Reading Guide: Memory and Trauma

Collective Memory:

“Mandarawak” by Marjorie Evasco 

  1. What is the role of material culture in remembering the past? 
  2. This story presents textiles as a central motif. How do visuals help us to understand our past? 
  3. How do textiles empower women in history? Cite an example from the text. 

“Drowning” by M. Evelina Galang

  1. According to Galang, what is the connection between legacy and memory? What does it mean to “free” them?
  2. Lourdes’ death was a public spectacle, published in newspapers and the subject of town gossip. How do the memories of Lourdes become collective? How is this harmful and/or beneficial? 
  3. How do Lourdes’ belongings influence how the family, especially the narrator, mourn and eventually celebrate Lourdes’ life? How do people become embodied by the things they left behind? How do trivial objects gain meaning after death; how do they become alive? 
  4. How does death cause memory to become collective? (Use the quote: “In death, she lives with us the way she never could in life. An angel shifting among us, she lays her hands on our shoulders at dinner, slips into our beds and naps next to us, visits our thoughts, our nightmares. She has become a fairy of sorts, playing favorites with Mom, Dad or Riza or sometimes me.” to guide the conversation?) How are memory and idealism connected? 

“Broken English” by Fatima Lim-Wilson

  1. How does Lim-Wilson describe her complicated “parentage”? Why would we describe the Philippines’ historical past in terms of “parentage”, i.e. “they are all my mothers”? 
  2. What implications does the designation of “father” have when the speaker admits that “Magellan, Hirohito, MacArthur, and Ferdinand” are all her fathers? What does this say about how Filipinos view family? 
  3. What allusions are there to a “distant past” in the poem?
  4. How does language explain memory, i.e. tales in Spanish and vernacular languages?

Trauma of the Present:

“Slave Woman of Tarlac, Tarlac” by Fatima Lim

  1. How does the text provide us with insight into the LEP? How are Filipinos treated abroad?
  2. How does the narrator’s partner manage her trauma? How does this affect the relationship and her outlook? 
  3. The poem focuses on the sexual abuse of an Overseas Worker. How does Lim use poetry to inform and spark political change? 

Memory of the Obsolete: 

“Gypsies in My World” by Norma O. Miraflor

  1. What are the perceptions of the “obsolete” in this story? How does the “obsolete” drive the plot?  
  2. How do the obsolete, nostalgia, and memory interact with one another in the story? 
  3. How does the narrator attempt to hold onto the past? How does this bring her trauma? Is she right or wrong for wanting to preserve the past? 
  4. What is the relationship between Edwina and Miranda? Why does Miranda truly dislike Edwina? How does this play into the theme of the obsolete? (Use the quote: “She hung the portrait above her study desk. Miranda claimed the woman in the picture was her mother. It was around this time that she ran away again, taking along my mother’s satin gown and pearls. She went to Hong Kong” as a guide for discussion.) 
  5. What other themes do you observe in the story?
  6. What remnants of colonialism do you see? How do they capture the attitude of a collective, “glamorous” past in the Philippines?
  7. What do Miranda and Edwina each represent? 

Spatial Memory: 

“For the Women” by Dawn Bohulano Mabalon

  1. How does Mabalon describe her immigration journey and expectations? How does she utilize perspective to tell her own story and that of other women (as a collective)? 
  2. Filipino-Americans are frequently taught that the Philippines is worse off than the United States. In what sense does Mabalon disprove this claim? Do you think that the “better/worse” dynamic is a way of coping with spatial memory?
  3. What effect does the “here/there” dynamic between the U.S. and the Philippines lend to the poem’s effectiveness in showcasing the injustices that women face throughout history?
Thematic Questions:
1) How does subaltern literature approach memory? 
2) What types of memories do the stories explore?