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(Last of two parts) That old family mirror my father used in his youth was my father himself during the Japanese occupation. In some of his more popular short stories, as critics and scholars observed, like Teodoro Agoncillo (Mga Piling Kuwento 1886-1948), there were no heroes, no figure that stood out in the drama, “Walang tiyak na tauhang nangingibabaw.” This is a departure from the usual mold of short stories. What counts is the ability of the thought configuration and the clever use of words to capture and mirror the reality of the milieu. True, what people did during the Japanese time were nothing short of heroic. As one poet during Stalin’s time expressed: “No foreign sky protected me, no stranger’s wing shielded my face, I stand as witness to the common lot, survivor of that time, that place.” ....
My father is Serafin Cruz Guinigundo, Apin to his friends, whom everybody thought was a fool for reciting Filipino poetry for hours before an old family mirror one summer afternoon. He commandeered it and carried it down and placed it under a fruit tree. He was barely ten when my grandmother Juliana rushed to ask him what was wrong with his mind. Some of my father’s playmates apparently suspected he went nuts and told on him. So many things my father taught me, and this was one of them. If I wanted to do good with my craft, I must practice to perfection. ....