FEATURES | Your Children Are Not Your Children: The Family in the Time of Fascism

It is the 1970s and you are acing your science and mathematics subjects. You aim to be a scientist
or a biologist or anything in the field. Your father, almost 7000 miles away, however, has a
different idea. He calls you, says a specific career path would yield more money. You follow this
supposed lucrative career of his, then your sibling, then your children, and then quite possibly,
your children’s children. This tale is not unusual to many in this country, and so the cycle of filial
ownership continues.

In his poem “On Children,” Kahlil Gibran espouses the opposite, “[Children] come through you
but not from you / And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.” During these times
when the prices of commodities, the witch-hunt of activists, and other symptoms of fascism are
breaking families apart, Kara Lenina Taggaoa surfaces the place of children and the complexities
that come with raising them in a fascist political system.

Daughter of Life’s longing for itself

Kara Lenina Taggaoa, Kilusang Mayo Uno’s (KMU) Secretary for International Affairs, is the
daughter of Cordillera activist Jennifer Awingan and faculty unionist Ronald Taggaoa. Due to the
nature of her parents’ work, Kara and her siblings would stay in Innabuyog Gabriela’s daycare
center, along with other children of activists. They were also part of the performing cultural group
Children of Cordillera (CHICO), which exposed them to rallies, out-of-town forums, meetings,
and discussions about Philippine social realities at a young age.

Kara’s childhood contrasts traditional Filipino parenting, whose core is simply imposing authority
and discipline over children, usually through “tough-love” systems of reward and punishment.

Asked if she had ever experienced this feudal parenting style, Kara answered,

“There is no family without existing feudal relations because it is a systemic problem… So there
is no such thing as a perfect family—even those with activist parents.”
Despite the influence of such parenting within her family, she shared that they also had
opportunities for mutual criticism, self-criticism, and change. These manifestations of equality and
partnership, derived from activist collectives, are traditionally absent in other Filipino families—
mirroring centuries of political and economic subjugation. Colonial regimes may have left our
shores, but their legacies—proactively adopted by the local ruling class—remain alive in the
authoritarian and commercial nature of the contemporary Filipino family.

For they have their own thoughts

From the perspective of young activists, Kara’s family dynamics are desirable. She affirmed that
although it is easier to have activist parents, it is not something one should be jealous of because
“being a parent is something that is learned.”

She advised young activists to turn manifestations of backward customs into “points of criticism,”
and initiate proper and persuasive discussions using “gut issues.” She also suggested they “break
the cycle” of feudal parenting by unlearning it early and practicing scientific alternatives.

However, from the perspective of those who do not understand activism, Kara’s family is a societal
nuisance. Online detractors claimed her parents recruited her into activism, blaming them for her
October 2022 arrest over an alleged robbery and assault incident during a July 2020 Anti-
Terrorism Law mobilization.

“I have my own experiences of radicalization. My parents being activists are just additional
conditions but in my own right, by my own education and exploration, I chose to be an activist,”
she asserted.

Unfortunately, misguided views on activism, specifically those held by the family, can translate to
extremes. Such was the case of Anakbayan National Secretary General Alicia Lucena who was
physically and emotionally abused by her mother, Hands of Our Children and League of Filipino
Parents member Relissa, due to her militant affiliations. But hope lies in the dynamic nature of the
family—its entrenched feudal features can be changed by tirelessly creating the necessary
conditions.

For life goes not backward

Online black propaganda against the Taggaoa family is just one of the many forms of harassment
they have experienced through the years. Although shielded by childhood innocence, Kara knew
her parents “were under threat” from the counter-insurgency campaigns of the Macapagal
administration. Her father also endured intimidation under the Aquino administration when he
contested the constitutionality of the K-12 system.

According to Kara, attempts to silence her family worsened since the Duterte administration. In
addition to her October 2022 arraignment, her mother was arrested over charges of rebellion and
insurrection last January 2023. In a press conference about the Northern Luzon 7, the string of
activist arrests Jennifer was part of, Ronald shared that his wife was already under intense
surveillance before the crackdown.

Incessant harassment brought Kara “constant fear” since childhood—fear they continue to
overcome as a family through their tireless assertion of the righteousness of activism. To remain
silent amid injustice is not an option for them.

“Lenin said that despair is typical of those who do not see any way out. For us, it is activism that
shows us the way out and brings us hope…” Kara elaborated.

No longer should the family be a source of contradiction in being an activist, no longer the force
that drives one to drop the placards and the beliefs they carry. Instead, as the smallest unit of
society, it should be a seedbed of changes that will rewrite the tales of filial ownership into those
of emancipation.

In times of fascism—of fear and demoralization—the family has duties to be a perennial source of
refuge, and to be the material reminder of the ultimate question, “If not us, then who?”
Only through the fulfillment of these duties can children freely answer the call of the said
ultimatum.

That is, to be children not of their parents, but of the wider and restless society. To be children
whose place is not in the confines of their schools and homes, but in the people’s struggles. And
to be children conceived by their own theories and practices of the world’s realities—learning not
for learning’s sake, but to be equipped for the challenges of making history and changing society.

Words by Allen John Dela Cruz