Ambeth R. Ocampo's Blog, page 71

After a heavy rain or flood in the late 1980s and 1990s runners would bring bits of precolonial gold to the Ermita antique shops...

After a heavy rain or flood in the late 1980s and 1990s runners would bring bits of precolonial gold to the Ermita antique shops. Gold beads and sheets of unknown origin and use would then be weighed and sold for spot gold value. Nobody cared much for the thin crudely made pieces from death masks because the superstitious felt these carried bad juju.
These were so light compared to beads and necklaces of spun gold or intact artifacts that commanded way more. Death mask elements (I never en...

Over a million views in five days. I should seriously consider translating my work from print to multimedia.

Over a million views in five days. I should seriously consider translating my work from print to multimedia.



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Why is it that when we talk of Manila, we do so in the past tense? Because we have lost a lot of our built heritage. If you thin...

Why is it that when we talk of Manila, we do so in the past tense? Because we have lost a lot of our built heritage. If you think the Post Office fire was devastating look back on the lost Crystal Arcade and weep.
Inaugurated in 1932, the Crystal Arcade was the first air-conditioned mall in the Philippines. Designed by Andres Luna de San Pedro, son of Juan Luna, it was built on a lot in Escolta passed on by his maternal grandmother. The Crystal Arcade was a financial disaster having opened ...

Money and superstition

People I know laugh when I tell them that I vainly follow all these money superstitions. My Inquirer column today on Fr. Francisco Demetrio's compilation of Philippine folk beliefs and customs on money.


Listening to the catalog of achievements and promises made in the President’s State of the Nation Address bored me. The speech just rattled on like the white noise you see on TV when the station

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Kasaysayan sa Artifacts | Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ga3X3...
The "interview" with Jessica Soho turned into a friendly and engaged conversation on Philippine history and why I do what I do. Unfortunately, much of it will not be aired for lack of time.


Kilalanin ang ating mga bayani sa mga naiwan nilang mga artifacts at memorabilia na bahagi sa hinanap, sinaliksik at pinag-aralan ni Ambeth Ocampo na eksklus...

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Leonor Rivera lovingly drawn in pencil by Jose Rizal.I first saw this in Life Lineage and Labors of Jose Rizal (1913) by Austin...

Leonor Rivera lovingly drawn in pencil by Jose Rizal.
I first saw this in Life Lineage and Labors of Jose Rizal (1913) by Austin Craig and believed the original lost or destroyed in the 1945 Battle for Manila. I’m happy to report that the original is extant, and in good condition in a Private Collection in Manila.



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Weekend at the Ayala Museum with almost 40 Ocampo relatives on Friday (Top Left), then with Christina Lee (Princeton U.) author ...

Weekend at the Ayala Museum with almost 40 Ocampo relatives on Friday (Top Left), then with Christina Lee (Princeton U.) author of "Saints of Resistance" and outgoing Ateneo Press Director Karina Bolasco (Bottom Left) on Saturday. Icing on the cake was meeting Toby (Right) for the first time. He is now one of my favorite GRANDSONS(!)
Museum going should not be a school requirement but part of our leisure options aside from malling and the cinema.



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Lecture at Rockwell VIP Cinema next Saturday July 29! The Lopez Museum and Library is presenting “Cultural Intersections,” ...

Lecture at Rockwell VIP Cinema next Saturday July 29!
The Lopez Museum and Library is presenting “Cultural Intersections,” a lecture series that explores the history, culture, and heritage of the Philippines during the American Colonial Period at Rockwell Cinemas.
I will deliver the inaugural lecture next Saturday 29 July at Rockwell Cinema on "Re-discovering the American Period." I looks back on my research in the Lopez Museum and my recent finds during my recent term as Visiting Professor...

WARNING!Parental Guidance is advised for today's post. Friar vocabularios from the 17th-19th centuries documented our lang...

WARNING!
Parental Guidance is advised for today's post.
Friar vocabularios from the 17th-19th centuries documented our languages, including various "verbum turpissimum" or words considered so vulgar modesty dictated that these be rendered not in Spanish but in Latin.
One 18thC vocabulario noted the phrase "poqui nang Yna mo" while another in the 19th century gives specific anatomical terms for a woman's private parts: "Laman sa hati," was descriptive; "Quinababainan" was the general t...

This 19th century photograph of the UST Physics Lab from the Biblioteca Nacional de España is best seen with Rizal's description...

This 19th century photograph of the UST Physics Lab from the Biblioteca Nacional de España is best seen with Rizal's description from Chapter 13 of El Filibusterismo:
"...a day of the year was set aside to visit the mysterious laboratory and to admire from outside the enigmatic apparatuses placed inside the cabinets; no one could complain; on that day could be seen such brass, much glass, many tubes, discs, wheels, bells, etc...The laboratory had been set up to be shown to the guests and the hig...