Ninotchka Rosca

Last updated

Ninotchka Rosca (born 17 December 1946,[ citation needed ] in the Philippines [1] ) is a Filipina feminist, author, journalist, and human rights activist. [2] [3] [4] [5] best known for her 1988 novel State of War and for her activism, especially during the Martial Law dictatorship of former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos. [2] [6] Rosca has been described as "one of the major players in the saga of Filipina American writers." [7]

Contents

Rosca was a recipient of the American Book Award in 1993 for her novel Twice Blessed . [8]

She is active in AF3IRM , the Mariposa Center for Change, [9] Sisterhood is Global [10] and the initiating committee of the Mariposa Alliance (Ma-Al), a multi-racial, multi-ethnic women's activist center for understanding the intersectionality of class, race and gender oppression, toward a more comprehensive practice of women's liberation. [11]

Biography

Education and early career

Rosca received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English (Comparative Literature) at the University of the Philippines Diliman, and became a journalist working for various Philippine publications after she graduated. She was taking up Asian Studies (Khmer Civilization) for her graduate studies at the time she had to leave the Philippines because of the Marcos Dictatorship. [1]

Imprisonment and exile during Martial Law

Rosca was one of many Philippine journalists who became political prisoners under the dictatorial government of Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. She was detained for six months, and was interrogated several times before her release. On getting out of prison, she took a job with an investment company in Manila while raising funds to help people hide from Marcos' security forces. When she received a tip that she was about to be arrested a second time, she sought help from a cultural attache at the U.S. Embassy, who helped Rosca get out of the Philippines by getting her into an international writers program in the United States. [2]

While in exile, Rosca was designated as one of the 12 Asian-American Women of Hope by the Bread and Roses Cultural Project. These women were chosen by scholars and community leaders for their courage, compassion, and commitment in helping to shape society. They are considered role models for young people of color, who, in the words of Gloria Steinem, "have been denied the knowledge that greatness looks like them. [6]

In 1986 she returned to the Philippines to report on the final days of Marcos. [6]

Later activism

Rosca has worked with Amnesty International and the PEN American Center. Rosca was also a founder and the first national chair of the GABNet, the largest and only US-Philippines women's solidarity mass organization, which has evolved into AF3IRM. She is the international spokesperson of GABNet's Purple Rose Campaign against the trafficking of women, with an emphasis on Filipinas.

She was at the United Nations' Fourth World Conference on Women which took place in Beijing, China, and at the UN's World Conference on Human Rights in Vienna, Austria. At the latter, she drafted the Survivors Statement, signed by four Nobel Prize winners and hundreds of former prisoners of conscience. This statement first applied the phrase "modern-day slavery" to the traffic of women. It was in Vienna as well where the slogan "women's rights are human rights" gained international prominence; Rosca had brought it from the Philippine women's movement and helped launch it internationally.

Rosca was press secretary of the Hague International Women's Tribunal on Japan's World War II Military Sex Slavery which convicted Japan's wartime era leadership for creating and using the Comfort Women. Rosca is particularly concerned with the origins of women's oppression and the interface between class, race, and gender exploitation so that women can move toward greater theory building and practice of a comprehensive genuine women's liberation. She often speaks on such issues as sex tourism, trafficking, the mail-order bride industry, and violence against women, and the labor export component of globalization under imperialism.

Personal life

She lives in the neighborhood of Jackson Heights, Queens in New York City. Her lecture schedules are managed by Speak Out Now. A huge fan of science fiction, Rosca reads four books a week (three "light," one "heavy").

