Growing up in a world of bamboo

Abe V Rotor

Bamboo grove, pastel drawing, AVR 1995

To see the world in a grove of bamboo
is seeing our ancestors in their time,
in the rustic world of Amorsolo
far, far away from the city scene,
hidden by a curtain of green.

It’s an arena of wit, skill and joy,
of laughter that fills the pure air
echoed by the swaying bamboo
playing with children in scary creak
the original game of hide-and-seek.

Here nobody wins or loses the game
because there are no walls, no fences,
and there's no time to gain or to lose;
it’s a world into men children grow,
simple and true like the bamboo. ~

Ode to Rizal - Man for Humanity

Dr Abe V Rotor

Rizal on Wilhelmsfeld, Germany

Abe V Rotor

The sword may win but the pen triumphs always,
Blood may spill and stain the hallways,
Its immaculate whiteness gone forever,
Ennobling your death for us to remember.

You fought the tyrants, to whom we before kneel
And raised your head to look beyond the Hill,
Blindly we followed the glitter of their gold,
We who are lesser in heart and old.

We do not seek power, wealth and fame
Else like in yesterday's bandwagon we’re same,
If only to find ourselves far from future’s bleak,
Shackled and bound, voiceless and meek.

Shine, shine in the hearts of the old and young,
That they may beat a path to far beyond,
And follow your life, your dream, your footprint,
With faith, with hope, with your spirit. ~

Light from the Old Arch, AVR-UST

Part 3: Characters in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere

Characters in Rizal's Noli Me Tangere

Researched by Dr Abe V Rotor

Retired Professor, Rizal Course, SPU-QC

For students in Rizal's Life and Works (3-unit requirement in college curriculum), here is a guide in knowing the 30 characters in Noli Me Tangere.

* Crisóstomo Ibarra – also known in his full name as Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin, a Filipino who studied in Europe for 7 years, the love interest of Maria Clara. Son of the deceased Don Rafael Ibarra; Crisostomo changed his surname from Eibarramendia to Ibarra, from his ancestor's surname.

* Elías – Ibarra's mysterious friend, a master boater, also a fugitive. He was referred to at one point as "the pilot." He wants to revolutionize his country. In the past, Ibarra's grandfather condemned his grandfather of burning a warehouse, making Elias the fugitive he is.

* María Clara – María Clara de los Santos, Ibarra's sweetheart; the illegitimate daughter of Father Dámaso and Pía Alba

* Father Dámaso – also known in his full name as Dámaso Verdoglagas,[7] Franciscan friar and María Clara's biological father

* Don Filipo – A close relative of Ibarra, and a filibuster.

* Linares – A distant nephew of Don Tiburcio de Espadaña, the would-be fiance of Maria Clara.

* Captain-General (no specific name) – The most powerful official in the Philippines, a hater of secular priests and corrupt officials, and a friend of Ibarra.

* Tandang Pablo – The Leader of the rebels, whose family was destroyed because of the Spaniards.

* Tarcilo and Bruno – Brothers, whose father was killed by the Spaniards.

* Sisa – the mother of Basilio and Crispín, who went insane after losing her sons
* Basilio – the elder son of Sisa.

* Crispín – the younger son of Sisa who died from the punishment of the soldiers from the false accusation of stealing an amount of money.

* Padre Sibyla – Hernando de la Sibyla, a Filipino friar. He is described as short and has fair skin.

* Kaptain Tiago – also known in his fullname as Don Santiago de los Santos[8] the known father of María Clara but not the real one; lives in Binondo

* Padre Salví – also known in his full name as Bernardo Salví, a secret admirer of María Clara

* Pilosopo Tasyo – also known as Don Anastasio, portrayed in the novel as pessimistic, cynic, and mad by his neighbors

* The Alférez – chief of the Guardia Civil ; mortal enemy of the priests for power in San Diego

* Don Tiburcio – Spanish husband of Donya Victorina who is limp and submissive to his wife; he also pretends to be a doctor

* Doña Victorina – Victorina de los Reyes de De Espadaña, a woman who passes herself off as a Peninsular

* Doña Consolación – wife of the alférez, another woman who passes herself as a Peninsular; best remembered for her abusive treatment of Sisa

* Pedro – abusive husband of Sisa who loves cockfighting

Reference: Noli Me Tangere, Wikipedia

Raging Patapat

Photos by Marlo R Rotor, Patapat, Pagudpud Ilocos Norte 2009

Patapat - the tip of Luzon, connects the Ilocos Region and Cagayan Valley. It faces the stormy Babuyan Channel where the South China Sea and Pacific Ocean meet - which explains the stormy weather condition that occurs regularly.

Once treacherous to travelers, the rocky and precipitous route has been replaced by a modern highway system built on aqueduct. Beneath it water from the mountains and the sea meet and make a beautiful view. An unspoiled tropical rainforest covers the whole length of Patapat that girdles the peninsula, and digs into the mountain range making the whole place an ecological sanctuary and a tourist attraction.

