WALA LANG I came across some 1920s writings of Percy H. Hill, an American who settled here and as amateur historian combed old accounts. Here are some of his gems I didn’t know about. A MAP OF THE PAST - Capilla Real is between H and F; Palacio del Gobernador is B. Above Capilla Real is Puerta...
WALA LANG I used to thrive (at age 13) on the electrifying adventures of the 12-year-old twins Nan and Bert Bobbsey and the teenaged Hardy Boys Frank and Joe who solved mysteries that adults could not. These were novels written for young people, the early 1900s equivalent of today’s computer...
Wala Lang I was not exactly a nimble kid and was forever tripping, falling, and bumping into something immovable. Rarely was I without a taped or bandaged body part. We had that red stuff mercurochrome and agua oxigenada , but Lola Trining and Tia Juli were into leaves—boiled guava leaves for...
Wala Lang We now call them superstition and idols, but the practices and images we now dismiss were once part of our belief system. Ancient Filipinos’ fears and hopes were formed by their surroundings. They lived in settlements along rivers teeming with caimans or in villages surrounded by thick...
Daniel and Kathryn are waiting for something to happen, maybe in May, maybe sooner, maybe later, maybe never. WALA LANG In one of the 20th century’s most celebrated plays, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot , Vladimir and Estragon wait for someone or something called Godot. They do not know...
WALA LANG I missed what would have been my first snowfall. It happened on Thanksgiving Weekend the year I was in graduate school at Georgia Tech. Tatay had kept in touch with Texan GI Joseph Slay who was billeted with us during the 1945 Battle of Manila. He invited me to visit and I spent a...
WALA LANG It has been depressing to read Facebook posts of photos with labels like “Happy Birthday in Heaven,” “See you again in heaven,” “Remembering Mama and Papa in heaven,” and announcements of masses for colleagues, friends, and relations who likewise have left for heaven—we give...
WALA LANG Founded in 1892 by Andres Bonifacio, the Katipunan was betrayed by Teodoro Patiño and fighting began with the Cry of Pugad Lawin (a.k.a. Balintawak) in August 1896. The brutal Gov. Gen. Camilo Polavieja (called “Butcher”) fought back with reinforcements from Spain, arrests and...
Wala Lang PARIS IN THE EYES OF FILIPINO REFORMISTS La Vie Parisienne, Juan Luna (GSIS Collection, National Museum). The impression one gathers from textbooks is that ilustrados in Spain were one in advocating reform in the motherland. This was apparently not the case. The Filipino community was...
WALA LANG White-haired, bleary-eyed, wrinkled, and hearing-challenged seniors were once young. So were the men and women standing frozen on plaza pedestals. They all were once vigorous youths, had loves, disappointments, ambitions. A street in Paco and another at U.P. Diliman and a house in Taal...
WALA LANG THE RELUCTANT POLITICIAN Dr. Galicano C. Apacible Demosthenes would have been speechless over democracy Pinoy style. Our founding fathers set the tone. Members of the Malolos Congress (1898) were theoretically from everywhere but it’s strange that Pedro Paterno of Manila...
WALA LANG The man embarked on his career as a U.P. law professor, numbering among his students three who rose to be Chief Justices of the Philippines. Now at age 91, Estelito P. Mendoza continues in the practice of law. In between, from 1972 until 1986, he served as solicitor-general, minister of...
