LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta On June 30, the world around me unveiled an astounding mural of light and brilliant pigments splashed across the horizon. Gone was the subdued landscape of impressionist paintings with indeterminate brushstrokes in pastel shades. If the colors and myriad hues I now see...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta “The Lord gazes at the Philippine Islands:” In Spanish, “El Señor mira (contempla) a las islas Filipinas” is a satirically humorous piece, translated into English by Dr. Encarnacion Alzona in 1957 and included in “Rizal’s Prose” published by the Rizal...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Like many of us today, Jose Rizal must have wondered whether the first batch of natives who were baptized knew what was going on. Language was a barrier; Spanish missionaries had not yet learned our native tongues, nor compiled those monumental glossaries and grammar...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Jose Rizal, who would have turned 161 on June 19, was a sociologist by instinct, an irrepressible observer of human nature. He could not resist conjuring scenes and creating incredible characters from the frenetic tumble of events that marked his life. He wrote a short...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta On June 12, there will be a “Heritage Cannon” on the dolomite beach and it will most probably fire a deafening shot (sans projectile) to celebrate the 124th anniversary of our Independence. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) aims “to...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Elvis Presley, then the indisputable “King of Rock” was the icon of all my female contemporaries, to the chagrin of the Maryknoll nuns (our teachers) who denounced him as an “occasion of sin.” Until Elvis came into the picture, no one sang with such a sexually...
And is set to feature the romance between Astrid Young and Charlie Wu A love story is being brewed by Warner Bros. as the mega movie studio is set to release a spin-off of the 2018 romantic drama film “Crazy Rich Asians.” This time, according to reports, it will spotlight the relationship...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta At this writing, 22:16 hours, May 9, I am seized by dread as election results from various sources appear online. From Regions 1 and 2, the solid North, the BBM-Duterte tandem has emerged the winner, as expected. But, there are 15 more regions in the Republic of the...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Throughout his life, Jose Rizal constantly argued with himself. In his mind, political thoughts contended vigorously, endlessly. He expressed his convictions and beliefs in his letters to his family and contemporaries, in travel journals, essays for “La...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta Jose Rizal must have wanted his two novels to be read as one book, that is why on the title page of the hand-written original of “El Filibusterismo” (1891) these words appear in parenthesis – (II parte del Noli Me Tangere). But, Rizal crossed it out before...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta When I first read “El Filibusterismo,” I was too young to understand why it is “profound and perfect” (Rizal’s own words), so I was appalled that Maria Clara jumped off the convent roof before Simoun could rescue her and that his revolution failed. Two decades...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta “The Philippine Readers,” a teleological series of textbooks for Filipino youth during the American colonial period, was edited by Camilo Osias who had lived through the Revolution against Spain, the First Philippine Republic, Philippine-American War, the...
