I did not have the good fortune of meeting the Jesuit icon Horacio V. de la Costa (HVDLC), much less sitting in his legendary history classes at Ateneo de Manila. But all was not lost because there surfaced the rare opportunity of getting to know him better through people who knew him well and a special lecture series in 2016 leading up to the centenary of his birth on May 9 of that year.
I was working on an HVDLC biography for children and young adults through several revisions (yes, rejected a number of times over) because it was a challenge to portray his intellectual life. How does one make tangible the greatness of his mind, the genius that he was, to make him an engaging and credible human figure to young readers? I was ready to abandon the manuscript but was compelled to continue as his 100th birthday came up. And I am so glad I did.
It gave me a chance to know the man intimately. An initial source was an April 1977 article, “A Man for All Seasons” by Paulynn Paredes Sicam in Goodman magazine. There was also theologian Fr. Catalino Arevalo, SJ, who was HVDLC’s student and close friend. To the young scholastic, HVDLC had written about his ordination: “… [W]hat words are there for the wonder and the glory … blinding and sudden…?”
It is regrettable that a major source, Roberto M. Paterno, with whom I had been communicating through the revisions, is no longer around to see the finished book. A history major and a deep admirer of HVDLC, he compiled and edited the complete HVDLC writings in three volumes.
It was Paterno’s High School Class of 1952 that commissioned the full-size bronze sculpture by Juan Sajid Imao in front of the humanities building now named after HVDLC on the Ateneo campus. This was the sophomore class that took such pride in HVDLC as the first Filipino dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. He was also the first Filipino provincial superior and the first Filipino and first Asian consultant to Jesuit Superior General Pedro Arrupe in Rome. How the students lamented all these firsts, urging him not to be so responsible so he could be freed from all administrative tasks and return home to write and teach.
The stately “White House” of HVDLC’s childhood in Mauban invites the visitor to the elegant lifestyle of the family (the furniture and tableware are preserved). One imagines him begging for more stories from his grandfather Marciano and the houseboy Sebio. Today owned and restored by longtime family friends Bonifacio and Conchita Tan, the house has a room reserved for HVDLC memorabilia.
The Ateneo University Archives has folders and folders of HVDLC correspondence and writings. And the unfinished model ship that he loved to assemble stands there.
It was a wonderful coincidence that the illustrator for the book, Fran Ng, is an Ateneo alumna who was awarded the Joseph Mulry Award for Literary Excellence. The award is named in honor of HVDLC’s teacher in rhetoric, an important influence in his life.
The biography is titled “The Playful Genius: The Story of Horacio V. de la Costa” (Anvil Publishing, Inc., 2017). Copies are available at National Bookstore.
The lecture series of Ateneo’s School of Humanities is now available in book form. It is titled “Reading Horacio de la Costa, SJ: Views from the 21st Century” and edited by Soledad S. Reyes, with the following contributors: Catalino G. Arevalo, SJ, Coeli Barry, Edilberto C. de Jesus, Jose Mario B. Francisco, SJ, Reynaldo C. Ileto, René B. Javellana, SJ, John B. Labella, Benito J. Legarda Jr., Vicente L. Rafael, Paulynn Paredes Sicam, Fernando N. Zialcita. It was launched on May 3 by the Ateneo de Manila University Press (www.ateneopress.org).
A hundred years after his birth and 40 years after his death, Horacio V. de la Costa is well loved and well remembered. And, it is hoped, he will be better known, read and appreciated not only by today’s youth but also by future generations.
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Neni Sta. Romana Cruz (nenisrcruz@gmail.com) is chair of the National Book Development Board and a member of the Eggie Apostol Foundation.