LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz-Araneta As this writing (Sept. 15), I am commemorating two events close to my heart. The first was the inauguration of the Malolos Congress in 1898, in Malolos. The second is my 56th wedding anniversary. My husband, Antonio Araneta, and I chose that significant date to...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta When Pres. Joe Biden decided to extricate the United States of America from Afghanistan, he said it was to end the “forever war” in that distant land. He does not want to send more American soldiers to their death. After 20 years of military intervention and...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta What is happening in the USA is definitely none of my business, but allow me to give my two cents worth about President Joe Biden’s decision to terminate the 20-year US occupation and war in Afghanistan. He said: “I am the President of the United States of America,...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta “La Solidaridad,” that valiant fortnightly of the Propaganda Movement bid its readers farewell on November 15, 1895. Its maiden issue was dated February 15, 1889, and against all odds, it survived for almost seven years. Graciano Lopez Jaena was its first editor,...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta In the days of Lapu Lapu, the “ umalohokan” (town crier) was the main source of breaking news. As soon as town’s people heard his gongs and horns, they quickly gathered around him to hear the latest which could be new laws of their datus, instructions of barangay...
LANDSCAPE Gemma Cruz Araneta How ironic; the current unemployment rate in the USA is 10 percent, very high for American standards, but at the same time, there is a labor shortage. In agriculture, specifically in the fresh produce sector American farmers have to depend on migrant labor. It is...
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...
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...
