Interviews are often a way to learn more about individuals that we are interested in. Through this process of thinking of an individual to choose to interview many came to mind. However, one individual stood out to me in my mind. My dad’s mother, Rosalina Aguellon Escudero, was the Vice Consul for the country of the Philippines, in the 1960’s. My Lola, as that is the term for grandma in Taglog, was such a powerful and intelligent woman in my mind and so I decided to write this paper a bit out of the box. I am a firm believer, that understanding people who are influential and inspiring to you is important. My Lola, is that type of person to me today, but she passed away in 2006 so if she was alive today, she would be 90 years old. Sadly, like
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Tita Ruk, fondly remembered how much she loved to read history and how it influenced her poems. Lola was able to create beautiful poems, just as a spider creates beautiful webs. Her words were woven together with great thought and consideration for all her experiences. Furthermore, that Lola wrote poems that were considered, “modern” in her day. Nevertheless, her modern poems won many awards and were even published. One particular poem that she wrote in college and was later published as an award wining poem, “The Realization of Beauty,” echoes to me, her feelings of what it means to be free and empowered and to know yourself. She wrote in her first stanza,
“You are beautiful in the body He created,
Yet I see you beyond the opaqueness of this matter;
That is why there are distances in my gazes,
As seasons in my voices:
For I know you in my secret! (Rosie Escudero, 1949)”
Tita Ruk, said that Lola enjoyed writing poems that were based off of individuals she admired and was inspired by like Jose Rizal, the National of the Philippines. She admired his work ethic and how his poetry spoke of the importance of working. In one of Rizal’s poems, “Hymn to Labor” he writes to the children of the Philippines,
“Teach us ye the laborious work
To pursue your footsteps we wish,
For tomorrow when country calls us
We may be able your task to finish.
And on seeing us the elders will …show more content…
It was very sobering to hear of the atrocities that Lola faced during the war. I can’t imagine all the men of the country leaving to hide for their lives, and the women being in the hands of the Japanese soldiers. I don’t in any way want to paint the picture that women couldn’t fend for themselves and that a man must the the protective shield, but to know that the Japanese took so much control of the women in such a sexual manner is mind boggling to me. For Lola to experience her friends being raped by these men and the men doing it for sport, it hurts my heart. This is a topic that obviously is still present even in our day today, and to know how acceptable it was during a time that was supposedly more “proper,” is also terrifying. I don’t have a lot of thoughts on this because it is so terribly painful to think about, but it is my thought that while my Lola experienced that in her day, I hope that in my generation, the numbers of these atrocities has
Tita Ruk, fondly remembered how much she loved to read history and how it influenced her poems. Lola was able to create beautiful poems, just as a spider creates beautiful webs. Her words were woven together with great thought and consideration for all her experiences. Furthermore, that Lola wrote poems that were considered, “modern” in her day. Nevertheless, her modern poems won many awards and were even published. One particular poem that she wrote in college and was later published as an award wining poem, “The Realization of Beauty,” echoes to me, her feelings of what it means to be free and empowered and to know yourself. She wrote in her first stanza,
“You are beautiful in the body He created,
Yet I see you beyond the opaqueness of this matter;
That is why there are distances in my gazes,
As seasons in my voices:
For I know you in my secret! (Rosie Escudero, 1949)”
Tita Ruk, said that Lola enjoyed writing poems that were based off of individuals she admired and was inspired by like Jose Rizal, the National of the Philippines. She admired his work ethic and how his poetry spoke of the importance of working. In one of Rizal’s poems, “Hymn to Labor” he writes to the children of the Philippines,
“Teach us ye the laborious work
To pursue your footsteps we wish,
For tomorrow when country calls us
We may be able your task to finish.
And on seeing us the elders will …show more content…
It was very sobering to hear of the atrocities that Lola faced during the war. I can’t imagine all the men of the country leaving to hide for their lives, and the women being in the hands of the Japanese soldiers. I don’t in any way want to paint the picture that women couldn’t fend for themselves and that a man must the the protective shield, but to know that the Japanese took so much control of the women in such a sexual manner is mind boggling to me. For Lola to experience her friends being raped by these men and the men doing it for sport, it hurts my heart. This is a topic that obviously is still present even in our day today, and to know how acceptable it was during a time that was supposedly more “proper,” is also terrifying. I don’t have a lot of thoughts on this because it is so terribly painful to think about, but it is my thought that while my Lola experienced that in her day, I hope that in my generation, the numbers of these atrocities has