The Firewalkers

by Erwin E. Castillo

Set in 1913, The Firewalkers follows police sergeant Gabriel Diego in the hard-bitten mountain town of Lakambaga, Cavite. Silver-spurred Americans and their new rule of law bristle against the fading glory of Gabriel Diego’s blood uncles, old generals spurned by Emilio Aguinaldo during the Philippine-American War. Meanwhile, a monster leaves behind mangled corpses of children as the cowboy Apache Kid searches the town for the remote memories of something else more magical.

Following this startling work of historical fiction made of magic and woodsmoke, Erwin E. Castillo finishes with “The Watch of La Diane,” a seductive companion story that follows two young lovers traveling across 1970s America. In a new preface for this edition, Castillo writes, “events of our interesting times, public as well as precious, were grist for these intertwined narratives that hoped to confront the present with amuletic relics of an invented past.”

Genres: Fiction

152 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Born on 29 September 1944, Erwin E. Castillo first studied in public schools, then attended U.P., and, on a U.S. State department scholarship, the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He is now in semi-retirement after spending almost 40 years in professional communications, although he continues to sit on the board of the companies he founded. He also actively consults with personal clients in business, sports and politics.

Erwin E. Castillo first began publishing stories, and later, poems in the old Philippines Free Press when he was literary editor of the Collegian. Since then, his works have been published and anthologized here, in Europe and in the United States. he has won a few prizes such as the Free Press, Palanca, Leader, Tagayan, and the ASEAN, which was the forerunner of the SEAWrite Prize.

Reviews

[Prex Ybasco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Several thoughts while reading this:
*I might not have been equipped enough to understand this 'high literature' or
*The plot of the first story is something I can truly appreciate; the ending was a masterpiece; BUT HELL, how the work was littered with descriptive phrases seemingly lifted from classic novels was off-putting.
*The second story was an attempt on stream of consciousness.
*It would have been better if I hadn't tried finishing the book.

[nadine · Rating 2 out of 5]

im so cooked dawg wdym i have to analyze this novel for class U COULD HOLD A GUN TO MY HEAD AND I STILL COULDNT TELL U WHAT TF HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK

my beef w this book:
- there r Too Many Ways to refer to each and every character that are Not Explained Well
- i feel like im missing A LOT of context (but ok sure my fault for not knowing ig esp considering im filipino)
- what da fak . there r Two (2) named women in the entire novel and both of them have no actual relevance to the plot, have sex scenes, and are OBJECTIFIED IN EVERY SCENE THEYRE IN istg this book cant have a woman in the scene without going "she breasted boobily"

redeeming qualities:
- premise is SO JNTERESTING i just wish i understood the novel more :(

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simon Stack was right. This is a good book. A bit on the macho side, though. Even the front blurb by Nick Joaquin sounds macho, and the story is dominated by men. I once chucked a book in mid-read, something I rarely do, because I found it too much the man's book. But this has so much more heart, history, and story to it than Catch-22!

* There is a second, much shorter story in the book, The Watch of La Diane. Is it prose meant to be read as poetry? It is readable, but undecipherable.

[Decolonize D Native · Rating 1 out of 5]

skip the second story

[Rexy]

Read this for academic purposes.

-Reminiscent of a fairytale and serves as counter-memory against American discourse
-Narrated American atrocities
-Contains elements of magic and lore

[Gabriela Francisco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Castillo’s pen sings, his verse-like sentences conjuring the scent of burnt human fat dripping on cooked potatoes; evoking the spectacle of a time when the Americans sought to bring us Filipinos to heel, benevolence yet to come and violence dispersed in the name of controlling rebellion. This is no romantic traipsing through memory, but a bloody resurrection of things nearly forgotten: of aging heroes reduced to petty bureaucrats doing the American’s dirty work, disguised as public service; of the slow moral decay of the greedy generation that emerged after heroes, and “the conflagration they sparked but could not in the end command.”

Read the rest of the review at https://exlibrisphilippines.com/2025/...

[Kyle Bartolabac · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final section alone is worth the price of admission: grand, striking, cathartic.

The inclusion of The Watch of La Diane elevates this edition of the book to near-perfect status.