MINIATURES

Breakfast And Remembrance. Pasig City. 24. December 2021   Last night, we found ourselves watching a pirated version of the latest Spider-Man movie, No Way Home (sorry, couldn't wait). As the movie wrapped up, the final scenes unfolded with the hero frolicking in the snow—Christmas had come. It struck me: how many unforgettable stories and movies have been set during this magical season? One of the first that comes to mind is Charles Dickens’ timeless tale of the rich yet miserly Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. There’s also E.T.A. Hoffmann's The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, immortalized by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his ballet The Nutcracker Suite. During high school, we read O. Henry’s short stories, and The Gift of the Magi always stood out as a favorite.  There are movies and stories we often would like to associate with this great time of the year. Jose Rizal has the last chapters of the Noli set in Christmastime, but what Rizal did was to make it quasi tragic, s...

  Our lotto aficionado of 1892 bought a kind of lotto ticket similar to this -- the Spanish lottery in the Philippines. He won second prize. I just superimposed the real winning number combination 9736. Perhaps this was how it looks like. And yet I still feel one number is missing. The winner was actually not a freeman that time. He was exiled to a coastal barrio in Dapitan, Mindanao guarded by colonial authorities. The ticket actually won P20,000 (Quite a lot during that time). It is said, that Jose Rizal had to share it with his jailer Captain Ricardo Canicero who happened to own half of the ticket. With the P6,000 price money, he bought some hectares of land, enough to allow him to live a life of quiet and prosperous isolation. I wonder what numerologists would have come up with if the rest of the story says, the winner ended up losing everything. What is this ancient lore of numbers that "mystic" like him has a way of manipulating it for their advantage? Pasig City Decemb...

Excerpts From Jose Rizal's "Letter to the Young Women of Malolos." "When a mother handed the shield to her son as he was marching to battle, she said nothing to him but this: “Return with it, or on it,” which meant, come back victorious or dead, because it was customary with the routed warrior to throw away his shield, while the dead warrior was carried home on his shield. A mother received word that her son had been killed in battle and the army routed. She did not say a word but expressed her thankfulness that her son had been saved from disgrace. However, when her son returned alive, the mother put on mourning. One of the mothers who went out to meet the warriors returning from battle was told by one that her three sons had fallen. I do not ask you that, said the mother, but whether we have been victorious or not. We have been victorious – answered the warrior. If that is so, then let us thank God, and she went to the temple." "A Spartan Woman Giving...

The photo highlights the tomb of Sultan Bolkiah, the 5th Sultan of Brunei, who reigned, 1485-1524. He was also believed to be the legendary Malay figure known as "Nahkoda Ragam" (the Captain of the ship). Perhaps a form of reverence to him who extended the sultanate's territories and influence beyond Borneo. Much of the early history of Brunei and its ruler are still shrouded in obscurity. The Brunei "Silah-Silah" (Tarsilah) would have only mentioned names and figures of rulers, often leaving their marks and even achievements in speculations-- Its Historiography, wanting. Borneo came to the direct interest of the Portuguese, after their conquest of Melaka in 1511. Incredibly, the Luções merchants (natives of Luzon) living in Melaka, who sail to Brunei to do trade, were mentioned by the Portuguese Captain General of Melaka Rui de Brito Patalim in a letter to Alfonso de Albuquerque, 1514. A couple of years later, Portuguese writer-apothecary, Tome Pires wrote a...

A makeshift "karihan" using a low table called "dulang". Photographed in Manila 1908 Did the so-called Spanish "urbanidad" plus this onslaught of Americanization end our old Tagalog tradition of dining on low tables called dulang? The Japanese had their low tables called "chabudai" and the Koreans, their "soban", which incidentally are still featured in many of their traditional homes. But I don't see the dulang now even in old Filipino homes, I also wonder if we have this old culture of making one. I guess there was none. Antonio Pigafetta gave us some commentaries on the table manners of the early Cebuanos-- That dining tradition of seating on cane mats crossed legs, obviously with food spread on big native mats or low tables. He did mention that they had such a good meal. Eating in a karihan (detail) by  Jose Honorato Lozano (1815-1885) So since time immemorial, early inhabitants of our archipelago were never into high dining...

  This volume brings memories of a long train ride -- The uncomfortable seat, the ripped pages, the farthing of a co-passenger, and the many swirling-turbulent thoughts that came while reading the book. Yes, it left deep impressions, the torment of wanting to confront the author. etc. In this story cycle, Pramoedya Ananta Toer introduced a character named "Minke", a young Javanese, descended from the native nobility. He reminded one of Rizal's Ibarra or even of Jose Rizal himself, the youthful native romanticist nurtured in both the native tradition and that of the West-- if l may say the "educated" of the colony with innate sophistication. The author conducted us into the life inside the colonial society of the then Dutch East Indies (Indonesia), unmasking its uniqueness and complexities. After three decades of Indonesian independence, a native author had put the country to open discussion to the world stage, right under the nose of a repressive regime -- Su...

