During February 1986, a grassroots revolution overthrew the fourteen-year dictatorship of former president Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. In this book, Jose V. Fuentecilla describes how Filipino exiles and immigrants in the United States played a crucial role in this victory, acting as the overseas arm of the opposition to help return their country to democracy. A member of one of the major U.S.-based anti-Marcos movements, Fuentecilla tells the story of how small groups of Filipino exiles--short on resources and shunned by some of their compatriots--arrived and survived in the United States during the 1970s, overcame fear, apathy, and personal differences to form opposition organizations after Marcos's imposition of martial law, and learned to lobby the U.S. government during the Cold War. In the process, he draws from multiple hours of interviews with the principal activists, personal files of resistance leaders, and U.S. government records revealing the surveillance of the resistance by pro-Marcos White House administrations. The first full-length book to detail the history of U.S.-based opposition to the Marcos regime, Fighting from a Distance provides valuable lessons on how to persevere against a well-entrenched opponent.
Fighting from a Distance was an interesting and informative read. I knew the basics of what happened during the Marcos era (late 1960s - early 1980s about) but what was really interesting about this book was how it focuses on the activists working from outside of the Philippines. I appreciated how the author broke down the movement thematically as opposed to chronological (the historian in me usually prefers the latter) because it helped me understand the different aspects of the movement.
My complete review of the title was originally posted at eclectictales.com: http://www.eclectictales.com/blog/2013/06/28/review-fighting-from-a-distance/
