My Sad Republic

My Sad Republic is a novel that blends fact and fiction based on events in Philippine history that occurred in Negros approximately from 1880 through 1911. It is a novel that features the failed romantic aspirations and nationalistic yearnings of Dionisio Magbuela. Magbuela aspires to bring the Philippines back to its pre-colonial status, a country that was never colonized by foreigners. Magbuela, as the Pope of Negros who is the "Supreme Power of God's Republic",[1] wanted to give Negros back to the Negrenses (also known as Negrosanons), the native inhabitants and land-tillers of Negros.[2]

As a romance novel, My Sad Republic, narrates the love triangle that occurred between Dionisio Magbuela, Asunción de Urquiza, and Tomas Agustin. Because of Magbuela's reputation as a healer and mystic, Magbuela is hired by Doña Madrigal as a resident plantation worker—a sugar cane cutter[1]—who was given access to the mansion by Doña Madrigal. Magbuela meets Asuncion and courts her. Asuncion is falling for Magbuela's affection but Tomas Agustin—the landowning mestizo[1]—rapes Asuncion, resulting to her pregnancy. Asuncion marries Agustin because of the pregnancy. Asuncion gives birth to a son, a boy named Felipe. After the defeat of the Spaniards during the Philippine Revolution, Magbuela and his followers' triumph was short-lived because of the arrival of the Americans, the new colonizers of the Philippines. Magbuela and his fellow revolutionaries are now confronted with two enemies—the Americans and the Filipino landowners (locally known as the hacenderos, meaning "ranch owners"), who are willing to collaborate with the Americans for their interests and benefit.[2] Tomas Agustin becomes a General, who—together with other landowners—wanted the island of Negros to be separated from the rest of the Philippine archipelago to become a territory of the United States and be known as the Cantonal Republic of Negros.[1]

According to literary critic Vicente G. Groyon III, one of the most salient scenes in My Sad Republic is when Magbuela finds a copy of the Declaration of Independence of the United States through a Spanish friar, making Magbuela believe that the American occupiers will comprehend the reasons why he is fighting for the Negros Island's and the Philippines' own independence.[2]

In My Sad Republic, Gamalinda incorporated the genre of erotica such as what Angela Stuart-Santiago described as a "dash of friar erotica" (also known as "priest erotica") witnessed during the diminishing decades of the rule of the Spanish friars in the Philippines.[1] Gamalinda described the love scene between a Spanish parish priest nicknamed Padre Batchoy and a native lass as if the friar was inserting a sacred host into the lips of a native girl's sex organ. There was another love scene—during a secret rendezvous between the novel's hero Magbuela and his beloved De Urquiza—wherein (according to Stuart-Santiago) De Urquiza did a "strange thing", lifting her a head a little to give Magbuela a prolonged bite on the hard and firm muscle located above Magbuela's collarbone, as if De Urquiza wanted to remain forever connected to Magbuela's body.[1]