Edades: Kites and Visions

The summer of 1928 brought an unprecedented salmon catch, overwhelming cannery workers who toiled on just a few hours of sleep for over four weeks. Bound by contract, they worked relentlessly to preserve the salmon's freshness.

The cannery buzzed with activity, though the exhausted workers moved like automatons, desperate for rest. Inside, machines efficiently processed the fish: decapitated by a guillotine-like tool, the heads swept away by the sea, while the bodies were canned, sealed, and cooked at 200 degrees centigrade.

Above the machinery, a Filipino foreman patrolled a narrow catwalk, sharing the sleepless grind. One day, lulled by exhaustion, he slumped dangerously close to the cutting machine. A cry rang out from below, brutal in its urgency. "You there! For Christ's sake, wake up! " The piercing sound penetrated the consciousness of the man perilously balanced on the catwalk. Henceforth, this man would never permit himself the luxury of being still for long; the penalty of somnolence was very close, very real.

The life that had been spared a mutilating death was that of Victorio C. Edades, whose survival allows this story to be told.

Published in 1980 by New Day Publishers

101 pages / Paperback