Tag: December 4, 2009

ONLY the finest wine is worthy of praise as it grows delectable with age – and this is how the students of the Univers ity of Santo Tomas revere their beloved school in the book Alma Mater, a compilation of poems collected and edited by Fr. Fidel Villaroel, O.P., UST’s assistant Archivist.

Alma Mater is one of the books released to commemorate the University’s quadricentennial year, with its goal of producing 400 books by 2011.

The poems are in Spanish, Filipino and English, a testament to the participation of the University in Philippine history.

The post-revolutionary period ushered in an emergence of Filipino poets using the Spanish language as the Third Centennial of the University closed in. As Villaroel phrased it, the poems of these era were “very Castillian, yet with a Filipino rhythm; so Oriental yet so classically Spanish and so exotic, yet so familiar.”

ANA CERVANTES thought nothing could ruin the night.

She stood at the far end of the restaurant’s parking lot, humming softly as she opened the door of her second-hand Civic. It was dark in the area for half of the lamps were already turned off, but she wasn’t bothered. She was in a celebratory mood, her heart light over being offered her own column. She smiled as she got in the car, her mind still wrapped up on the night’s happenings. She locked the doors and was about to start the engine.

Then, a gunshot.

She ducked down, her small frame making it easy to squeeze most of her upper body in the cramped space under the steering wheel. Bang. She dared not look up, the guts that came easy on coverage flying out of the window. Her chest was pressed against her thighs and she could feel her heart pounding.

Bang.

THE UST Publishing House hit a dry spell after none of its six nominated books won an award in the 28th National Book Awards held at the Ayala Museum in Makati.

The Publishing House had six finalists in the different categories. They are Nicanor Tiongson’s The Cinema of Manuel Conde, a study on the prolific Filipino director’s life and works, was nominated in the Autobiography/Biography category, Abdon Balde, Jr.’s Awit ni Kadunung, a story that weaves together the ethnic and modern in today’s society in Fiction, Everyday Warriors: The Faces and Stories of Breast Cancer by Cathy Paras-Lara and Jay Lara in General Nonfiction, while its designers Rachel and Sheree Ti were finalists for the Design category. The book is a collection of interviews with 21 breast cancer survivors from all walks of life.

SA PAGMAMAHAL sa pagsulat, maski panahon ay hindi maaaring humadlang.

Iyan ang pinatunayan ng kuwentista at sanaysayistang si Nita Umali-Berthelsen at makatang si Teo Antonio, ang mga tatanggap ng Parangal Hagbong ngayong taon, na may kani-kaniyang karanasan kung paano binago ng takbo ng panahon ang kanilang mga buhay.

Nita Umali-Berthelsen

Halos nabaon man sa limot ang mga nagawa niya, hindi pa rin makakaila ang malaking kontribusyon ng kuwentista at sanaysayistang si Berthelsen sa larangan ng panitikan.

Nagtapos noong 1946 sa noo’y Faculty of Philosophy and Letters (Philets) ng UST, isa si Berthelsen sa mga piling estudyante na nakapagsimulang magturo sa Unibersidad bago pa man magtapos sa kolehiyo.

Taglay ang kaniyang hilig sa pagsusulat, sumali si Berthelsen sa Varsitarian noong dekada ’40.