Down from the Hill

Recent times have seen a worldwide human urge to remember and speak about even the most painful moments of authoritarian regimes, using the memory process for both healing and learning. In this first book on the Ateneo de Manila during martial law, we re-live memories of the university from 1972 to 1982, shedding light on what used to be whispered stories of campus subversion and student arrests. The essays in this book deal with the student movement in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and then with actions, conflicts, and unities within the school. Subsequent chapters cover student publications, organizations, and ideological involvements. Other sections of the book highlight the participation of faculty, administration, social development professionals, and the Jesuit community in university activism. The last chapter serves as an epilogue, linking the deepening social involvement of the Ateneo of the 1970s with the political struggles of the early 1980s. The book also contains vignettes from former students, faculty, administrators, professionals and Jesuits who write about their memories of the period. Some relevant documents which are cited in the book and mark the era, but which are often difficult to access, have also been assembled as appendices.