‘R’ is for Rizal; ‘h’ is for hero

Statue of Dr. Jose Rizal in Fort Santiago, Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CALAMBA CITY, Philippines—If there is one person who could be described by each letter of the alphabet, it is no less than Jose Rizal himself, said poet and author Vim Nadera.

To begin with, Rizal, Nadera said, was “A”—an athlete, “B”—a botanist, and “C”—a cartoonist.

“Did you know that (Rizal) was the father of Philippine cartoons?” said Nadera, who was a guest at the 117th anniversary of Rizal’s martyrdom here on Monday.

Nadera is the author of “Rizalpabeto,” a collection of 28 poems about Rizal, all written in Filipino.

The city government of Calamba, the hometown of the national hero, purchased 3,000 copies of the book for distribution to the public schools and libaries here, according to Kez Evangelista of the Center for Art, New Ventures and Sustainable Development (Canvas), the book’s publisher.

Each poem in Rizalpabeto corresponds to a letter of the alphabet. For instance, “Z” stands for the poem “Zero,” about the Kilometer 0 marker fronting the Rizal monument at the Luneta; while the letter “A” is all about “Arte Metrica del Tagalog” (rhyme and meter of Tagalog), based on a paper on poetry that Rizal delivered to European anthropologists.

Artist Elmer Borlongan used letras y figuras, an old Filipino art style of contouring human, animal and plant figures, to paint a letter in the alphabet.

The book was first published in 2012 by Canvas, a non-profit organization that runs the “One Million Books for One Million Filipino Children” campaign to encourage kids to read.