“Land is Life”: Reflections on E. San Juan, Jr., Considerations for Filipino Critical Theory, and Notes for Environmental Justice in the United States and the Philippines

Abstract

In this article, I situate E. San Juan, Jr. as a key intellectual figure in the development of Filipino Critical Theory. I explore the ways that San Juan’s interdisciplinary and dialectical analysis of capitalist totality can offer a rich intellectual landscape to address issues of global justice—particularly environmental justice for Filipino/as in the United States and in the Philippines. Building upon San Juan’s rich scholarly archive to analyze the interaction between humans and their environment, this paper foregrounds his contributions for Filipino Critical Theory as an emergent interdisciplinary theoretical framework to reflect upon where Filipino/as have been and put into focus what kind of world they can struggle to create.