Lost memories and the magical realism of the komiks

Filipino comics are known as komiks, and their authors are called komikeros. Born at the beginning of the twentieth century, the komiks reflect the complex and tormented historical events of the country: from the cultural contaminations due to the different colonialisms —first the Spanish one, then the American one and finally the Japanese one — to the profound desire to preserve and defend their roots.

Even today, the world of komiks is extremely lively and creative. Jericho Marte and Paolo Herras will tell you about it, who will present the absolute preview at Romics of the volume Ricordi perduti (published by Toshokan) — a poetic and historical work, imbued with magical realism.

The protagonist of the story is the elderly Grasya, who inherited a singular power from the last priestess of her lineage: the ability to erase people's memories. But what happens to his memories? It is precisely through them that the reader is transported back in time, in the midst of the colonization of the Philippines by Spain, the United States and Japan. Grasya teaches us that forgetting the past can be dangerous, but remembering it is still painful. However, recovering lost memories is crucial: without them, we risk becoming strangers in our own land.