Foe of Marcoses’ attempt to return to power will speak in Seattle and San Francisco

Susan Quimpo, co-author of Subversive Lives will speak in Seattle and San Francisco. INQUIRER FILE

SAN FRANCISCO — Susan F. Quimpo co-editor and co-author of the book, Subversive Lives: A Family Memoir of the Marcos Years will be speaking in Seattle and San Francisco to mark the 31st anniversary of the People Power uprising and to warn against the Marcoses’ attempt to return to power.

Quimpo will be speaking in Seattle:

• University of Washington event cosponsored by UW Filipino American Student Association, UW Dept of History, Southeast Asian Studies Center, Comparative history of Ideas; on Tuesday, Feb. 21, Communications Building Room 226 – University of Washington, 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.
• Presentation and Bookreading, Wednesday, Feb. 22, at Filipino Community Center (Seattle) 5740 MLK, Jr. Way South, 6:00 – 7:40 p.m.
• Talk and bookreading Thursday, Feb . 23, at The Flaming Eggplant Cafe, CAB 302, The Evergreen State College (Olympia, WA) 4:00 p.m.

In San Francisco:

• Presentation hosted by Filipino American Human Rights Alliance, Saturday, Feb. 25, United Methodist Church in Daly City, 1474 Southgate Avenue, Daly City 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

From the 1960s to the 1990s, seven members of the Quimpo family dedicated themselves to the anti-Marcos resistance in the Philippines, sometimes at profound personal cost. This book is a family memoir of that period.

Subversive Lives (published by Ohio University Press, 2016) won the Filipino Readers’ Choice Awards for Essay Anthology in 2013, was short-listed for the National Book Award (2013), and a nominee for the Manila Critic’s Circle’s Coyiuto Prize for Biography (2014).  Susan has also received a special citation from the Catholic Mass Media Awards (2016).

Never again

In late 2015, when Quimpo learned that Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, the son of the dictator, was vying for the vice presidency, she became a proponent for the campaign against martial law historical revisionism.

Quimpo spearheaded an effort to reach high schools and universities all over the Philippines to speak to students and young voters about the martial law years under Marcos. She fundraised for the creation of videos exposing the lies of the Marcoses and used these in the social media campaigns.

When the Marcos clan, backed by President Duterte, pushed for a hero’s burial for the dictator, Susan helped organize the movement that brought various anti-Marcos groups together to stop the burial.

Knowing that the Marcoses will again make a bid for the presidency in 2022, Susan continues working on projects and campaigns to inform the youth and would-be voters about the Marcoses and martial law history.