What I found
A self-portrait by Joan Edades dating back to the mid-’60s, during the time she and Jolico Cuadra were visiting the old house with their kid Christopher.
A small lithograph/print by Donato Mejia Alvarez, titled “The Fugitive Survivor of a Celestial Conspiracy,†given to Franz Arcellana on the occasion of his 68th birthday.
A two-foot-high wooden sculpture depicting a man wrestling a crocodile, done by a UP Fine Arts student named Marcelo also in the ‘60s, who reportedly committed suicide.
A woodcut by Rod Paras Perez, part of his “Diwata†series.
A photographic portrait of the old man, with the Edades self-portrait in the background.
An old manual typewriter, dusty and barely working, almost smelling like cat piss.
Photocopies of handwritten letters of the National Artist to his wife visiting their daughters in Canada.
Random journal entries to present samples of calligraphy.
Letter from a university official informing the writer that his transportation allowance has already been granted even way past his death.
An e-mail communiqué relaying the blurb Franz A. wrote for the book of Jonathan Chua on Jose Garcia Villa, from Doreen Gamboa Fernandez.
A month’s worth of transcribed journal entries, detailing the writer’s life and times in September 1974.
Photocopies of a raggedy stuffed poodle, and of the yellow orange cat Peachy sprawled on the granolithic floor.
A couple of mugs that were gifts from students, probably to put some unused pencils in.
A capiz star lantern that can also serve as a lamp.
A bookshelf and a vintage desk.
A line drawing of the old man by the artist poet Larry Francia, set on blue board.
A large mural-like painting done by Maningning Miclat titled “Curtsey,†which the writer himself requested because it would make him happy, months before she let herself fall from a building in FEU along Morayta.
More gifts from fellow teachers, friends, students: a woodcut/print from the Novaliches series by a certain Ibarra given by the Benito sisters Nieves and Odette, and another from the same series given by the English 199 class second semester 1997-98; a painting of a man drinking tapuy by Preachy Legasto; a Persian landscape from a Persian student to remind the professor of Persia.
A pair of group photos of the 1985 UP Writers workshop batch that included Fanny Llego, CJ Maraan, Melanie Manlogon, Charie Lucero, Jessica Zafra, Clovis Nazareno, Ernesto Bitonio, Boying Pimentel, Mon Bautista, Gina Apostol, Cristina de Leon, with their mentors and dementors.
A photo of the National Artist and wife Emy beering it up in their UP Village backyard with a Tamil friend.
A photo of the writer enthusiastically pointing to something or other during what could be a symposium, a cassette recorder on the floor nearby.
A photo of the professor presiding over a workshop panel with Alex Hufana and Gemino Abad, and one of him receiving the Gawad Balagtas award from Rio Alma.
A 2x2 inch passport photo.
Franz as a young man sitting on the grass on campus.
Photo grids of the abandoned south room, with its assortment of mother and child calendars courtesy of a bank, the rocking chair whose arms are wiggly, the aparador with its treasures dating back to the Japanese occupation, the drawing of Don Quixote on Rosinante.
Some rare first-edition pocket books including ones by Edith Hamilton and other authors ranging from the esoteric to the obscure.
A stack of vinyl records in search of a working turntable.
A radio tuned in to his favorite news commentaries or classical music.
A few cassettes lent by his student-rocker Aye Ubaldo.
A couple of emptied bottles of Don Quixote semidulce red wine.
A pair of pizza boxes from different companies, devoid of their contents.
An unhinged cabinet door, a fancy whisky box, a rosary found on the roadside, strange stick-like formations from the golden shower by the repainted front gate.
More journals, among them a small one that is based on the TV show The X-Files, in which is inserted a photo of Emy.
Scanned photos of the writer’s original nuclear family in Gagalangin, Tondo sometime in the 1920s.
The books Arcellana Sampler, The Essential Arcellana, The Mats children’s storybook, Fifteen Stories, Regarding Franz, Favorite Arcellana Stories, and one from the peso book series published by Bert Florentino. The PEN anthology he edited, featuring the Filipino new wave.
The Gawad Balagtas trophy, and another wooden trophy whose bald-head is a favorite of a great granddaughter born a decade after his passing.
The National Artist’s medal in its wooden box. The newly repainted, newly registered white Nissan Sentra bought the year he was named NA and now going up for silent auction.
This is in response to a query by curator Sidd Perez, asking what I found for a planned exhibit of memorabilia of my father, from late August to early October at Erehwon Center for the Arts in old Balara, with Light & Space Contemporary as collaborator. Not all the abovementioned items are on exhibit.
