Or, when they think you are superannuated, so obsolete and defunct! By “they” I mean not only my grandchildren, grand nieces and nephews, but also my own children, even if they themselves will be senior citizens in less than a decade. I must look rather frail and helpless to them. My son who lives across … Read more
Milonga attracts a lot of attention because her bold markings of orange and black cover her entire back; she looks like an abstract painting when she is asleep, slender body stretched out on a window sill. Once, while waiting for our turn at the vet, a woman (who was also cradling a cat) approached us … Read more
One of the paintings I inherited from my father-in-law, Don Jose Antonio Araneta, depicts the First Mass, but where it was held remains a controversial issue, now heading towards a full-blown legal battle between the contending sides. The date on this oil painting by F. Gonzalez is 1953, foreshadowing the commemoration of the 400 th … Read more
Chapter eight of “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas”, by Dr. Antonio de Morga, is a glimpse of how our ancestors lived before the Spaniards came. Although the book was published 43 years after Miguel Lopez de Legazpi arrived, the friars’ zealous Christianization had not completely erased the customs, values and beliefs of the indio’s “tiempo … Read more
Who was Dr. Antonio de Morga? He was a soldier and a lawyer, an explosive combination, especially if one was also a high-ranking colonial bureaucrat. Antonio de Morga Sanchez Garay was born in 1559 in Sevilla, Spain, 38 years after Magellan was killed by Lapulapu and his men for meddling in the internal affairs of … Read more
How many people read Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere when it was hot off the press? Two thousand copies were printed, a number must have been sold among the Filipino expats and Spanish liberals sympathetic to the cause of indio Filipinos. Rizal sent a copy to Prof. F. Blumentritt whom he had not yet met in … Read more
My younger relatives, sturdy branches of the Rizal genealogical tree, have often asked during family reunions– why Rizal? Why was he singled out? Why was he the only one executed under such dramatic circumstances? He was banished to rot in Dapitan, imprisoned in Montjuich and Fort Santiago, tried by a kangaroo court then killed in … Read more
The first Holy Mass was celebrated not in the Visayas but in Mindanao because that historical event, that first step to staking territory in the name of God and King occurred not in Limasawa which is part of the Visayas, but in Butuan (Mazaua) situated in northern Mindanao. Please do not think that I am … Read more
Like it or not, believe it or not, Cuba and Venezuela are forging ahead of us in this battle against COVID 19 and its deadlier mutations. At this writing, a first case of the dreaded UK variant was reported in Pasay city, which makes one wonder if there are many more undetected ones. Then to … Read more
Historically speaking, Cuba is our sister republic, both of us were colonies of Spain and launched our anti-colonial movements at the same time. In fact, Jose Rizal and Antonio Luna wrote to each other about the Cuban revolution; Rizal observed that the Cayo Hueso (Key West) was where the Cuban revolutionaries would regroup. From Dapitan, … Read more