Sylvia Mendez Ventura

You may think of Andres Bonifacio as a bolo-wielding figure, rallying his comrades to battle. Or you may have joined the popular debate over who deserves to be the national hero--is it Jose Rizal, the well-to-do doctor who sought peaceful reforms with Mother Spain? Or does the honor belong to Bonifacio, Tondo's native son, who believed that only an armed revolt against colonial tyranny would set his country free? Unlike Rizal, who left behind volumes of correspondence, Bonifacio wrote little and lost most of his possessions in a fire. Even the whereabouts of his remains are unknown. Through exhaustive research, Sylvia Mendez Ventura has pieced together the largely undocumented life of Bonifacio -- from his humble roots to his tragic execution at the hands of his own Katipunero brothers. Ms. Ventura's sweeping biography and Egai Ventura's dramatic sketches transport readers to one of the most pivotal and blood-stained chapters in Philippine history. "Let us reach out... to embrace the sons of our Nation, that together, with all our might we may shout, "Long Live the Sovreign People of the Philippines" -- Andres Bonifacio… (meer)