Last of five parts The rock lay rooted deep on top of a mountain/ A stone’s throw away stood our little farm hut/ The farm was the homestead father acquired in 1940/ The mountain was broken by two rivers/ From the north and from the south/ The two rivers intersected at the east/ Beyond the...
Tag: history
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Remembering: From Cavite to Upi to greener pastures
(Fourth of five parts) We were 11 in the family. Our tatay, Deogracias, was born in 1902 and died in March 1986; our nanay, Obdulia, was born in 1908 and died in April 2006. We were nine children—two daughters (my eldest sister and the eighth) and seven sons. The eldest was born in 1927 and...
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Remembering: ‘Tao po’ and invitations to a ‘pintakasi’
EDITOR’S NOTE: CoverStory is running the life story of historian and peacemaker Rudy Buhay Rodil in five parts, in an effort to contribute to “a deeper understanding of Mindanao society, history and culture,” a lifelong advocacy that he has pursued with fervor and vigor. Mr. Rodil, now 80, has much to say about what he...
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Remembering: logging concessions brought drastic change
EDITOR’S NOTE: CoverStory is running the life story of historian and peacemaker Rudy Buhay Rodil in five parts, in an effort to contribute to “a deeper understanding of Mindanao society, history and culture,” a lifelong advocacy that he has pursued with fervor and vigor. (Second of five parts) Between Upi and myself, I think change...
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Remembering: Growing up in ‘Little Baguio’ in Mindanao
EDITOR’S NOTE: The historian and peacemaker Rudy Buhay Rodil, now 80, has much to say about what he called, in the Conversation on the Integration of Mindanao History into the Philippine Educational System held at Ateneo de Davao University on Aug. 8, 2018, “my personal story in the advocacy of the history of Mindanao-Sulu.” His...
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‘Anak Datu’ preserves cultural memory through contradiction
You really wouldn’t be able to tell based solely on its colorful, toy-themed promotional materials, but Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Anak Datu” is a work of proud defiance that speaks to today’s concerns of historical denialism in a direct, patient, and intelligent way. The play, written by Rody Vera, tells several tales about Muslim Mindanao all at once—including that of the original short story by National Artist Abdulmari Imao; anecdotes about real-life tragedies...
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‘Anak Datu’ untangles web of memory, myth and history
Where does history end and myth begin? How does memory, individual and collective, influence and possibly correct the narration of a people’s history? These questions are doubly important today, in an era when social media and other digital platforms tend to lump the critical verification of facts with unthinking chismis (gossip). Tanghalang Pilipino’s latest production,...
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Unforgettable: More than a million mourners turned up for Ninoy Aquino’s funeral
Editor’s Note: Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino Jr.’s assassination upon arriving at the motherland from the United States on Aug. 21, 1983, drew widespread outrage that fanned the slow burn over the excesses of the dictatorship. These dramatic black and white photos of Ninoy Aquino’s funeral cortège were taken by the freelance photojournalist Alberto “Bullit” Marquez, who...