The novels of Azucena Grajo Uranza.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Elmer A. Ordonez

IN 1982, taking a month off from self-exile abroad, I met A. G. Uranza and her family and learned that she was writing a novel about martial law-a subject which writers then had to approach with care unless one would like to risk censure or proscription. Even the historian Teodoro Agoncillo prudently avoided writing about the period while the dictator was still in power.

By early 1985, I saw the typescript of the novel with the arresting title "Bamboo in the Wind," but did not have a chance to read through it until after the Edsa uprising. The author asked my help in getting it published.

I realized then that the novel could not have been published during martial law, for it is a searing indictment of the Marcos regime. If it were published somehow before Edsa, …