Works

Novels

Nonfiction

Story Collections

Reception and recognition

Rosca's novel "State of War" is considered a classic account of ordinary people's dictatorship. Her second best-selling English language novel Twice Blessed won her the 1993 American Book Award for excellence in literature. [15]

Rosca is a classic short story writer. Her story "Epidemic" was included in the 1986 "100 Short Stories in the United States by Raymond Carver and in the Missouri Review collection of their Best Published Stories in 25 Years, while "Sugar & Salt" was included in the Ms Magazines Best Fiction in 30 Years. [15]

See also

Related Research Articles

Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through its colonial legacies, and on to the present.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jose Maria Sison</span> Filipino Maoist leader (1939–2022)

Jose Maria Canlas Sison, also known as Joma, was a Filipino writer, poet, and activist who founded and led the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and added elements of Maoism to its philosophy—which would be known as National Democracy. His ideology was formed by applying Marxism–Leninism–Maoism to the history and circumstances of the Philippines.

Ilocano literature or Iloko literature pertains to the literary works of writers of Ilocano ancestry regardless of the language used - be it Ilocano, English, Spanish or other foreign and Philippine languages. For writers of the Ilocano language, the terms "Iloko" and "Ilocano" are different. Arbitrarily, "Iloko" is the language while "Ilocano" refers to the people or the ethnicity of the people who speak the Iloko language. This distinction of terms however is impractical since a lot of native Ilocanos interchange them practically.

<i>Philippine Collegian</i> Student newspaper of the University of the Philippines Diliman

The Philippine Collegian is the official weekly student publication of the University of the Philippines Diliman. It is also commonly known to the university's students as Kulê. It is known for its radical, national democratic, often anti-administration views, and gives critical views on the policies of the UP administration and the Philippine government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cecilia Manguerra Brainard</span> American novelist

Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an author and editor of 20 books. She co-founded PAWWA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; and also founded Philippine American Literary House. Brainard's works include the World War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, and Woman With Horns and Other Stories. She edited several anthologies including Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and two volumes of Growing Up Filipino I and II, books used by educators.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paz Márquez-Benítez</span> Filipino writer (1894–1983)

Paz Márquez-Benítez was a Filipino short-story writer, educator and editor. Her career as a woman educator as well as her contributions as a writer are seen as an important step within the advancement of women in professional careers as well as in the development of Philippine literature. She was also a beauty queen.

Azucena Grajo Uranza is a Filipino novelist, short story writer, and playwright in the English language.

Angela Manalang-Gloria (1907–1995) was a Filipina poet who wrote in English.

<i>Ermita</i> (novel) 1988 novel by F. Sionil José

Ermita: A Filipino Novel is a novel by the known Filipino author F. Sionil Jose written in the English language. A chapter of this novel was previously published as a novella in the books titled Two Filipino Women and Three Filipino Women.

Filipino women writers have played important roles within Philippine literature, with Philippine women having created enduring works of fiction and non-fiction across the genres. Writing in English, Spanish, Filipino and other local languages and native dialects, female writers from the Philippine archipelago utilized literature, in contrast with the oral tradition of the past, as the living voices of their personal experiences, thoughts, consciousness, concepts of themselves, society, politics, Philippine and world history. They employed the "power of the pen" and the printed word in order to shatter the so-called "Great Grand Silence of the Centuries" of Filipino female members, participants, and contributors to the progress and development of the Philippine Republic, and consequently the rest of the world. Filipino women authors have "put pen to paper" to present, express, and describe their own image and culture to the world, as they see themselves.

<i>State of War</i> (novel) Book by Ninotchka Rosca

State of War, also known as State of War: A Novel, is the first novel written in 1988 by American Book Award recipient and Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It was described as a political novel that recreated the diverse culture of the Philippines through the presentation of an allegorical Philippine history.

<i>Twice Blessed</i> 1992 novel by Ninotchka Rosca

Twice Blessed, also known as Twice Blessed: A Novel, is a 1992 novel written by Filipino author Ninotchka Rosca. It won the 1993 American Book Award for “excellence in literature”. It is one of Rosca’s novels that recreated the diversity of Filipino culture. Apart from tracing back Philippine History, Rosca also portrayed contemporary Philippine politics, delicate events, and cultural preferences through the novel.

National Democracy (ND) or the national democratic left, known colloquially as NatDem, is a political ideology and movement in the Philippines that aims to establish a people's democracy in the country. With the Communist Party of the Philippines as the vanguard party, the movement seeks to address what it deems to be the "root causes of social injustices affecting the Filipino masses" in what is analyzed to be a "semi-colonial and semi-feudal society", by confronting the "three fundamental problems" of imperialism, feudalism, and "bureaucrat capitalism".

