The radical transgender and the struggle for national democracy in in Ricky Lee's si Amapola sa 65 na kabanata
This essay analyzes the representation of transgenderism in Ricky Lee's Tagalog-language novel Si Amapola sa 65 na Kabanata (Amapola in 65 Chapters). By situating the novel against the heteronormative operations of the nation-state, the analysis investigates how Amapola's transformation from a politically apathetic comedy bar performer to an aswang (viscera-stucker) who is desrined to save the nation semantically radicalizes the image of transgenderism through the dynamics of revolutionary subjectification. This investigation then inserts Amapola's transgenderism into the Filipiino history - from the babaylan-led anti-colonial peasant movements during the Spanish and American colonial periods to the contemporary national democratic movement led by the Communist Party of the Philippines.