Jules’ book venture

If you ask Julio del Gallego’s high school classmates from San Beda if they ever thought he’d one day write a book, they’ll probably think you’re crazy. Del Gallego, who’s known as Nene or Jules, flunked San Beda twice and finished high school at Jose Rizal College. By the way, some of Del Gallego’s San Beda high school classmates were PLDT chairman Manny V. Pangilinan, sportsman Boy Cantada, restauranteur Bob Tenchavez and former Rep. Tom Apacible of Batangas.

As it turned out, Del Gallego’s transfer to Jose Rizal was one of the best things that ever happened in his life. “At San Beda, we were all boys but at Jose Rizal, more than half of my classmates were girls so I had to study hard to impress them,” chuckled Del Gallego, now 68. “I became class president and was even elected Supreme Student Council president in my one and only year at Jose Rizal. I played football for San Beda and when I moved to Jose Rizal, I played football, too and we beat San Beda. We ended up third place in the NCAA from being down at the bottom the year before.”

From Jose Rizal, Del Gallego transferred to UST where he played football for five years and took up architecture. The football team never lost a single game during Del Gallego’s time under coach Lolo Pacheco. Two of his teammates were Bimbo Mills and Juan Camahort. In 1965, Del Gallego played on the Philippine team that was winless at the Asian Youth Championships in Tokyo. Israel took the Asian Youth title and blanked all its opponents except the Philippines. “Not even second place Korea scored against Israel but we lost 8-1 to Israel and I scored the only goal,” said Del Gallego whose teammates included Octavio Sy, Juancho Villareal, Eddie Lagdameo and keeper Eddie Llamas. That was Del Gallego’s first and only stint with the national squad. Del Gallego never got his architecture degree because he lacked a thesis.

The second of six children, Del Gallego wasn’t the only athlete in the family. His younger brother Cuco also played football for UST and another younger brother Ramon is the popular Ripoll in the professional jai-alai circuit.

In 1983, Del Gallego migrated to the US. He worked 25 years at the University of California-San Diego as a facility manager and retired in 2008. Today, he and Eileen Rebullida, his wife of 45 years, are enjoying their retirement shuttling between their home in San Diego and weekend resthouse in Baja, California. They are blessed with five children and nine grandchildren.

A voracious reader and history buff, Del Gallego decided to write a book over three years ago. “It’s in my bucket list,” he said. “I remember when I was 11, I loved to read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew and wrote a 24-page mystery novel which I typed and made like a book with cardboard covers. My inspiration to write came when I read an excerpt from a book about the world’s greatest 1,000 painters and while the list had some Asians, there was not a single Filipino, no Amorsolo, no Hidalgo, no Luna. I’m no Irving Stone who wrote about Vincent van Gogh in the biographical novel ‘Lust For Life.’ It was even made into a movie starring Kirk Douglas. But I thought if I wrote about Juan Luna, I could catch the attention of those who overlooked him in listing the world’s greatest painters. I was also fascinated by his brother Antonio whom I consider a military genius. Antonio was my first-ever hero. So I decided to write a book about the Luna brothers.”

To prepare for the book, Del Gallego retraced the steps the Lunas took during their lifetime. He went to Vigan, Madrid where Juan Luna attended the Real Academia de Bellas Artes under professor Alejo Vera, Rome where he painted the revered Spoliarium mural and Paris. Del Gallego devoured books on the brothers and dug deep into their personal lives. He found out Juan Luna shipped the Spoliarium to Madrid where it won the gold medal at the National Exposition of 1884. What emerged was a 411-page novel “The Brothers Luna,” a story based on historical facts. Del Gallego said it’s a compelling story of romance, passion, friendship, intrigue, murder, espionage, war and the arts. It took over two years to finish the book and Del Gallego’s magnum opus is now ready for world-wide distribution.

Del Gallego, who also paints (his 11 impressionist works cover canvases of 4x4 and 4x6 feet), is now in town to promote his book which is on sale at amazon.com. He will do a book signing at CPK Rockwell, 4-6 p.m. on March 9 hosted by businessman Jack Rodriguez and another at Power Books in Greenbelt 4, 4-6 p.m. on March 15. The book will be available at National Book Store.

Meanwhile, Del Gallego will return to competition for the Philippines in another game at the International Balut Federation (IBF) world championships in Kota Kinabalu on March 7-9. The Philippines will be represented by two four-man teams. Among the Filipino players are noted architect Pinggoy Manosa, former Manila Yacht Club commodore Boy Tronqued and his son Marlon, Pablo Bautista, Carlos Oloriz and Juan Arellano Jr.
Balut is a dice game similar to Yahtzee and according to legend, it was invented by American GIs in Tacloban City after World War II as a kind of “dice poker.” Eddie Woolbright was 24 then and is widely known as balut’s inventor. When Woolbright settled in Cebu, he brought the game over and later, Capt. Tony Church introduced it in Singapore and Soren Milholt in Denmark. Today, balut is played all over the world, particularly in social clubs in Australia, Spain, Malaysia, Brunei, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand and of course, the Philippines.

For inquiries on Del Gallego’s book “The Brothers Luna,” contact julesdel@sbcglobal.net or tel. No. 0906-3855744.