Sta. Romana Cruz Neni - Playful Genius: The Story of Horacio V. de la Costa

THE PLAYFUL GENIUS: The Story of Horacio V. de la Costa

Story by Neni Sta. Romana Cruz

Illustrations by Fran Ng

Copyright to this digital edition 2017 by

Neni Sta. Romana Cruz, Fran Ng, and Anvil Publishing, Inc.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owners.

Published and exclusively distributed by

ANVIL PUBLISHING, INC.

7th Floor, Quad Alpha Centrum

125 Pioneer Street, Mandaluyong City

1550 Philippines

Sales & Marketing: (632) 4774752, 4774755 to 57

Fax: (632) 7471622

www.anvilpublishing.com

First printing, 2016

Book design by Fran Ng (cover and interior) and Joshene Bersales (interior) Photographs and illustrations based on photographs courtesy of the Archives of the Philippine Province of the Society of Jesus (APP-SJ) and the Ateneo University Archives (here), except photos of model galleon and sample writing of HVDLC (here and here) and photos of HVDLC busts in the Ateneo and Mauban, Quezon, (here) by R. Jordan P. Santos.

ISBN 9786214201730 (e-book)

Version 1.0.1

To Diego, Emilio, Juliana
that they may take pride in their Filipino rootsNSRC

In loving memory of my aunt,
Mary An GonzalezFN

Contents

The Playful Genius

Timeline

Acknowledgments

Guide Questions for Classroom and Book Club Discussions

About Neni Sta. Romana Cruz

About Fran Ng

Horacio was an only child.

His father, Sixto de la Costa, was a judge, and wanted Horacio to be a lawyer. Even then, he was building up a library of law books for the law office he dreamed of having with his son one day.

The young Horacio got into the usual boyhood mischief. When he was two, he swallowed three pins from his mothers sewing box. A doctor prescribed a simple diet of sweet potato. Three days later, Horacio finally got the pins out of his body. His mother offered a thanksgiving Mass for that miracle.

Many times, Horacio would come home with telltale signs of guava scent and syrup drippings on his shoes. This meant that he had disobeyed again his mothers rule that he should not eat outside their house. He always had the same poor excuse: his mothers friend had offered him something to eat, saying it was clean anyway. Still, his mother was not pleased.

The young boy was so happy with his toys and booksABC blocks, model ship kits, watercolor sets, The Book of Knowledge. He was an intelligent child who loved listening to the Tarzan stories and silly verses from his Lola Marciana and their houseboy Sebio.

Horacio would squeal in delight at the end of each story and beg for more. He would laugh out loud and always say, Lola, kuwento! He never grew tired of them.

This was the beginning of his love for words and stories.

When Horacio went to school, this interest in books and words and stories grew even more. He was always curious, loved to learn, and knew so many words none of his classmates did. They even called him Mr. Dictionary. He was an outstanding student, even skipping a grade in elementary school. He always finished at the top of the class.

When he went to the Ateneo High School, his classmates whispered in awe that this little newcomer from Tayabas was supposed to be a genius.

In college, Horacio was known to excel in poetry, debate, oratory, and drama. He was the best speaker for debates and oratorical contests. Everyone was challenged to beat him, but no one could. His classmates would whisper, Is he a genius?

By this time, he had earned the nickname Skeezix from his American Jesuit class adviser, after a popular comic strip character who was childlike and lovable.

Horacio was one of the three who graduated summa cum laude in a class of ten. With his extraordinary talent with words, he could be anything he wanted to be.

But he shocked his parents by seeking permission to be a Jesuit priest. He felt that being a priest would allow him to best use his gifts, for God and his fellowmen.

It was like a bolt of lightning had struck his parents. His father collapsed in disbelief and tried to convince Horacio to take up law instead. It was the only time he saw his father very angry with him.

His parents finally agreed when they saw that their son had made up his mind. His father complained, Why dont the Jesuits get their priests from big families?

Horacios love for stories as a little boy developed into a great love for history. He knew Philippine history well because as a young scholastic, he was given an assignment by his superior. He could not do it as well as he wanted to without research. So he asked permission to read the famous Blair and Robertson series of fifty-five volumes on Philippine history.

As a history teacher at the Ateneo, he made history come alive. He often got lost in his world when he talked about events from the past, sounding like he was living in that particular period. The students did not seem to exist. He would walk up and down the classroom, look out the window, and just continue telling stories as if he was that young boy again, begging for more adventure tales from Lola Marciana.

All were fascinated with the way Father de la Costa expressed himself so clearly and beautifully in the classroom and in the books he wrote. All his students wanted to be in the front row to make sure they did not miss anything in his exciting classroom lectures.

History became interesting, not just a long list of boring dates and events to memorize. Horacio could make a naval battle or an assassination seem like a movie, complete with sound effects and action. He convinced the class that events from the past had lessons to teach all of us. He had this wonderful ability to connect history with other subjects. He would include jokes and witty remarks and the class would be left wondering: How could a brilliant historian be so down to earth? How could he sometimes sound like a poet with his choice of words? Words would just flow from the mouth of this gifted priest, impressing even those who were not really interested in history.