LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta He wrote in English to the editor of the “Hong Kong Telegraph,” but did not sign his real name. “Yours faithfully, Philippino,” was how he ended. Curiously, the date line was Manila, February 1, 1892, although he was still in Hong Kong. His second homecoming...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta The Spanish-American War of 1898 was described as inter-imperialist by no less than Lenin himself because it was a grab for existing colonies. That was how Dr. George Aseniero, eminent Filipino historian and authority on Rizal, began his brilliant paper, “The Game of...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta San Pedro Calungsod, patron of sacristans and overseas Filipino workers (0FWs), was a mere adolescent when he was killed in Guam by natives called Chamorros. Born in 1654, during the habagat season, Pedro was killed in the summer of 1672. He was barely 18. He died...
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) urged the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and the Anti-Illegal Logging Task Force (AILTF) on Wednesday, July 14, to file criminal and administrative charges against government officials and private entities involved...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Luna, Arquitecto is not exactly an art book, it is more of a secular decretum that distills social history; it is also a tender and inquisitive life story of a tortured soul whose creativity and technical virtuosity raised the bar of Philippine architecture. The...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta None of the Filipino trade unionists who attended the 1924 Conference of Transport Workers of the Pacific in Canton (now Guangzhou), China were communists. One of them, Domingo Ponce, disclosed that they were totally unaware the conference was convened by communists,...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta In the Philippines, not a single ripple was felt when the Bolshevik Revolution or the Great October Socialist Revolution ripped Russia asunder in 1917. A communist party was established in 1918 and the year after, the first Communist International (Comintern or CI) was...
Landscape Gemma Cruz Araneta Since 1962, we Filipinos have been celebrating Independence Day on June 12. Before that, it used to be on July 4, a historical aberration corrected by President Diosdado Macapagal who said Filipinos, “… called the whole world to witness their powerful resolve...
Landscape Gemma Cruz Araneta In the winter of 1889, Filipino ilustrados in Madrid were alarmed that the Russian flu, first spotted in Bukhara, then in St. Petersburg, attacked Madrid with ferocity after only five days. Already, 6,180 deaths were reported and in Barcelona, 52,000 were infected with...
Landscape Gemma Cruz Araneta Seventy-eight frustrating years had passed since the promulgation of the 1812 Cadiz Constitution which stipulated that colonies and overseas possessions should be considered as provinces, integral parts of Spain, the metropolis. As provinces, these territories would be...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Time to foray into history: 31 May 1890, in the lead story of “La Solidaridad,” editor Marcelo. H. del Pilar (a.k.a. Plaridel ) argued the obvious. How can the Cortés (Spanish parliament) legislate in favor or against the Philippines without first-hand knowledge of...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta 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...
