Abstract

The theme of Ateneo’s Lecture Series this year is “Disruptions and Reclamations,” which is particularly relevant as we deal with many disruptions caused by the pandemic. Philippine History is full of disruptions from the colonial to the revolutionary periods to postcolonial, authoritarian regimes. While these episodes in our history are well-known, and usually feature the men who “make history,” what is often lacking in such rich chronologies are the women, and their own experiences, struggles and legacy. Despite recent advances in Philippine history, women continue to be seen as footnotes or used merely as metaphors to discuss change and continuity in Philippine society.

Focusing on my own work on the women of the Huk rebellion, this lecture will place women at the center of the Philippines’ history of disruptions and reclamations. But I will highlight the Filipinas who disrupted convention and the status quo—those women who, during the Spanish colonial period, entered beaterios to get an education, constantly challenged religious authorities, worked in cigar factories, and even engaged in the world’s oldest profession. Under the Americans, these women pursued higher education, wrote radical treatises, organized associations and campaigned for suffrage. And during the postcolonial period, they became Amazons in the popular press, joined the Communist Party, and challenged Martial Law. In recent times, women continue to disrupt Duterte’s drug wars and in the midst of the pandemic, focus on protecting and sustaining their families and communities. This lecture is dedicated to the Filipinas who disrupted and continue to disrupt convention and the power structure in the Philippines to reclaim their own identity and place in history.

Born and raised in Manila, Philippines, Dr. Vina A. Lanzona is considered a “Martial Law Baby,” having grown up under Martial Law. And then as a student at the Ateneo de Manila University, she participated in the People Power Revolution that ended the authoritarian rule of Marcos. After college, she worked briefly for the Peace Commission under President Aquino, and then came to the United States to pursue graduate studies, completing an M.A. in Historical Studies at the New School for Social Research in New York, and a Ph.D. in Southeast Asian History under Alfred McCoy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

She spent most of her twenties living in New York City, eventually moving to Honolulu to join the History faculty at the University of Hawai‛i at Mānoa, where she is now an Associate Professor. From 2011-2015, she served as the Director of the Center for Philippine Studies at the School of Pacific and Asian Studies at UHM.

Her first book was inspired by her twin passions for studying revolution and the role of women in political change in the modern Philippines. She recently co-edited a volume expanding this theme to women in Southeast Asia. Her current project re-examines the Philippines’ historical relationship with Spain through a study of the social history of marriage under Spanish colonialism.