Past Lives, Precious Objects
Edited by Emie G. Velarde
There’s always a need for something borrowed and something blue, something old and something new in every wedding. And in getting harried to getting married, there is one place where three of these can be found, some place brides almost always forget to look into: Ang Aparador ni Lola. Come look at what famous writers like Jose Lacaba and Jose Javier Reyes have found in their grandmothers’ aparador.
From the Publishers
Erlinda Enriquez Panlilio
National Book Awardee 2002 and 2000
Who would ever think that a quotidian object could be the repository of so many memories, often tender, and at times tinged wit pain? Reading the stories the authors tell of their grandmothers’ aparador is akin to taking a nostalgic promenade through time, to an era sometimes beyond our ken. It reminds us to take stock of our own relationship with the unappreciated elders in our family. Who knows, we may even see ourselves in the mirror of our lola’s aparador!
Ambeth R. Ocampo
Chairman, National Historical Institute
As a historian I have gleaned the life and times of heroes by looking into their aparador. I often wish my lola had a 19th Century aparador of her own, if only to make antique collectors salivate. Instead she had a row of cabinets big enough to hide in. The contents were ordinary – oversized underwear and tacky plastic containers of Holy water from Lourdes, for instance. But seen through the prism of memory and nostalgia, these things form an integral part of my personal history. I would have wanted to write an essay too, for this wonderful book.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Aparador ni Lola: Past Lives, Precious Objects is available at all Power Books Specialty Store branches: Greenbelt, Alabang, Megamall and Glorietta
