Dalawang Magbubukid is a Tagalog translation of Errico Malatesta’s classic pamphlet, Fra Contadini or as it is known in English, Between Peasants. Fra Contadini is a dialogue between two farmers on anarchism and anarcho-communism.
A Spanish translation of Fra Contadini translated as Entre Campesinos was brought to the Philippines by Isabelo de los Reyes, often known as the first Filipino socialist. de los Reyes used the principles of Entre Campesinos and another book about Marx to set up the Union Obrera Democratica (UOD) in 1902. The UOD is known as the very first Filipino labor federation.
The Spanish copy of Fra Contadini, known as Entre Campesinos was translated by Arturo Soriano to Tagalog, translating under the pseudonym “Kabisang Tales” (Kabisang Tales was a character from Jose Rizal’s widely popular second novel El Filibusterismo). The translated title Dalawang Magbubukid literally means “Two Rural Folk.” Dalawang Magbubukid was published by Limbagang Tagumpay in 1913.
Dalawang Magbubukid is the first (and quite possibly the only) book on anarchism in Tagalog from the American colonial period. The copy of Dalawang Magbubukid attached herein was scanned from the University of Santo Tomas Miguel de Benavides Library.
You may download the text scanned as-is here. A somewhat cleaned scan is available here. You may read this in English translated as Between Peasants at The Anarchist Library.
The Bandilang Itim collective is still in the process of converting the text to a more readable format. We will update this page when it is available.
