History Literature / WithoutSeeingTheDawn

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Any formal religious rituals depicted are, of course, Catholic, though it's often heavily syncretised with practices left over from the precolonial past, such as the reliance on {{Witch Doctor}}s to cure illnesses believed to be caused by local spirits. A village priest marries Carding and Lucing, and the couple later mourn their first child with a typically rural-Catholic wake (which nevertheless allows for the guests to celebrate and hold festivities). They also have their second child baptised with a big and joyful fiesta in Calinog town.

* DaChief: Teniente Paul, Lucing's father and thus Carding's father-in-law, is the headman of Manhayang.

* OldMaid: Inday Picat, the village gossip.

* LatinLand: A milder case of this than most, but it is full of [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholics]] with Hispanic full names[[note]]the noted exception being Teniente ''Paul'', Lucing's dad, implying he was so named by American authorities, whether it's his legal name or nickname—but even it is a Catholic/Christian name, of course[[/note]], feudal labour on vast ''haciendas'' (plantations), and abusive landlords (with actual Spanish blood to boot!).

* LatinLand: A milder case of this than most, but it is full of [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholics]] with Hispanic full names,[[note]]the noted exception being Teniente ''Paul'', Lucing's dad, implying he was so named by American authorities, whether it's his legal name or nickname—but even it is a Catholic/Christian name, of course[[/note]], feudal labour on vast ''haciendas'' (plantations), and abusive landlords (with actual Spanish blood to boot!).

* LatinLand: A milder case of this than most, but it is full of [[ChristianityIsCatholic Catholics]] with Hispanic full names, feudal labour on vast ''haciendas'' (plantations), and abusive landlords (with actual Spanish blood to boot!).

-->"Where there is smoke there is fire. People shall not pass me in the streets and say, 'Look, there goes Paul, father of an adulteress.'"

* HonorRelatedAbuse: Teniente Paul, Lucing's father and village chief of Manhayang, was on the verge of literally ''murdering'' Lucing upon suspicion that she slept with Luis Castro. Only her mother manages to stop him from acting upon that sudden burst of insane rage—and even then, he settles for smacking Lucing viciously and denying her and Carding any share in his land while he's alive.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Any formal religious rituals depicted are, of course, Catholic, though it's often heavily syncretised with practices left over from the precolonial past, such as the reliance on {{Witch Doctor}}s to cure illnesses believed to be caused by local spirits. A village priest marries Carding and Lucing, and the couple later mourn their first child with a typically rural-Catholic wake (which nevertheless allows for the guests to celebrate and hold festivities).

* TheOldestProfession: Rosing. Not quite explicitly, because her actual job description is "taxi-dancer" (i.e., she dances at a cabaret with paying customers), but otherwise she fits all the markers.

* HereditaryRepublic: Technically a "Hereditary Colony/Commonwealth" at this point, but the Calinog arc features a municipal councillor serving at the same time as his mayor father. Not a bit out of place for a colony (and later country) which the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago (herself a fellow Iloilo native) succinctly called the "political dynasty capital ''of the world''".

* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: When Carding beats up Luis Castro for getting handsy with Lucing, his father Tatay Juan frets about possibly getting Carding a lawyer in case he gets charged with assault. Tatay Marcelo quickly disabuses him that it's next to useless: Don Diego, Luis' father ''and'' the owner of the land the entire village is tilling, is wealthy enough to hire the best attorneys in the land, and whatever legal defence Carding can get, it will be quickly and mercilessly shot down.

A 1947 English-language novel by Filipino author Stevan Javellana focusing mainly on the lives of a farming community in rural Iloilo province, working on a rice plantation owned by a powerful absentee landlord, in the late U.S. colonial era and just before the outbreak of WorldWarII. The novel crosses over into wartime and depicts every grisly detail of the sudden Japanese occupation, and how ruthlessly it distorts and destroys the lives of all those involved.

* HereditaryRepublic: The Calinog arc features a municipal councillor serving at the same time as his mayor father. Not a bit out of place for a colony (and later country) which the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago (herself a fellow Iloilo native) succinctly called the "political dynasty capital ''of the world''".

* ContemplativeBoss: After Señor Dorado (see CorruptBureaucrat below) orders Tatay Juan to turn over his rice land to his neighbour Tatay Emil, Tatay Juan begins to protest or question the order, but Dorado ignores him, goes over to his window and stares out wordlessly.

* DashingHispanic: Luis Castro, though he doesn't see much of any real fighting action unlike most instances of this trope—the one fight he gets into is with Carding, for his drunken attempts on Lucing. No swordplay's involved, either—it's a pure fistfight, and in this the incredibly strong Carding easily wipes the floor with his ass.

--->-- Elias, in Charles Derbyshire's ''Noli'' translation, 1912
** It's not just that; Lucing's second son Crisostomo is—in-universe—named after Crisostomo Ibarra, the ''Noli'''s protagonist. A mini-discussion of the book features during the child's baptism where his parents, and half the town of Calinog, decide on a name.