For over three decades—from the late 1930s to the early 1970s—the Lava brothers exerted a seminal influence on the Philippine Left. Three of the six brothers served as general secretaries of the Communist Party, demonstrating the efficacy of the old Filipino mix of blood and politics - even, and interestingly, in the context of a Marxist revolutionary movement. This excerpt from a new and forthcoming biography of the Lavas traces the development of the family's intellectual traditions and follows each brother's life as a person and partisan.