Lorena, sino nga ba siya?
- Marry Joy Arminal
- Mar 18, 2017
- 3 min read
Hindi ko inaasahan ang karangalan na ito.
Bakit? Sino ba naman ako para parangalan? Tingin ko noo'y hindi pa ako gaanong nakakapagbigay ng sapat na serbisyong tulad ng ginawa ni Lorena. Pero bago nga ang lahat, sino nga ba si Lorena?
SINO SI LORENA BARROS?
Maria Lorena Barros remains today one of the most well-known heroes of the antidictatorship struggle: a charismatic leader, gifted writer, icon of modern Philippine feminism, the “gentle warrior” who defiantly confronted death at the hands of government soldiers, deep in the forests of the Sierra Madre.
From early childhood, Barros showed keen intelligence, a searching mind and precocious social awareness, nurtured by her mother Alicia Morelos. The latter, granddaughter of a Katipunero and herself a member of the Hukbalahap guerrilla resistance, would become her daughter’s closest friend and confidant.
Earning honors from grade school through college, Barros graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1970 with a degree in anthropology. She started teaching after graduation, while taking up masteral courses at the UP. She was already making a name for herself as a writer, publishing poetry and essays in various publications and eventually being elected president of the UP Writers Club.
By the end of the 1960s, Lorie Barros was being drawn into political activism. She joined exposure trips to the rural areas and immersed herself in the emerging political literature. She organized the all-women Makibaka (Malayang Kilusan ng Bagong Kababaihan) and became its first chairperson. Makibaka chapters quickly spread across the country, in factories, in villages, and even in exclusive girls’ schools.
Yet she was someone who refused to be confined to the stereotypical image of a student activist, or a feminist activist. She did not repress her natural charm and kindheartedness, and she was proud of her long shapely legs.
When President Ferdinand Marcos suspended the writ of habeas corpus in 1971, Barros was one of 63 student leaders charged with subversion. She went underground, married and had a son, all the while keeping up a stream of correspondence with family and friends. She was arrested in Bicol in November 1973, and jailed at Camp Vicente Lim in Laguna, then transferred to Fort Bonifacio’s Ipil Rehabilitation Center from where she escaped one year later with three other political prisoners.
She rejoined the underground, helping to fight what by then had become a full- blown dictatorship. She continued to write poems, songs and essays from the underground. In 1974, the regime announced a P35, 000 reward for her capture.
On March 24, 1976, Barros was seriously wounded in an armed encounter with constabulary soldiers in Cagsiay II, Mauban, Quezon. A companion was killed instantly. Medical treatment was promised by her captors if she would cooperate with them, but she said she would rather die for her beliefs. She was shot in the nape. She was 28 years old.
Lorie Barros was given a heroine’s wake and burial by family and friends.. In a tribute to her courage and principled life, her comrades marched with her coffin singing revolutionary songs, risking arrest themselves. A well-attended necrological service was held at the UP campus.
Ngayon, paano ko nga ba nakamit ang parangal?
Hindi ko din alam? Dahil ba sa tatlo lang ang nominees? O dahil kakilala namin ang mga coordinator? Joke!
Hindi ko pa rin mapagtanto kung bakit kung nakuha ang award, pero patuloy akong nagpapasalamat sa mga taong nasa likod ko bago, habang at matapos kong makamit ang bagong tropeyo ng aking buhay. Pero higit sa lahat, maraming salamat sa Poong Maykapal na siyang nagbibigay ng kalakasan at gabay sa aking buhay.
Maraming dapat na pasalamatan, maraming dapat na sulatan.
Pero isa lang ang aking hiling sa gabing ito, kasama ko sana ang aking Ina sa pagtanggap ng karangalan ngunit dahil sa panghihina dulot ng kanyang sakit hindi siya nakadalo. Salamat kay Tita Claire na sumagot ng tawag ng aking Ina at sinabing umiiyak sa tuwa ang aking Ina dahil may bago nanaman daw akong nakamit. Gustong-gusto niya daw na makapunta kaya lang hindi pwede at hindi na niya kaya.
Umuwi naman akong may saya at ngiti pa rin sa aking mga labi sa kabila ng lahat ng nangyari.
MA, ikaw ang dahilan at magiging patnubay ko sa pagkamit ng mga karangalang tulad nito.
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