Gemma Cruz Araneta | LANDSCAPE

The first electoral law of the Spanish Empire, contained in the Decree of 29 January 1810, called for representatives from Las Islas Filipinas, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Chile, Venezuela, in short, from all of Spain’s colonies in America and Asia to join the Cortés, that is, the Spanish parliament.  The Philippine representative was Don Ventura … Read more

Who was Pi y Margall?  There is a street in Sampaloc named after him and when last I saw the sign,  the name was misspelled. Not even the City Administrator could tell whether Margall  was a famous or an obscure Spanish colonial official, or someone’s birth place in a god-forsaken corner of Spain. None of … Read more

A UP professor friend sent me a photo of a burly band of youngish males, properly protected with surgical masks and face shields posing in front of the Maginhawa community pantry after depositing donations in kind. They were wearing tees of various colors and designs, with a single blaring message —Sara Duterte.  On the heels … Read more

I am convinced that the policeman who first set his eyes on that community pantry in Quezon City must be afflicted with terminal dyslexia. Upon seeing a handwritten sign saying “community pantry” he read “communist party” and was alarmed at the audacity of that leftist anti-government group to set up shop on Maginhawa street, a … Read more

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