Ambeth R. Ocampo's Blog, page 71

Pleased and honored (as an Ateneo Professor) to be recognized by the DLSU College of Liberal Arts as one of four Distinguished A...

Pleased and honored (as an Ateneo Professor) to be recognized by the DLSU College of Liberal Arts as one of four Distinguished Alumni.
In an age dazzled by beauty, wealth, celebrity or power they chose a playwright, media critic, political scientist and historian. Glad to be in the company of Elsie Coscolluela, Roland Tolentino and Ronald Holmes.
All of us by coincidence or design are teachers who shape our world with words.
In photo CLA Dean Rhoderick Nuncio.



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Return history to K-12

My Inquirer column today on the return of History as a separate subject in the K-12 curriculum, provided errors and distortions are purged from our PH history textbooks, and that we review pedagogy or the way history is taught not as civics but as a means to critical thinking and committed citizenship.


From the queries I receive online, almost daily, from students taking the college course on Philippine history from primary sources, it seems that teachers leave them on their own. With no presc...

Luna’s pursuit of greatness

Sorry for the late posting of my Inquirer column yesterday. Something related to the blockbuster Juan Luna show ongoing at the Ayala Museum till the end of the year.


Competing with the Independence Day coverage the other day was the news on the repatriation of a long-lost work by Juan Luna — “Hymen, O Hyménée” — painted during his honeymoon in Italy and

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Next on The Story of the Filipino: Juan Luna

Prelude to more collaboration with CNN PH Abangan!



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At the close of the 125th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine Independence, I look back on the most poignant painting f...

At the close of the 125th anniversary of the declaration of Philippine Independence, I look back on the most poignant painting from National Artist Ben Cabrera's 2015 series on the flag. He called this "My Sad Republic."
Do you think the title holds true today or should it be called something else? Your suggestions please.



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Photos from Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho (One at Heart, Jessica Soho)'s post

In conversation with Jessica Soho on a Juan Luna painting that has not been seen in over a century. Now on display in the Ayala Museum till the end of the year.

















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Wish a historian’s salary could give me a living room with an important Juan Luna painting. Visit Splendor at the Ayala Museum. ...

Wish a historian’s salary could give me a living room with an important Juan Luna painting. Visit Splendor at the Ayala Museum. Free Admission on June 12 Independence Day but please check out their website for details.



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Politicians gave crocodiles a bad rep by association. Visitors marvel at "Lolong" now in the National Museum of Natural History ...

Politicians gave crocodiles a bad rep by association. Visitors marvel at "Lolong" now in the National Museum of Natural History who holds the record as the biggest saltwater crocodile captured. Lolong's vital statistics are: 6.17m length and 1,075 kg weight. In 1918 Emilio Aguinaldo shot a croc in Pampanga that held the record at 6.096m length and 3,000 kgs weight. Aguinaldo's croc was displayed in the prewar U.P. Library on Padre Faura (now the Supreme Court building) until it was lost or destr...

Long before politicians gave crocodiles a. bad rep by association, we marveled at "Lolong" now in the National Museum of Natural...

Long before politicians gave crocodiles a. bad rep by association, we marveled at "Lolong" now in the National Museum of Natural History who holds the record as the biggest saltwater crocodile captured. Lolong's vital statistics are: 6.17m length and 1,075 kg weight. In 1918 Emilio Aguinaldo shot a croc in Pampanga that held the record at 1,096m length and 3,000 kgs weight. Aguinaldo's croc was displayed in the prewar U.P. Library on Padre Faura (now the Supreme Court building) until it was lost...

This 19thC studio photograph of a Chinese “aguador” or water carrier reminded me of a reference in the first chapter of the Noli...

This 19thC studio photograph of a Chinese “aguador” or water carrier reminded me of a reference in the first chapter of the Noli where Rizal wrote about:
“…an arm of the Pasig River, known to some as the Binondo River, that like many streams in Manila okays the varied roles of bath, sewer, laundry, fishery, means of communication, and even drinking water if the Chinese water-carrier finds it convenient.”
A drop of Pasig River today will probably kill an elephant.
Photo from the Pardo de...