WALA LANG *THE HOLY GRAIL Juan Luna's Hymen, O Hyménée was considered missing until it was found at a Spanish aristocratic family's home (Photo Leon Gallery)* There is excitement—pro and con—over the recently rediscovered Hymen, O Hyménée painted by Juan Luna and exhibited as part of...
WALA LANG *IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME The Teus house and a great grand daughter of its builder Ms. Begona Cabral Vara de Rey* The first lady, Mme. Marie Louise “Liza” Araneta Marcos, has created museums intended to make Filipinos know and be proud of their historic past. They are housed in three...
WALA LANG *HYMEN, O HYMÉNÉE The painting and a detail, the bridesmaids (Leon Gallery).* On exhibit at the Ayala Museum is a rediscovered Juan Luna, Hymen, O Hyménée!. Repatriated from Spain by León Gallery’s Jaime Ponce de León, the painting depicts a bridal procession as it might have...
WALA LANG Gossiping oldies would warn each other that there was danger—that young blabbermouths were within earshot—and the topic had better be less juicy. Until the mid-1800s, Mindanao pirates preyed on coastal towns from the Ilocos in northern Luzon down to the Bicol region and all over the...
WALA LANG I suppose that in one’s senior years, one hopes to be mentally sound, to have good friends to bum around with, to have a large bank of happy memories, and have the joy of looking with pride at one’s children. For this article, the 600th of “Wala Lang,” I thought I’d share some...
WALA LANG Conquistadors were busily conquering and frailes converting, but some scholarly types asked around and wrote about the land and the indios they found. In 1590, it was probably Governor General Luis Pérez Dasmariñas who got someone to summarize the most reliable accounts then available,...
WALA LANG OIL ON OAK Adoration of the Kings, Jan Gossaert (National Gallery of Art, London) The Three Kings arrived in Bethlehem bringing to the Child Jesus gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Everyone knows gold but frankincense and myrrh? Used in religious ceremonies, they came from faraway...
WALA LANG The year after the stars and stripes were lowered in 1946, the Philippines and France established diplomatic relations. Various cultural events are marking the event’s 75th anniversary. Sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, the French Embassy and the Cultural...
WALA LANG With a bit of prodding, barbers can be loquacious. Ranny Perlas was late, he apologized, because he had to walk all the way from his apartment in Santa Ana to the Makati CBD barber shop. The previous week, he continued, he was waiting for the red light to change when a speeding car turned...
The secrets of the Malacañan Palace as told by someone who grew up there WALA LANG …‘mid pleasures and palaces, though not many can think of a palace as home. Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. is one of the few who can. His family moved there when he was eight years old and there he stayed in the...
WALA LANG Rainwater was forever flooding the sala so my wife and I decided to roof the rear terrace and make it into a library. We removed the heavy wood and glass sliding doors, replacing them with arches and columns that I discovered in a junk shop on España near Welcome Rotonda. That was in...
WALA LANG The house—mansion actually—of his grandmother’s grandfather still stands and Álvaro Bartolomé Ruiz was awestruck. He lives in Madrid, visiting the Philippines for the first time. Bartolomé’s ancestor Valentín Teus (1832-1909) was from Navarra at the foot of the Pyrenees. At...
