Juanita Cruz : a novel / Magdalena Gonzaga Jalandoni ; translated by Ofelia Ledesma Jalandoni.

Text in English.

Translation of: Juanita Cruz : nobela.

It is in Juanita Cruz, her most mature novel, that Magdalena G. Jalandoni professed her beliefs about life, nationalism, and humanism. She recognized the power of love - that love with faith, loyalty, and hopecan create freedom that can change life in society and in a country. Love is indeed a subject of universal interest, celebrated in Juanita Cruz. Jalandoni believed that love needs freedom for the lovers to be happy and to create what is good and right, not only for themselves, but also for their nation and countrymen. Thus, it is not merely love between man and woman, no matter how pure and complete, that Jalandoni was celebrating. Although they were already blissfully married and wealthy and highly respected by society, Nita and Ely felt that their happiness was not yet complete because their beloved country had not yet been liberated from poverty and oppression from the foreign colonial rulers. This is why the couple joined the Katipunan that was organized by Andres Bonifacio. They donated a great part of their wealth to the Revolution of 1896. In the end, Ely even offered his life in the battlefield for his country's freedom. The story is told through the panuguiron, a method of narration in Hiligaynon fiction by which a central consciousness that may be supplemented by other narrators tells the story in the first person. The author integrates panuguiron with dramatized narrativization to structure the architectonics of the novel, thereby showing Jalandoni's skill in narrative art. This is why during her heyday before the war, her novels were awaited with excitement and, in our language today, were best-sellers.