Mendiola Narratives: Memories of Mobilizations and Confrontations with the State

In this research, a biography of a site and a collection of narratives of social movement actors serve as the infrastructure of social memory. This research surfaces and records in audiovisual format the personal narratives of those who were once witnesses and participants to protest actions in Mendiola. Mendiola is the name of the street that leads directly to the Malacañang Palace, the seat of the Philippine presidency. Since the 1960s, Mendiola continues to be the foremost site of physical confrontation between social movement actors waging protests and the state. Generations of social movement actors have braved bullets and barricades in the street of Mendiola just to be able to put forward their grievances within shouting distance of the Philippine president. Mendiola then is a palimpsest on which many stories and deeds of activism, of the Filipinos untiring quest for justice, have been inscribed─some of which in blood. It is the task of this research to encourage social movement actors to articulate their stories of Mendiola. The proposed research makes visible their refusal to forget the injustices suffered by the Filipinos at the hand of their own government and the resolute stance that the Filipinos have taken to speak truth to power.

View and read the narratives here: http://mendiolanarratives.blogspot.com/