Rage, rage, rage
And I will be calm;
Be calm, and I shall rage;
Rage, rage rage,
And I will be calm. ~

Fallen Cross

Dr Abe V Rotor
Living with Nature - School on Blog
Welcome to our 1,958th post; 123,000 pageviews todate.

Lesson in Humanities and Theology. How do you interpret the photograph and the accompanying verse. Work through personal reflection, or group discussion. Present your output in class.

Bacarra Belfry, IIocos Norte


The cross I carried has fallen,
before I reached the Hill;
and now, freed from its burden,
bear its weight still. ~

- AVRotor

Photos Speak - Power and Secret of Photography

Dr Abe V Rotor
Professor, UST
Living with Nature - School on Blog


What is the story that each of these photographs is telling us? Write it. What is the lesson that the story conveys? Write it in a paragraph, or as a whole story - complete with setting, plot and characters. Put in your style of expression. Or your journalistic style. You can treat it also as essay or poetry. Why don't you use these photos as models for painting?

1. Santa Lucia, Ilocos Sur

2. Calatagan, Batangas

3. UST campus

4. San Vicente, Ilocos Sur

5. Lagro, QC


6. Sampaloc, Manila

7. Laoag, Ilocos Norte

8. Paco, Manila

9. Commonwealth Market, QC

10. UST campus, Manila

11. Camindoroan, San Juan, Ilocos Sur

12. Sacred Heart Novitiate, Novaliches, QC

13. Along Commonwealth Ave, QC.

14. Along Relalado Avenue, QC

15. Espana, Manila

Next time you take photographs, make your photographs laugh, cry, talk, sing, or simply amaze you and your friends. Lastly, deliver the message. ~

Flow Gently, Sweet Afton - Memories of War

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

WWII Memorial beside the St Paul University Museum, QC.
The school is remembered as a concentration camp of the Japanese during the War. It was later left in ruins after the liberation.

It was in the last year of the Japanese occupation that memories of World War II became vivid to me. In desperation the enemy killed anyone at sight in exchange for its apparent defeat. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were soon to be erased virtually from the map. I was then four years old. According to psychologists, at this age impressions become lasting memory.

Vigilance was the game. Far ahead of time one should be able to detect the enemy. Fear gripped the neighborhood and the whole town. We hid in a dugout shelter made of solid narra slabs several meters away from our house. Trees and banana plants hid it from view. At one time, I wanted to get fresh air, but my auntie-yaya, Basang prevented me to do so. Japanese soldiers were around the place. I heard them chase our geese and chicken. Then I heard my favorite goose, Purao, pleading - then it fell silent. Instinctively I rushed out of our hideout, but Basang pulled me back just in the nick of time.

Before this incident Japanese soldiers entered and ransacked our house. Two confronted Basang who was then wearing thick shawl and holding me tight in her arms. In trembling voice, she was saying repeatedly, “Malaria, malaria,” and begging the soldiers to take anything they wanted and leave us. One took all our eggs and started eating them raw, pitching the shell at us. One hit me straight on the face and I squirmed. Basang apologized. The soldier shouted. Then the other came back with a stuffed pillow case and signaled the other to leave, but before leaving he gave me a hard look.

It is a face I still see today, cold as steel, lips pursed into a threat, brows drawn down like curtain over sultry and flashy eyes. How I reacted on the wicked face, I don't remember. I must have just stared coldly. But deep in me grew a resolved never to be afraid of the Japanese or any enemy for that matter.

Images of planes in dogfight are still vivid in my memory. Toward the east is the Cordillera range that looked blue in the distance. The view was clear from our house, and hideout. Even if the old San Vicente church got across our view, we saw now and then warplanes passing above. It was also the first and only time I saw a double body aircraft flying. There was at least one occasion warplanes fought just overhead, a plane simply bursts into flame and dark smoke not far from our place. My dad prodded us to go back to our underground hideout.

When I was in high school I had a teacher in literature, Mrs. Socorro Villamor, a war widow. My classmates and I wondered why Mrs. Villamor was always wearing black. At one time she recited in class, Flow Gently Sweet Afton by Robert Burns, a famous 18th century English poet. She even sang it, then came to a halt sobbing. We were all very quiet until she recovered. The poem made us weep, too, more in sympathy to our teacher.

This is the first stanza, and most moving part of the poem, which is repeated in the sixth and last stanza.

"Flow gently , sweet Afton, among thy green braes;
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise!
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream -
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream."

"Sweet Afton" is thoroughly romantic in the use of natural objects as a background for human emotions, which in this case is symbolic of a sad experience that permeates into the heart and soul of a grieving person. The melody has a refrain after each lyric-stanza, slowly rising and falling within the standard octave, so that it can be sang with little effort, and in ones own cadence. It can be sang and recited in an alternate fashion taking liberty to pause now and then.

I treasure the poem to this day. Whenever I read the poem or sing its plaintive melody, I see in my mind a great warrior in the sky, and a strong willed teacher telling us to go on with life, like a stream, gently flowing, gently flowing.
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