University of Hawai'i at Manoa

SEMINAR-LECTURE

Capturing the Huk Amazon:
Battles over Representations of the Filipina Warrior

by Vina Lanzona

About the Lecture:

In the 1940s and 1950s, at the height of the peasant-based Huk rebellion in the Philippines, major newspapers reported the capture of "Huk Amazons" on an almost daily basis. Virginia was a gun-totting college student captured during military operations against the Huks; Liwayway was a former beauty pageant winner who swore to the authorities that she was "merely the wife" of a Huk commander. All of these Huk women were indiscriminately labeled as "Amazons" in the press and in the popular imagination. But what did the term actually mean in the context of the Huk rebellion, and more generally, in Philippine revolutionary history? My talk explores the contested representations of these Filipina women warriors.

About the Speaker:

Vina Lanzona is an assistant professor in Philippine and Southeast Asian History at the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She is currently completing her book on the issues of gender and sexuality in the Huk rebellion in the Philippines.

The lecture is free and open to the public. For disability access, and for more information, please contact the Center for Philippine Studies at (808) 956-6086, email us at cps@hawaii.edu OR contact the Department of History at (808) 956-6769.

This lecture is sponsored by the UH Department of History and the Center for Philippine Studies. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Date and Venue:Friday, April 29, 2005
12:00 - 1:30 PM
Sakamaki Hall A201

[ Close window to return to previous page ]