M. Evelina Galang is an American novelist, short story writer, editor, essayist, educator, and activist of Filipina descent. Her novel One Tribe won the AWP Novel of the Year Prize in 2004.

Imelda Cajipe-Endaya is a Filipino visual artist, curator, author, activist, and community leader. She is known for her printmaking, painting, mixed-media art, and installation art. She is also an author of various texts and books, as well as the co-founder of Kasibulan, an artist collective in the Philippines. She also initiated the Pananaw, of which she was the first editor. Cajipe-Endaya has become a main figure Filipino feminist and national liberation movements and Philippine art. Her advocacy of women centers around Philippine history and culture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Fox</span> Australian religious Sister of Sion

Patricia Fox is an Australian religious, a member of the Congregation of Our Lady of Sion. She is known for her ejection from the Philippines by president Rodrigo Duterte. Prior to this, she was the National Coordinator of the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines.

Felicita "Fely" Villasin was a Philippine-born activist most notable in her part in the anti-Marcos movement and domestic workers' rights advocacy.

Lilia Quindoza Santiago was a writer and academic in the Philippines. She was named Makata ng Taon, "Poet of the Year," in 1989, and wrote the prize-winning novel Ang Kaulayaw ng Agila. Her academic work focused on languages of the Philippines as well as gender and sexuality studies, and her scholarly publications included the seminal 2002 anthology Sa Ngalan ng Ina : 100 Years of Philippine Feminist Poetry, 1889-1989.

Annalisa Enrile is a Filipina-American clinical associate professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. Her work focuses on combatting sex trafficking, interpersonal violence, and exploitative migrant labor. She is the President of the Los Angeles based non-profit Mariposa Center for Change. The Filipina Women’s Network named Enrile as one of the 100 Most Influential Filipina Women in the World (Global100) for her advocacy for the Filipino-American community. Her work has also been published in several peer-reviewed journals, including Pediatrics, Amerasia Journal the Global Studies Journal, and the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

References

  1. 1 2 "Twice Blessed A Novel | University of the Philippines Press" . Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  2. 1 2 3 SIPCHEN, BOB (8 July 1998). "Novelist 'Celebrates' the Painful Absurdities of Life in Her Native Philippines". Los Angeles Times.
  3. Nicolas, Jino (3 March 2016). "Rosca on reading, writing, and revolution" . Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  4. De Vera, Ruel S. (19 April 2020). "The dark geography of Ninotchka Rosca's 'Bitter Country'" . Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  5. http://www.philpost.com/0800pages/yuson0800.html "Ninotchka Rosca: I'm Still Very Filipino" by Alfred A. Yuson, Literature & Culture, Philippine Post Magazine
  6. 1 2 3 Ninotchka Rosca Biography
  7. Davis, Rocío G. (1999). "Postcolonial Visions and Immigrant Longings: Ninotchka Rosca's Versions of the Philippines". World Literature Today . 73 (1): 62–70. doi:10.2307/40154476. ISSN   0196-3570. JSTOR   40154476.
  8. (...) "American Book Award winning novelist, Ninotchka Rosca" (...), Amazon
  9. "Mariposa Center for Change". Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2020.
  10. [http: www.sigi.org]
  11. from Ninotchka Rosca
  12. Remoto, Danton (21 March 2020). "Stories of a bitter country". The Philippine Star . Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  13. David, Joel (22 February 2013). "High five for Ninotchka Rosca's new novel 'Gang of Five'". GMA News and Public Affairs. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  14. Domini, John (1 January 1984). "Exile and Detention". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 September 2017.
  15. 1 2 ""Ninotchka Rosca: Women's Rights are Human Rights" Biography and Booking Information SpeakOutNow.org, date retrieved: 27 May 2007". Archived from the original on 12 September 2005. Retrieved 14 January 2006.