Aimee Jurado
In Yen Le Espiritu’s book chapter, she opens with this quote by Nguyên-Vo Thu Huong:
“It should not surprise anyone that Vietnamese Americans would want to remember amidst all that forgetting. One does not become recognizably human until one acts in one’s history. And for that, one needs to have history.”
Espiritu’s book chapter explores Vietnamese refugee narratives, remembrance, and internet memorials to “challenge dominant U.S. representations of the war as being contained within a specific timeframe, particularly as being ‘over and done with.’ As Stephen Whitfield notes, war has a geopolitical and a social temporality: even when war has ended in the geopolitical dimension, it has not necessarily done so in the social dimension” (Espiritu, 18). Ultimately, Espiritu asks: “when does war end and who gets to decide?” (Espiritu, 19).
I use these questions Espiritu asks in her text as a framework to analyze Nick Joaquin’s short story, “Guardia de Honor.” In the story, Joaquin uses haunting themes and metaphors to suggest that traumas, like dual-colonization enacted in the Philippines, never truly end. In this paper, I closely read events of Joaquin’s story that demonstrate this argument and, as Nguyên-Vo Thu Huong writes, the experience of living one’s history. Lastly, I put myself and other scholars in conversation with Joaquin to break down the complex beginnings and endings of trauma.
Joaquin’s text begins with Natalia Godoy getting ready for the procession with the other “Guardias de Honor” on the feast to the Virgin. On the day of the procession, Natalia’s father gifts her a pair of emerald earrings. This is also the day Natalia is supposed to choose the man she wants to marry, and that man will escort her to the parade. Natalia chooses Mario, but decides to be escorted by Esteban, to make up for the fact that he was not chosen.
Happening on the same day but in the future, Josie, Natalia’s great, great granddaughter, is also getting ready for the same parade and is putting on the earrings passed down from Natalia, except Josie only has one of the earrings. We learn from Josie’s mother that the reason there’s only one earring is because on the day of the procession, Natalia’s carriage crashed, killing her aunt and the man escorting her. Natalia survives the crash unharmed, only losing an earring.
Throughout the story, Joaquin places heavy emphasis on the notion of choice and perhaps the false sense of choice that Filipinos have over their lives. The first choice Natalia makes is that she wants to marry Mario. Despite choosing Mario, Natalia wants to escort Esteban in the parade, as to make up for not marrying him. Natalia’s ability to choose faces resistance when Josie, her relative from the future, reveals her tragic fate if she rides with Esteban. Upset and confused by Josie’s proclamation, Natalia says:
“I mean to keep both of these [earrings]”
“There is nothing you can do!” gasped Josie, clasping her hands. “I know the fate that awaits you!”
“My aunt Elisa. She is in love too - with Andong Ferrero. And she is not going to die, Josie!”
“But how can you stop something that has happened already?” (119)
There are many interesting things happening here, specifically the way Joaquin uses italics to further emphasize the lack of choice Natalia has over her fate but also how badly she wants to fight it. Juxtaposing Natalia’s determining tone is Josie’s acceptance of this fate, which is intensified by knowing that Natalia’s fate ultimately seals Josie’s. Worth noting is the last line of this passage, where in all italics Joaquin brings special attention to Josie’s question, “But how can you stop something that has happened already?” In line with themes of beginnings and endings, Joaquin challenges the idea of an “end,” suggesting that trauma’s timeline is not linear - that for the effects of colonization to end one must stop colonization that has already happened and that continues to happen.
In an attempt to change her fate, Natalia quickly changes her mind of who she will ride with to the procession. Doing so, she thinks, will ensure that she and her aunt are not in the carriage with Esteban and it won’t crash. Seeing that Natalia is able to make this choice, Josie also feels encouraged to take her fate in her own hands, as she knows that her fate is tied to Natalia’s. Their plans fail however, when Mario questions Natalia’s ability to choose, angering Natalia and causing her to ride with Esteban out of spite, fulfilling her prophecy. Josie tries to communicate with her mother and have an honest moment with her, but they end up fighting when her mother pushes Josie into making “right” choices, this ultimately fulfills Josie’s prophecy of leaving her broken family.
Joaquin uses many metaphors and symbols to say that the effects of colonization are unending and that Filipinos only have a false sense of choice. In Natalia’s story, there is an emphasis on control and Natalia wanting to prove that she has control over her own life. This represents American thought and belief brought by American colonization. In Josie’s story, there is an emphasis on making the “right” choices, and that everyone has the power to make “right” choices. This represents Spanish colonization and Christian belief. This turn of events demonstrates Joaquin’s argument that choice, especially for Filipinos, is complicated and hinges on their past and how that history is affecting their present, suggesting that the future is not ours to dictate or imagine.
Joaquin ends the story by saying:
And yes! [my own daughter] should wear that earring as a trophy, as a trophy of battle… a Guard of Honor indeed, a warrior scarred but unconquered - for the Fates had won nothing from her save an earring. Tonight she would walk hieratic among hieratic women - women equally scarred and equally jeweled. (Joaquin, 130)
The earring that remains symbolizes strength that Fililpinos, especially Filipino women, have despite all that is and was out of their control. It is also representative of all that is passed down to future generations: both strength and pain. While the idea of colonization unending is certainly a grim thought, Joaquin offers here a counter thought, suggesting that while “fate,” or the effects of colonization, may have a role in Natalia’s life, it “had won nothing from her, save an earring.”
Moving towards a conclusion to this paper, my goal isn’t to define what marks the ending of trauma, but instead to suggest that Joaquin and Espiritu point towards very real ways in which traumas like war and colonization have “ended” for some and continue for others. As Espiritu notes, the continuation of war may not appear in the physical act of war but instead through tangible, social consequences. Joaquin imagines ways to recognize these ghosts, presenting them as both metaphorical specters of the Philippines and also literal, tangible, inescapable pressures brought by colonization. How, then, can we recognize this unending without: 1) suggesting that these oppressed groups will be unending victims and 2) adopt an apocalyptic mentality towards decolonization?
To think through these questions, I gravitate towards scholars like Yen Espiritu, Candace Fujikane, Stacey Alex and others who reject Western-serving racial scripts and instead center marginalized stories as sites for knowledge, focusing on abundance versus scarcity in trauma studies. With that said, I entertain a version of unendings where trauma doesn’t lock its victims in a loop but instead performs similarly to a scar on the body, forever leaving a mark without limiting the body's potential. As Joaquin phrased it, “a warrior scarred but unconquered”. Placing these texts in conversation with each other, my goal is to encourage further thinking around the ending of trauma and what this ending, or unending, may look like.
Works Referenced
Espiritu, Yên Lê. “Vietnamese Refugees and Internet Memorials: When Does War End and Who Gets to Decide?” Looking Back on the Vietnam War. Ithaca, NY: Rutgers University Press, 2019. 18–33. Web.
Joaquin, Nick, Gina Apostol, and Vicente L Rafael. The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic. East Rutherford: Penguin Publishing Group, 2017. Print.
Biography
Aimee Jurado is a 2nd year, literature PhD student at University of California San Diego and a proud CSUF alumna. Her research revolves around trauma studies, fiction, multicultural and Asian-American narratives, exploring not only the ways trauma exists, but how affected communities persist and continue through stories and mutual aid.
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