Books published/launched

“INTER/SECTIONS, Isagani R. Cruz and Friends”, which is edited by David Jonathan Y. Bayot, begins with Cruz’s considerably impressive credentials. His plays, essays, biographies, short stories in Filipino and English have won national and international awards including the Palanca Hall of Fame and the SE Asian Writers (SEAWRITE) awards.

A former Usec of Education, a BS Physics UP graduate, with an MA degree in English from Ateneo U. and a Ph.D. degree in English from Maryland U., Cruz has been a professor or visiting fellow at various universities in the Philippines, US, Iran, Taiwan, the UK including Oxford U. He is currently associated with Ateneo, De la Salle, UST and FEU.

He helped to set up the Manila Critics Circle and an on-line project in Oxford U. He is a Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Merite. The foregoing is a very condensed c.v.

Bayot, who calls the book a “Festschrift in honor of Isagani R. Cruz”, discusses in his brilliant preface The Big Book Cruz has yet to write. On the other hand, The Big Book could be “Inter/Sections” — “a feast as well as a festival of genres of writings by Cruz’s mentors, colleagues, friends and students” here, in the UK, US and Asia.

Written in English and Tagalog, “Inter/Sections covers widely diverse subjects; e.g., the philosophy of mathematics, the migration of Filipino nurses, student-centered pedagogy, the Flor Contemplacion story, the 1904 World’s Fair which presents Filipinos as “savage” and “primitive”, etc.

There are literary pieces — plays, poems, essays: “For a Radical Critique of Asian-American Studies” by E. San Juan Jr.; “Beckett the Poet” by Marjorie Perloff; “The Novel (2008) and Its Content” by Soledad S. Reyes; “Foregoing/Forgetting the Past that Haunts; Three Prize-Winning Novels by Asian Immigrant Writers” by Thelma E. Arambulo.

Being a tribute to Cruz, “Inter/Sections” contains pieces actually dedicated to him; “Apat na Dalit” and “Tatlong Diona” by Frank G. Rivera, “Shifting” by Shirley Lua, “Isang Tulang Parangal” by John Eremil E. Teodoro, “Isagani Ani Cruz” which consists of three short lines in Tagalog(!) by Tirso S. Tullao Jr.

Marilyn J. Atlas writes her critical essay “Exiles All” in honor of Cruz.

Not the least, established, eminent Filipino writers contribute to “Inter/Sections”: National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario, Cirilo F. Bautista, Clodualdo del Mundo, Alfredo A. Yuson, Marjorie Evasco, Malou Jacob and those already mentioned.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala designed the exquisite cover.

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Years ago, Jessica Zafra sent me a copy of her book which I quickly misplaced. Thus, I failed to comment on it. However, I did enjoy her delightfully breezy interview of Don Jaime.

Jaime Zobel de Ayala designed the exquisite cover.

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The highly respected and admired journalist Vergel O. Santos, publisher and editorial board chairman of Business World, has just come out with “Chino and His Time”. Having served as editor of both the Manila Times and The Manila Chronicle, Santos is in the best position to write about Chino Roces, owing to his close relationship with the man who had, and I quote, “a longing to be identified with the masses, a sense of humor, and a revolutionary spirit”.

Santos traces in detail the Roces genealogy which goes back to the first Roces of Spain. The family tree is occasionally confusing — no fault of Santos — there being too many Alejandros and other identical names.

Clearly and objectively, Santos sees Chino with warts and all; his strengths and weaknesses, his tremendous influence on the journalistic world of his day, and most of all, his unwavering nationalism and love of country.

Santos covers the years before the declaration of martial law and thereafter, perceptively assessing, albeit briefly, the regimes of Marcos, Cory Aquino, FVR, Estrada and GMA. The book, in effect, is a concise history not only of journalism but also of governance; of the power struggle in the press and in politics.

The eloquence of the author is compelling and riveting: after the first page, the reader is loathe to put the book down. The perspective is insightful; the values, sterling. Every Filipino should read “Chino and His Time”.