si pepe...

I first heard of ambeth ocampo in Jessica Zafra's Twisted Klite Show. That was a few years back. Later on, sa pagiging tambay ko sa favorite bookshop ko (powerbooks megamall), nagtrip tripan na naman ako and went to browse on the coffee table books about national heroes. There were books about Rizal, I opened some and saw his pictures; he’s posing differently. Ndi posing na pang-dalawang piso. There were pictures pa with Hidalgo and Luna. Ay may barkada pala si Pepe.

That's when I stumbled on “Rizal Without the Overcoat”. What made me notice it was the cover that shows Rizal with the superman logo sa dibdib. When I saw the name of the author, I knew then that this book would be interesting. I was so curious, but like Rizal, medyo nagkukuripot ako. That's what I love about Powerbooks, I can browse the book freely, without being guilty of being caught by manong guardia. If Rizal had the same access, I would have bumped on him siguro :) (wishing..).

I treasure books though I have to read/browse on them first or know the author's works before I collect them. At that time, I had some other “treasures” in mind, so I had to contend with browsing it muna. There were a lot of anecdotes that I didn’t know Rizal did. It was such a contrast for me to see a different side of the hero, like writing about the boisterous americano he encountered in one of his trips. (I do believe Rizal did get the wrong impression about the man, talaga mang nakakainis maybe the comments the americano had made came from the feeling of missing his homeland, and this is his way of coping with it. Kulang siguro sa tulog si Rizal kaya ndi nakuhang mag-emphatize?) My interest peaked though when I came across Mr. Ocampo’s question on whether Rizal was a leftist, rightist or central-ist? And that hilarious scene in Noli where the girls and boys have to share one banca because “may limang butas ang bangka na kelangan din ng limang pangpasak”. I recalled in high school how the boys in our class would laugh about this.

But I'm getting ahead with my story.

I wasn't fortunate enough to continue perusing the book, scatterbrained as I was (still am!). Naalala ko na lang ang book na to later, when I found Jessica Zafra's twisted blog in the net.

Pag nagkukuripot ka talaga, you find ways to support your needs and wants. At pag wala, you rationalize your spendings. :) This is how I stumbled on a copy of the book in a Singapore library. For $1.55 (almost 50 pesos), I was able to reserve a copy. Okay na yun, tulong ko na lang yung singkwenta pesos sa SG library, which still stand as my favorite place in this part of the world. I was so proud to find a filipino author here. Much more was to get something about my country's national hero.

Naging tao sa kin si Rizal after I finished reading the book. Kasi naman, we're trained to know Rizal as a super-enigma person, a great genius. But we were not taught to question the facts presented in our textbooks, much better to memorize everything and get the course done and over it. I'm sure this is not what the great Recto had in mind. But I would like to raise my hat to him as he did make us not forget this great man. I was not even aware that Rizal had been a great topic for debate as my classmates are also, I suppose. All I remember from my Rizal class was that we just needed to participate in a field trip to Subic to complete our requirements. At least yun lang, sa iba, they needed to memorize poems of Rizal.

The book is a collection of articles the author wrote about Pepe. What I loved about it is Mr. Ocampo’s style in conveying the facts about Rizal's life, one that will interest people like me coming from the masa crowd. Ndi textbook ang dating. His innate passion about Rizal shows in this compilation, he doesn't deny it, which makes his stories more colorful. Ang sarap nya sigurong maging professor, tiyak pila ang course nya sa enrolment.
Kids are truly lucky these days; they have so much access to information. Haay.