[Book Talk] Narrating the National Hero

Who was Jose Rizal? While many already know him as our national hero, historian and author Jose Victor Torres invites us to reexamine how we see the Filipino patriot to gain a richer appreciation of his life and legacy.

Join us in a book talk for What Kapitan Tiago Served and Padre Damaso Ate: Studies on Jose Rizal, His World, and His Works to commemorate our national hero's birth anniversary with Jose Victor Torres and Glenn Mas as moderator.

Don't miss this talk on June 17, Friday, at 3:00 pm via Facebook Live.

About the speaker:

Jose Victor Z. Torres is a multi-awarded writer, playwright, and essayist. He is full professor at the History Department of the De La Salle University-Manila and associate director for drama and history at the Bienvenido N. Santos Creative Writing Center of the same university. He is an author and editor of books and articles on Philippine history and culture. A former researcher at the Intramuros Administration, he has master's and doctorate degrees in History from University of Santo Tomas (UST). His book Ciudad Murada: A Walk through Historic Intramuros won the National Book Award for Travel Writing in 2006 and his collection of essays To the People Sitting in Darkness... And Other Footnotes of Our Past was awarded the National Book Award for Essays in English in 2017.

About the book:

What Kapitan Tiago Served and Padre Damaso Ate addresses the sociohistorical context of Rizal's nineteenth-century world, his novels, and his ambitions. By stripping away the title of pambansang bayani and delving into a deeper, more personal understanding of who he was through his work, we can reconfigure our perception of Rizal to gain a richer appreciation of his life and legacy. Beyond looking at Rizal as a hero, we might want to discover who Rizal was at the end of the day—a human being. 

For more information on how to attend this talk, email us at marketing.unipress@ateneo.edu or follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.