Historical Violence and the Child: Normalcy and Familial Relations in Children’s Books on the Marcos Dictatorship

The Marcos dictatorship remains a contested period in Philippine history. Children’s books on this period of martial law narrate how children confronted the violence that disrupted their families. Using Clémentine Beauvais’ concept of the “mighty child,” I analyze the depiction of politicized children in Augie Rivera’s Isang Harding Papel (A garden of flowers) (2014) and Si Jhun-Jhun, Noong Bago Ideklara ang Batas Militar (Jhun-Jhun before the declaration of martial law) (2001) and Sandra Nicole Roldan’s At the School Gate (2018). I interrogate how the child protagonists established normalcy and exercised their agency during the dictatorship. I also examine the adult-child relations that could affect such politicization. By defining normalcy and structuring their lives, these children from activist families maintained order despite the political chaos. However, in some of the texts the adult characters are passive and evade discussion of the causes of violence. Hence, the characters’ familial problems are not elevated to the country’s struggle. Rather than the characters confronting the structural defects that give rise to despotic governments, these familial problems are resolved with the downfall of the Marcos dictatorship, with the celebratory narrative of the 1986 People Power Revolution undermining both the characters’ and the people’s agency. This study is important since children’s books may mediate a remembrance of the past, especially for the generation with no memories of the period.