Bulalakaw ng Pag-asa

When a swaggering American newcomer assaults a Filipino shopkeeper who refuses him credit, and the police only watch, nineteen-year-old Gerardo steps in. The fight sets him on a course of love for the gentle Eling and of defiance toward the bullies, local bosses and foreign masters of his country. A fiery patriotic novel from the first decade of American rule.

Summary written with Claude Opus 5.5.