TATA SELO

In Rogelio R. Sikat’s story, TATA SELO, a peasant murdered his oppressive landlord, and an investigation of the crime reveals that he killed not only to protest his eviction from the land he has been tilling but mainly to avenge the dishonor the landlord had brought upon his family by sexually violating his teenage daughter who worked as a maidservant in the landlord’s home.

I feel sad for Tata Selo and at the same time angered because of what he experienced. He just wanted to get back the land he had mortgaged to Kabesang Tano but Kabesang Tano is pushing him away because he is too old and he’s saying that Tata Selo can’t work anymore. And the conversation of Kabesang Tano and Tata Selo turns into anger and it comes to the point that Kabesang Tano is already hurting Tata Selo that’s why Tata Selo has murdered Kabesang Tano.

This fiction is based on reality and the reality that it present is the recycle of injustices. It has the typical, murder, rape, poor vs. rich, and physical assaults of old men piled to create a dramatic and cryptic piece of fiction story that everyone can sympathize to because it is a representation of possible and realistic tragedies that even you and I can experience at present.

As a young person, All I can do to Tata’s Selo is to cheer him up and tell him to always think positive and everything is gonna be alright soon. While I am reading the story, I’ve been thinking about what will happen to Tata Selo after he murdered Kabesang Tano. I also wonder if Tata Selo will still be free from his imprisonment.