Fortress in the Plaza, Revised Edition by Linda Ty-Casper
Fortress in the Plaza, Revised Edition
by Linda Ty-Casper
PALH 2026, 186 pages
ISBN: 978-1-953716-58-3
Written by noted Filipino writer, Linda Ty-Casper, Fortress in the Plaza, Revised Edition
is a historical novella that takes place in six days in August 1971 in Manila.
At this time resistance against Ferdinand Marcos Sr.'s autocratic government is
growing. The Marcos government is clamping down; the people are resisting;
there are battles between soldiers and students at rallies as in the Mendiola
Massacre. Assassinations or disappearances of politicians, journalists, and
others become increasingly rampant.
In the midst of this tense situation, Miguel Honorio, a
politician from the small place or San Ildefonso receives a death threat and he
seeks refuge in his mother's house in Manila. There he joins three generations
of relatives who live in the house on Anloague Street. Through these characters
and their friends, the readers experience how life was like during those
horrific years, and how they coped.
With this framework, Linda Ty-Casper brings in flashbacks to
Spanish, American, and Japanese times in the Philippines, which expand the
horizon of the novella beyond the narrow focus of a single political event, the
August 21, 1971 Plaza Miranda Bombing. Instigated by Ferdinand Marcos Sr., this
event led to his declaration of martial law, his entrenchment as the
Philippines' dictator, and increased political violence in the Philippines.
This revised edition includes analysis about the novella and
Linda Ty-Casper's fiction.
Ty-Casper has authored over 20 books and is a leading Filipino novelist. Her character-driven novels, considered classics, allow readers to experience key moments of Philippines history.
*
PRAISE:
Philippine History under Linda Ty-Casper’s pen
breathes life to unique tales of Filipinos in chronicled events that forms a
nation’s saga. Fortress in the Plaza, Revised Edition is one such story
where characters during the martial law era live through the struggles against
a society where resilience and the will to survive become challenged amidst
social chaos and the increasing odds of becoming victims of a growing
despotism. ~Jose Victor Z. Torres, Historian and Playwright
In Fortress in
the Plaza, Revised Edition
history enters quietly at first: through capiz windows, old staircases, family
photographs, rain, and the uneasy quiet of an ancestral house. Linda Ty-Casper
gathers one family into the shadow of a nation about to break, showing how fear
settles in rooms long before it detonates in public squares. The violence here
is intimate as much as political -- a grenade, yes, but also a memory, an
inheritance, a child’s bewildered witness to the failures of the grown world.
Beautiful, solemn, and unsparing, it turns one country’s darkness into a study
of the fragile human soul.
Hope Sabanpan-Yu
Director, USC Cebuano
Studies Center
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Philippine History under Linda Ty-Casper’s pen breathes life to unique tales of Filipinos in chronicled events that forms a nation’s saga. Fortress in the Plaza, Revised Edition is one such story where characters during the martial law era live through the struggles against a society where resilience and the will to survive become challenged amidst social chaos and the increasing odds of becoming victims of a growing despotism.
Jose Victor Z. Torres
Historian and Playwright
*
Linda Ty-Casper is an excellent
chronicler of our collective history and keeper of our memory as a people,
first-rate storyteller, fine poet/symbolist, sterling social realist: all
these of her make Fortress in the Plaza potent. Quietly
crackling on mind and soul, the novel shows how, the historical socio-political
tension of the six days leading to the Plaza Miranda Bombing of August 1971,
influences the actions and decisions of the Honorio family.
Karina Africa Bolasco
Book Publishing Consultant
Main Page
About PALH
Author Bios
A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition by Linda Ty-Casper
Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories by Veronica Montes
Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America Ed by Brainard
Fiction by Filipinos in America Ed by Brainard
Fortress in the Plaza, Revised edition by Linda Ty-Casper
Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition by Cecilia Brainard
Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults Ed by Brainard
Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults Ed by Brainard
Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, Ed Edmundo Litton
Lives Remembered, A Memoir by Linda Ty-Casper