![]() ![]() I could clearly remember saying to myself: “Is this really Nick Joaquín?” It was my first time to really read something from him. I didn’t immediately like what I read, in fact it was a let-down. But before doing so, I browsed its pages and read a few lines. My decision to buy that biography (with the corny title of “ May Langit Din Ang Mahirap: The Life Story of Alfredo Siojo Lim“, for sure an idea of the presidentiable). Since I had the money for a book or two, I decided to grab a copy. I was then an admirer of Dirty Harry, drawn by his constant public condemnation of crime and drug use. I was at a bookstore when I saw a biography of presidential candidate Alfredo Lim. I encountered his name again during election season of 1998, the first time that I was to join the electoral process (I was then 18). Interest in Filipino Literature in English came during my tertiary years. After all, he’s been a National Artist for Literature since 1976. That means that even without having read any of his works, one is already so sure of his value and quality as a writer. However, his name has already become a byword. I was more into foreign reads and comic books. It must have been his “ Three Generations” that we tackled, but I wasn’t so sure because during elementary and high school, I wasn’t interested in Filipino Literature in English just as yet (I couldn’t even remember having read that short story in full). I first heard of the name Nick Joaquín in the same manner that most Filipinos today have first known about him: in school, during literary class. The commemoration begins on the anniversary of Nick’s death (April 29) up to the anniversary of his birth (May 4). He does this by simply publishing Joaquinesque-related posts on social media using the hashtag #NickJoaquínWeek. Now I regret doing that because I have nothing to quaff anymore during “Nick Joaquín Week”, a modest online initiative started in 2018 by Pangasinán-based teacher Dave Arjie Manandeg who himself is a big Nick Joaquín fan (I also suspect that he is one of the administrators of the Facebook page Nick Joaquín. ![]() I gulped down my final bottle about a week into the ECQ. But during that time, I wasn’t aware of any liquor ban as I was fixated more on the rising cases of COVID-19 patients. During the first few days of the enhanced community quarantine, I still had three bottles of my favorite San Miguel Cerveza Negra inside the fridge.
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