I believe in literature, even more so than journalism. So I’m starting a writer’s workshop for local authors who work in English. Here’s why:
It wasn’t the newspapers and journalists who freed the Filipino people from hundreds of years of Spanish colonialism. It was literature.
Jose Rizal’s novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch me not) is widely credited as having fanned the flames of the revolution that eventually overthrew the Spanish and led to an independent Philippines. The book, which I picked up and read during my travels in the Philippines, is an emotional, character-driven account of life under Spanish occupation. It perfectly captures the nuances of colonialism’s impact upon relationships, families, and personal identity.
The book often reminded me of Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The story of Sisa and her two young sons Crispin and Basilio was particularly familiar. Fearing that her children have been wrongfully arrested (and held in something that resembles Israel’s administrative detention), Sisa
ran to her house in the grip of that panic which seizes the mind when in misfortune we find ourselves forsaken by all and hope flees elusive before us…She wanted to save her sons and mothers do not stop to ask how when it comes to helping their flesh and blood.
She ran headlong, pursued by fears and sinister premonitions. Had they already arrested Basilio? Where had Crispin gone?
Nearing her house she recognized, over her orchard fence, the helmets of two Constabulary soldiers. Her feelings were indescribable; her mind went blank.
Spanish soldiers, the narrator explains, were “deaf to pleas and blind to tears.”
Rizal dedicated Noli Me Tangere to his country, writing, “I shall endeavor to show your condition, faithfully and ruthlessly. I shall lift a corner of the veil which shrouds the disease, sacrificing to truth everything, even self-love…”
Today, more than 100 years after Filipino Independence, school children still read Noli Me Tangere. Rizal is hailed as a national hero.
I believe in fiction. It reveals truth in a way that non-fiction cannot. It connects people, creating a sense of community and purpose. And, like journalism, it speaks truth to power. But because fiction captures emotional truth—and emotions tend to drive our lives and the world we live in more than the facts and logic ever do—it is even more potent than journalism.
Let me put it this way: have you ever heard of a newspaper article sparking a revolution?
Just in case Big Brother is watching, I should expressly state that I do not intend to start a revolution myself.
But, what I would like to do is help local authors—Israeli, Palestinian, Jordanian, and international—who write in English reach their full potential. To that end, I am kicking off a reasonably priced workshop for both non-fiction and fiction writers. Workshops will be held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and, if there are enough registrants, Ramallah.
(Note to Jordanian authors who write in English: I’ve got some registrants in Amman. Just a few more and I will arrange, somehow, to hold a workshop there, too).
You can read more about my qualifications here and join the Facebook conversation about workshops, writing, and literature here.
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Vicky
Awesome. Providing the dates are convenient, I’ll register for the Jerusalem one.
ToivoS
As a tudent of American imperialism I found this statement:
fanned the flames of the revolution that eventually overthrew the Spanish and led to an independent Phillippines
quite jolting if not per se inaccurate. It was the US military that drove out the Spanish in 1898 and they immediately assumed the role as the new colonialist. The Phillippine patriots tried to resist but they could not prevail in the face of the US military — over the next 6 years the US suppressed their resistance and in the process killed about 10% of the population (300,000 dead Phillipeans out of a population of 3 million). Finally the surviving patriots gave up and submitted to US domination.
It took another 50 years before they achieved independence and it was not until the 1980s that American military occupation of that country was lifted.
mya guarnieri
hi vicky, great! regarding the dates, i wanted to start this week, but my registrants are sort of scattered and so i needed to concentrate on getting multiple workshops going. we just need one more in jerusalem to start. if you’ll email me at myaguarnieri(at)gmail(dot)com, i can keep you posted and let you know when we’ll start. best, mya
Blue
Alright dear, you know I fully support you with your workshop idea, and if my time allows, I’ll hopefully attend one! But allow me here to offer some constructive criticism…
The contexts in the Philippines back in 1898 when it declared its independence were fundamentally different than they are in Israel/Palestine today, something your article seems to have ignored!
I too believe in non-fiction, and the power of arts more broadly to shed light on human struggles. Whether in the form of words (spoken or written), theater or motion pictures. I remember hearing the late Juliano Mer Khamis say in an interview ” We believe the third intifada, the coming intifada, should be cultural, with poetry, music, theater and cameras”. I think the work of people like Peter Kosminsky, Annemarie Jacir, Cherien Dabis and others in modern days has had an impact on how people in the West are perceiving this intractable conflict. In the realm of literature, the Palestinians I argue, have produced serious fiction, the work of the late Ghassan Kanafani like Return to Haifa and more recently Raja Shehadeh’s are widely read by people interested in the Palestinian issue. But unlike the Spaniards and Filipinos, Israelis and Palestinians are speaking about two different things when the use the word “occupation”. The Spaniards, I would argue, never called the Philippines Spain, nor did France call Lebanon, Syria, or Francophone Africa France!
To those Israelis who recognize “the occupation”, it’s what was taken on June 5, 1967. To Palestinians, it’s the land from the river to the sea.
The Palestinians have led, I argue, two unsuccessful uprisings “revolutions”, if you will. They did not succeed, not because they lacked the motivation or the momentum, and for the that they need to literature to help them build that “sense of community”, necessary for a successful revolution, but rather due to the aforementioned differences. The Spaniards, the Brits, the French and other colonial powers had countries to go back to after they had pulled out of their former colonies. To Israelis, Israel is a point of no return.
BlUE
Apologies, I meant to say I too believe in fiction, not ‘non-fiction’.
XYZ
Ironic, isn’t it that it was American troops, not Rizal that ended Spanish colonialism in the Phillipines, and it was British troops that ended Ottomon imperialism and which created the independent Arab states that exist today. True, neither the British nor Americans fully intended the outcome, but their essential democratic nature led them to finally leaving the newly independent countries.