutong ni Alejandro, tahimik lamang ang kanyang kuya at laging nagbabasa ng libro.

the above quotation came from a photo of a museum display I came across online while trying to look something up!

when I was sketching this out, I was imagining the rosary was his mother's.

The mother always yearned for her son to become a priest, and it was she who first taught him the cathechism [sic]. Believing that the priesthood was the highest office a man ought to aspire for, she did not spare any effort that might lead her fondest child to aspire for it. […] A time would come, however, that he would lose this religiosity. And so it was that when Mabini wrote his major work, La Revolucion Filipina and dedicated it to her memory, he explained that though it was his mother's wish that he become a priest, such was not his destiny.

-Apolinario Mabini, Revolutionary, Cesar Adib Majul

also here's the dedication in Mabini's La Revolucion Filipina that's mentioned in Majul's biography because it lives in my head rent free:

To My Mother:

When, still a child, I told you that I wanted to acquire learning, you were overjoyed , because your heart's desire was that a son of yours should be a priest; to he a minister of God was for you the greatest honour that a man could aspire to in this world.

Realizing that you were too poor to meet the expenses of my education, you worked as hard as you could, heedless of sun and rain, until you caught the illness that took you to your grave.

But I was not fated to be a priest. I am, however, convinced that the true minister of God is not one who wears a cassock, but everyone who proclaims His glory by good works of service to the greatest possible number of His creatures, and I shall endevour to be faithful to your desires as long as I have the strength to do so.

Now, wishing to place on your grave a wreath woven by my own hands, I dedicate this humble work, to your memory; it is a poor thing, unworthy of you, yet the best so far woven by the artless hands of your son,

THE AUTHOR

(trans. Leon Ma. Guerrero)

(I'm updating all my socmed links bc the internet is in shambles so for now I'm going to skip over the usual 'other places to find me' closing lmao)

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GILUBONG SA DOMINGO

UG MAO ANG KATAPUSAN NI—

okay, so there's a moderate trainwreck of ideas happening here, especially because this is the set up for a future thought I have not talked about yet!

first, the solomon grundy part is because for some reason, in my mind, it was always about a guy who got married and then died immediately after from a "mysterious" illness, and I'm pretty sure the Cain Saga Solomon Grundy chapter only reinforced that in some deep part of my brain

this! story! is about! a young man from the provinces who gets married to the daughter of the spanish governor and dies soon after. more or less, his wife murdered him for the land that was in his name, even though it was shared in the community without hierarchy, and she (with her father) intends to turn it into a sugar plantation.

and it's also about the engkanto, the 'not like us.' (so here's the thing, I know people have translated/compared engkanto to fairies, and honestly fuck that. my mom has always translated engkanto into english as 'not like us' since forever, and it's a better fit for our region than any comparison to european fairy folklore.) in the last panel with the mother, the man with the long hair is the engkanto in this story. so, the story:

once upon a time, there was a field, there was a harvest, there was a young man. and one day in the middle of the harvest season, there was a handsome stranger. every day he would invite the young man to come with him, offer him gifts, entice him with conversation. then: the young man got married. soon after, he died. his life has been stolen so the land can be exploited, and the handsome stranger is one with the land. this is now a story about retribution

this is playing off of the tinamnan gabe story a little, but I have diverged significantly because this is going to be about folklore horror, and it's also technically a prequel story for something else.

I've seen the tinamnan gabe story retold online and I've seen people cite the book it's recorded in (Negros Oriental and Siquijor Island Legends, Beliefs and Folkways), but I don't have access to the book so no additional citations for this RIP 😔 (while I heard a lot of similar stories to this one growing up, in a forest instead of a field, I still wish I had access to the book for a lot of reasons, but especially because I like reading things. I want to read the book!!)

to conclude this, I also want the mom to get revenge for her son. ideally, when I pin this idea down further, it will be about folklore horror AND revenge.

⭐ I have a tip jar (ko-fi)!

⭐ and other places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

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The Philippine Revolution (with other documents of the Revolution), Apolinario Mabini, Vol. II (eng. translation of La Revolucion Filipina)

The Philippine Revolution, Apolinario Mabini (trans. Leon Ma. Guerrero)

The Court-Martial of Andres Bonifacio (trans. Paz Policarpio-Mendez)

Warfare by ‘Pulong’ Bonifacio, Aguinaldo, and the Philippine Revolution Against Spain, Glenn Anthony May

I'm currently assembling some kind of comparatives post about collective memory, trauma, and people whose death signifies a before/after in that memory, because the way that Bonifacio shows up in Mabini's writings reminds me a lot of how Crassus appears in Lucan's Pharsalia, in that: when there is a tragedy and you look back to see where it all went wrong, which mistake damned it all beyond repair, what moment signified the ultimate culmination of failure: if you look just a little bit further back from that point (the Battle of Pharsalus/the Battle of Tirad Pass), you can clearly see a body that continues to haunt the memory and has not been buried (Crassus/Bonifacio)

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Apolinario Mabini, Revolutionary, Cesar Adib Majul

he was so fucking funny for this

I had actually spent a long time recreating the interior of his house for that first panel before I remembered he was exiled in guam when this happened lmao. the other guy in this comic is his brother, prudencio, who accompanied him into exile!

speaking of houses, let's talk about his glasses. he had them, and I get emotional whenever I see photos of his personal belongings.....

photo taken from the NHCP Museo ni Apolinario Mabini

also the citation given in the screen cap!! I don't have access to Mabini's La Revolucion Filipina, but if you do and you want to read further: [8] 'Las memorias de Guam' La Revolucion Filipina, Volume II, p233

🍊 twitter 🍊 bsky 🍊 pixiv

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BLESS ME FATHER, FOR I HAVE SINNED—

so. last month. I was reading a bunch of keigo higashino's novels because I'm a sucker for mysteries, I love the mystery genre so much. I am so bad at writing in that genre, but I will eat a mystery story like it's cake.

I was sooooo in love with the detective galileo books that I wanted to take a stab at the mystery genre again and. well. I did not accomplish what I set out to do, but I did make some OCs I intend to put into situations. regional folklore horror meets mystery solving? we'll see!

for now, it's about a guy with a neck scar, a priest he's in a situationship with (they've been friends since childhood and it's very. hm), and a third guy who's not really a guy but maybe half a ghost. there is. a murder to solve.

neck scar guy (lorenzo 'insoy') is not confessing to a murder here, he was confessing to throwing cold water into the face of a woman who had been treating his mother badly for like, a YEAR, and he finally snapped and told her to fuck off in front of a whole crowd of people. unfortunately that woman gives major cash every month to the church. so. as you can see: a problem. he'd do it again, tho.

on his way home, he's going to come across a body in a field.

bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost

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THE LONG REACH OF ROME a personal project collecting references to Ancient Rome (and Greece) throughout Philippine history and politics

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country, Patricia Evangelista / Duterte: The die is cast, Mike Firalde (Philippine Star, November 23, 2015) / Plutarch, Caesar 32-33 (trans. Bernadotte Perrin)