Social Realism in the Philippines
by Alice Guillermo

Cover of Social Realism in the Philippines

Written by Alice Guillermo, this book gives an overview of Social Realism in the Philippines, and studies the works of nine artists representing the movement: Pablo Bean Santos, Orlando Castillo, Papo de Asis, Antipas Delotavo, Neil Doloricon, Edgar Fernandez, Renato Habulan, Al Manrique, and Jose Tence Ruiz.

“Guillermo identifies Social Realism as an extension of the nationalist struggle that began in the 19th century with Rizal and other ilustrado expatriates,and traces it in the prewar proletarian literature of Manuel Arguilla, Carlos Bulosan and Hernando R. Ocampo, and the postwar PAG modernist movement, the agitprop of the First Quarter Storm, and the birth of Kaisahan in 1977, a group of young artists that coined the name “social realism.”