MINIATURES

Remembering One Favorite Tagalog Poem Early 1900 Philippine postcard. the ever popular "Sabong" Ang Manok Kong Bulik   ni Jose Corazon de Jesus Linggo ng umaga. Ang nayo'y tahimik, ang maraming dampa'y naro't nakapinid liban na sa ibong maagang umawit ay wala ka man lang marinig sa bukid... Di-kaginsaginsa'y aking naulinig ang pagtitilaok ng manok kong bulik, ako'y napabangon at aking naisip: Pintakasi ngayon! May sabong sa Pasig! Gadali pa halos ang taas ng Araw sa likod ng gintong bundok ng Silangan ay kinuha ko na sa kanyang kulungan ang manok kong bulik na sadyang panlaban... Kay-kisig na bulik! At aking hinusay bawa't balahibong nasira ang hanay, ang palong ay aking hinimas ng laway, binughan ng aso nang upang tumapang! Muling nagtilaok nang napakahaba at saka gumiri nang lalong magara, kumkukutok-kutok pa't kumahig sa lupa, napalatak ako nang hindi kawasa... Ang aking puhunang sampung piso yata'y

The Igorots gained the label "dog eaters" on a global stage when a group of them was presented in a pavilion at the 1904 St. Louis Exposition in Missouri. In a spectacle resembling a giant terrarium, visitors were treated to the live demonstration of dog butchering and dog eating. Some imaginative American writers would later refer to this dog-eating display as the "Bow-Wow Fest." While there were protests from some sectors of the American public, there were also show entrepreneurs who were determined to keep the spectacle going and went to great lengths to supply the Igorots with live dogs. There is also an urban legend suggesting that the famous American food, sausage in a bun, was influenced by what happened in the Philippine pavilion at the St. Louis Expo. Dog eating became a novelty, and enterprising individuals began calling their frankfurter and wienerli in a bun "hotdogs." The "bow-wow" fest was such a significant draw in St. Louis that s

The Philippine revolution, the first of its kind in Asia, opened the floodgates of liberation against Western imperialism. More than physical bondage, it aimed to break the chains of mental captivity. In Rizal's words: "We must win freedom by deserving it, by improving the mind and enhancing the dignity of the individual, loving what is just, good and great, to the point of dying for it. When a people reach these heights . . . the idols and tyrants fall like a house of cards, and freedom shines in the first dawn."  ~ Anwar Ibrahim Rizal - The foremost Malay? Pride of the Malay Race?  L akandula-an artist concept Oddly enough, Rizal's ancestry is a mixture of races. One of his ancestors, on the side of his father, was a Chinese immigrant from Fujian province. Rizal's mother was said to be a descendant of the prehispanic Tagalog/Malay nobility of Manila -- Lakandula. Other Rizal biographers even mentioned Spanish ancestry. Spaniards