T he Philippine Exposition of Madrid-1887 was the brainchild of Victor Balaguer, Spanish Minister of Overseas Colonies (Ministerio de Ultramar), who one-time championed Filipino representation in the Spanish "Cortes'. It highlighted not only native Filipino talents in arts, native handicrafts, flora, and fauna but it also presented other Pacific Islanders who were colonies of Spain. (Chamorros, Micronesians, etc.) One feature of the exposition was the presentation of natives in giant pavilions, like big terrariums. The public could actually view or even interact with the scenes inside these enclosures as the daily lives and activities of the poor natives are being played out -- In truth, it was nothing but a human zoo. Illustration print of the "Palacio Cristal" in the Parque del Retiro, Madrid, the building where the main presentations of the Philippine Exposition were held. One of its trivial attractions was the bamboo bridge in front of the palace. Inaugurat...

  Chances are if one hasn't been in the 1970s, there is a big possibility that one might conclude the photo was taken a few years ago. Nope, the image is more than 40 years old. The most striking in the scene perhaps are the sidewalks, gutters as we know them, our only connection to foot travel in the Metro -- And they haven't really changed. But lo, I must say the street sweeper takes center stage right away. Don't you think so? Aling Otik? Who remembers Aling Otik? That comic strip character of a "Mangwawalis"- Whose true essence, many say is masked in that perfumed term "Metro Manila Aide", a regime trying to put all the dirt under the carpet. I remember its creator Nonoy Marcelo whom I felt struggled to put his social critique in those strips. Often becoming too ironic. But I like it. Remember the motto, Metro Manila City of Man? Once a storm with names such as: Cedeng, Ebeng, Asing, Kading whatever raged for days, roads were devastated-- Metro Ma...

 French comic series called "Vigor", published by Artima (France).  Last weekend, I spent two quiet evenings with my boys watching the Netflix anime series “Trese”. We finished all six episodes but now and then I have to do some explanation as the boys wanted more backgrounders on the featured Filipino mythological creatures. Once my youngest had to click the “pause” button laughing at me and saying how my explanation had become too academic ( way too “Austronesian” perhaps) especially when I mentioned the connection of the “Tianak” to the Malay folklore “pontianak”. In the end, they had to calm me down: “Dad manood ka na lang” The Netflix anime series reminded me of the art of "komiks" and the culture it spawned in the Filipino consciousness. Somehow I recall my elementary days when you have to fight your way in a group of classmates who were crowding around reading a DC Comics. We used to do science experiments at school with the aide of comic strips. I still reme...

Not many Pasiguenos  still remember the once vibrant duck industry of Pasig. Perhaps others,  like the younger generation, don't even have an idea about it. In a distinct time, when much of the town then was agrarian, duck raising and the production of duck eggs were a source of livelihood for several families of Pasig. In the early 1980s, the industry began to wane, until it was all but gone in the 1990s.  Pasig duck farms along the Pasig River. The enclosures "puyahan" were located along the river banks. The ideal environment for the domesticated duck to produce eggs. Early Spanish chronicles discuss the different customs, traditions, and way of life of the natives of our islands -- Duck raising was mentioned as one unique industry which many agriculture and animal husbandry scholars also believe, was brought by the Chinese many years before the hispanization of the Philippines. One extensive description of the duck industry in the Pasig River during the Spanish times w...

  I recall the works of Ignazio Silone — Last night I was going through my old files and found the notes I have taken in a lecture about exiled writers in Zurich. They were somehow accommodated by Swiss writers two of which were giants: Duerrenmatt and Frisch. It was through old newspaper and magazine interviews of the two that I came across Silone. That was in the 1990s. Silone the anti-fascist then anti-communist, anti-Stalinist — He was an attractive study in that distinct time when totalitarianism of the right and the left were being revoked. Funny, but I even went to visit the cafés and restaurants where Silone and the likes of Frisch or Duerrenmatt frequented if only to fill the gaps brought by questions that will never be answered. Suddenly, news detailing Silone's early collaboration with the Fascist regime of Mussolini came to light. Then followed by more revelations about his relationship with the American intelligence (OSS- precursor of the CIA). The writer a political m...

  In India where the number of Covid-19 cases rose in the last months, it was reported that certain people started smearing themselves with cow dung and urine. They believe it will boost their immunity, the cow being sacred in the Hindu religion, revered and protected -- The symbol of life itself. Of course, Indian doctors quickly discouraged what they label as outrageous. I am reminded of another Bovine incident two centuries ago that of an English doctor named Edward Jenner, who came up with the idea of introducing the virus of Cowpox (Variolae vaccinae) to the human body in order for it to develop antibodies against the said skin disease, seen first in cows and to other related pathogens such as deadly smallpox. "Vacca" is the Latin term for cow, obviously where we also get the Tagalog "baka", as influenced by Spanish which in turn was brought about by the maternal role of the Latin language to many European tongues. Thus Jenner's method we also know now as: ...

The first question that comes to mind was: “Why did Humabon and the Cebuanos plotted against Magellan’s crew, their supposed ally? It was not even a week since Magellan fell at the hands of Mactan warriors under Lapulapu. Suddenly their foremost friends and somehow also benefactors, the Cebuanos, went against them. It was actually Austrian writer and Magellan biographer Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) who was one of the first to expound the angle of rape and abuse of Cebu women that trigger the anger of the Cebuanos that subsequently led to the massacre. Zweig named his primary source Martin of Genoa, a survivor of the expedition, who claimed: “Violation of women was the main trouble.” Zweig then added up: “Despite his best endeavors, Magellan had been unable to prevent his men, sex-hungry after so long a voyage from raping the wives of their hosts; vainly did he try to put an end to these acts of violence and lubricity, punishing his own brother in law Duarte de Barbosa, for staying ashore ...