Notes on Hand of the Enemy
Hand of the Enemy – Kerima Polotan
Intro
Kerima Polotan – Electra complex
8 children
Prizes
Free Press short story (1 1st prize, 1 3rd prize) – twice
Palanca prize (4 1st prizes, 1 2nd prize) – five times
Father was a constabulary soldier, from private, became lieutenant
Met first wife in Jolo when stationed there
Wife was Boholana
Kin to Garcias of Talibon
So Kerima may have been related to Carlos P. Garcia
Born in Jolo, named Putli Kerima – Princess Kerima
Moved to Pangasinan in 1920s during Colorum uprisings, then Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Laguna, Tarlac
Classmate of Juan Tuvera in 5h grade
They weren’t friends or romances or anything, but Tuvera remembers her not wearing shoes
She says she never wore shoes until she married
She was extremely lazy as a child
Hated sewing, housework, feminine tasks
Loved reading: Zane Grey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Bertha Clay especially (because she was taboo, so she read her in the bathroom)
Didn’t go to movies until she could earn on her own and pay for her own admission
When her father remarried, Kerima wasn’t taken along to the movies with them
Post war, she worked at Manila Chronicle as a proofreader
Tuvera submitted stories there, she had a crush on his friend and later had a crush on him
Her father died after she married Tuvera
Her father retired in Bicolandia, trying to heal the rift between him and Kerima, but when she got to him he was already dead
Kerima’s art springs from the wound of his death and their lack of reconciliation
She felt that maybe she had failed him and not the other way around
Private grief had become literature
The Polotan heroine is a lonely, embittered, unsatisfied woman who craves to be loved but sees in the hand of the one loved, the hand of the enemy
Later, when she finished her book, there was a dinner held in her honor
She said she had a sprained ankle and went out with her husband instead to a Dewey Boulevard restaurant
Joaquin says that by not going to the
Intro
Kerima Polotan – Electra complex
8 children
Prizes
Free Press short story (1 1st prize, 1 3rd prize) – twice
Palanca prize (4 1st prizes, 1 2nd prize) – five times
Father was a constabulary soldier, from private, became lieutenant
Met first wife in Jolo when stationed there
Wife was Boholana
Kin to Garcias of Talibon
So Kerima may have been related to Carlos P. Garcia
Born in Jolo, named Putli Kerima – Princess Kerima
Moved to Pangasinan in 1920s during Colorum uprisings, then Nueva Ecija, Rizal, Laguna, Tarlac
Classmate of Juan Tuvera in 5h grade
They weren’t friends or romances or anything, but Tuvera remembers her not wearing shoes
She says she never wore shoes until she married
She was extremely lazy as a child
Hated sewing, housework, feminine tasks
Loved reading: Zane Grey, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Bertha Clay especially (because she was taboo, so she read her in the bathroom)
Didn’t go to movies until she could earn on her own and pay for her own admission
When her father remarried, Kerima wasn’t taken along to the movies with them
Post war, she worked at Manila Chronicle as a proofreader
Tuvera submitted stories there, she had a crush on his friend and later had a crush on him
Her father died after she married Tuvera
Her father retired in Bicolandia, trying to heal the rift between him and Kerima, but when she got to him he was already dead
Kerima’s art springs from the wound of his death and their lack of reconciliation
She felt that maybe she had failed him and not the other way around
Private grief had become literature
The Polotan heroine is a lonely, embittered, unsatisfied woman who craves to be loved but sees in the hand of the one loved, the hand of the enemy
Later, when she finished her book, there was a dinner held in her honor
She said she had a sprained ankle and went out with her husband instead to a Dewey Boulevard restaurant
Joaquin says that by not going to the