The book was written upon the insistence of Ester Vibal of Vibal Publishing Group, who has been a family friend and who also has had a long-standing admiration for the author’s family.
Nick Joaquin recounts in his incomparable style how Dr. Sixto Y. Orosa and his wife, Dr. Severina Luna Orosa served as pioneer Christian missionary doctors among the Muslims.
Avid Rizalistas and hispanistas, the Orosa couple have written essays and books on Rizal and, along with their daughter Rosalinda, received the Premio Zobel. Dr. Severina Orosa founded the Kababaihang Rizalista, the female counterpart of the Knights of Rizal.
Maria Y. Orosa, Dr. Sixto’s younger sister, was the country’s pioneer food technologist who introduced canning, food preservation and concocted more than 700 recipes, which she kitchen-tested herself. A captain in the ranks of Marking’s Guerillas, she died in line of duty while feeding starving Manilans and sending food to the guerillas in the mountains.
Business writers have described Sixto, Jr., the oldest son, as a banking and finance genius. “Evening News” editor-in-chief Prudencio R. Europa wrote: “Banker Orosa is the best Governor the Central Bank will never have.”
Alejandro R. Roces regarded Leonor O. Goquingco, the Orosas’ oldest daughter, the greatest National Artist for excelling in more cultural disciplines than any other National Artist. Leonor pioneered in the stylization of our folk dances, lifting them to an unprecedented creative, artistic level thereby wielding enormous influence on folk dances here and abroad.
Helen was the PRO of the Department of Health for 20 years, serving five Secretaries of Health. In the family, Helen produced the most number of artistically talented children and grandchildren.
For more than 10 years Jose owned a successful “Philippine House” of native products and handicrafts, unsubsidized by the Philippine government in Sweden.
Gaby Ignacio’s interview of Rosalinda in Lifestyle Asia magazine recounts her modest start as proofreader and her ending as one of the most internationally-awarded cultural essayist and performing arts critic.
After the launch, the books will be available at La Solidaridad Bookstore, Manila.