Surviving ‘Dekada ’70’

There are long periods in history when all we can do is nourish a tiny spark. And that spark may look hopeless in comparison to the cold and the dark all around us. But nourishing the spark, against all odds, keeps our spirit alive and gives our lives meaning. When the time comes, the igniting of many sparks gives history a meaning. – Bill Cane

History may start in a longer or shorter span, but what is important is how it affects us. It has its way of making people the way they are. It carries its own quantum flow of energy and each one of us passes through it at one time or another. This energy flows through us and in us, and moves us as circumstances lead us.

When I first got to read this novel during my third year in high school, I asked myself whether or not Dekada ’70 was just another chronicle of events of the 1970s as the title implies. True enough it was. However, the novel was more than just that. It’s a story about a family and how the transpiring events of the decade changed their lives.

Although Dekada ’70 is not as socially striking as Amado V. Hernandez’s Mga Ibong Mandaragit, or as politically captivating as Jose Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, it projected a story to awaken the Filipino’s zealous spirit. It may not be as feminist as Bata, Bata, Paano Ka Ginawa, yet it also focuses on a woman – a mother – who was caught in the wrath of the times. Dekada ’70 is a mixture of themes to raise social consciousness, political awareness and a dash of feminist heart. This mixture gives a redefined flavor that distinguishes itself from others.

Lualhati Bautista, the author of this Palanca-award-winning novel, gives us a redefined flavor – that socio-political feminist theme – for Dekada ’70, which should make anyone read it over and over again. In the novel, she mixes history with fiction, thus she is able to channel in her characters’ metamorphoses a clear picture of reality.

The characters in Dekada ’70 are a reflection of every Filipino. Sometimes, I see many of the Filipinos in the shoes of Julian Bartolome, feudal and at times chauvinistic yet inside him is a soft heart and a great love for his family. Many Filipino children, on the other hand, are like Jules, Gani, Em, Jason, or Bingo – all of them academically gifted, extracurricularly active and charming. Though they are all this, the children are resilient through the raging circumstances, which in one way or the other affected their family bonding.

Dekada ’70 is a story from Amanda Bartolome’s point of view. Amanda is more than just a mom of five children. She was brought up in the "Victorian" way. She is the epitome of every Filipina who transforms herself from being naive to being dynamic. Inside her heart is a mother, a fighter and an independent woman.

Amanda is also a wife, a mother-in-law, a grandmother and a friend. Her persona aids us to better understand that women will play different roles in the course of history. Sometimes I think that many women – many mothers – are just like Amanda. Though they have tied themselves in domestic chores, taking care of the children and serving the needs of their husbands, they transform themselves into women who insist on having a say in decision-making.

If there was something I learned from the character of Amanda, it’s that women were not made to be subordinates of men’s desires but to be partners – working hand-in-hand to improve their family’s lives. This is the same issue being pushed by many women around the globe: equality.

However, the story does not only focus on motherhood or gender-equality but also on the social influences of the times. It tells us that both mothers and the society have the same role in developing the youth to become better citizens. Hence, we can see that even history has changed society by widening each one’s perspective in life. The changes in culture and ideologies during this decade moved the social thinking, molding the citizens like the way we are at present.

I came to realize that history breathes life to any social structure; ergo, nurturing the minds of every progeny. Although Dekada ’70 shows us that we are living in a society that has been sustaining us and at the same time killing us, there is still that picture of hope. This hope breathes optimism into us makes us see clearly what lies ahead.

Each one of us has a story to tell. All we need to do is to reorient our thoughts and refrain from stereotyping. With this, we are able to draft a new story as it becomes our own history.

Though the ’70s are now a thing of the past, I still believe, just like Amanda, that many Filipinos will raise thier voices and fight to be truly free. The martial law regime may be gone, but as Amanda said, the battle is still here. We need to safeguard this democracy so that there will be no more Jasons brutally murdered, or Jules politically detained, or Julians and Amandas hurting for the loss of their children.

This tells us that history is not just a chronicle of events written in paper but a cycle that pushes us forward to share all the knowledge we gained through it and transform us into better individuals. This history is reality. This reality is the story projected in Dekada ’70. It teaches us, touches us, and transforms us.