Awaiting Trespass

LINDA TY-CASPER is an acclaimed and revered Filipino writer, author of over a dozen works of fiction, stories and poetry, who became a writer almost by accident. Born as Belinda Ty in Malabon, Philippines in 1931, she studied law with honors at the University of the Philippines and then was chosen to study for a Masters degree in International Law at Harvard University, graduating in the mid-1950s. After completing her studies in Boston and uncertain what to do next, she wandered into the university library and began reading what she could find on Philippine history. She was so disturbed by the inaccuracies and distorted portrayals of her people that she vowed to write a book to give a truer picture, and she continues actively writing to this day. Ty-Casper's work, which she writes in English, has been favorably compared with key Filipino writers like José Rizal (who wrote in Spanish at the end of the 19th century), Carlos Bulosan (who wrote in English in the 1940s), as well as Nick Joaquin (who wrote in English in the 1960s). Her excellent summary of Filipino writing in America in the 20th century up to the present (in Our Own Voice, 2005) gives a reason: "English was the language of instruction in [Filipino] schools from the time American teachers first arrived in the islands on the SS Thomas in 1898."