Publisher's Synopsis
About the book "Villains and Heroes" Larry Henares' essays are often thought of as a morality play, with its own consistent set of villains and heroes. His villains are "crooks, clowns, morons and traitors" among the Philippine officialdom, and his greatest peeves are the colons and the colonials, American carpetbaggers and scallawags among his own people, "the hired hacks and paid pipers of foreign imperialism." His heroes are Rizal, Recto and all Filipinos whose loyalty and allegiance belong their own country rather than to a foreign power. In this book of essays, "Villains and Heroes," Larry really goes to town against "Mommie Dearest" Mother America (recalling the vitriolic biography of actress Joan Crawford by her daughter); against alleged CIA station chief Norbert Garrett, against Minister Phil Kaplan in a satiric essay that recalls the once famous story by Leo Rossten, recently deceased; Secretary George Shultz whom he called Fatso; and Ambassador Frank Wisner whom he called Frankenstein the Wisner of Oz. Here he recounts the long story of how the Senate of the Philippines finally rejected a one-sided Military Bases treaty with the United States. Then again, he writes of other things: a hilarious essay on the bathrooms and toilets of the world; on mediocrity and intellectual cretinsm, on the social conscience of economists. And finally on death, a heroic fight against cancer, on Atang de la Rama, the final exit of the greatest of his contemporary heroes: Pepe Diokno and Lorenzo Tañada. Read and laugh your head off. Read, weep and gnash your teeth. ----------------------------------------------- Foreword The Vision of My Father by Elvira L. Henares Esguerra, M. D. MY father, Larry Henares (author), long past the age of reason, has now entered the age of wisdom. He can look back from the peak of his life and gaze upon the valleys and rivers and gorges that he has crossed, and see that the trajectory of his existence, so carefully planned by those who loved and influenced him, has finally brought him to his destiny and destination. It was his father, Hilarion Sr., who aroused in him a lifelong interest in things scientific, of being an engineer and a scientist, with a mission to industrialize a country long condemned to "the idiocy of rural life" as Karl Marx would express it. This wonderful and amiable man shared with his son his piles of National Geographic and Scientific American magazine -- magic carpets of science, discovery and invention that carried my father to flights of fancy and imagination even before he went to school. It was his father who admonished him, "Make as much money as you can, and when you have more than enough to spend in ten lifetimes, so that you are assured of all the necessities of life for yourself and your family -- when money becomes only a means of keeping score in the great game of life -- then retire. Retire in the most productive period of your life and offer your time and your talents to the service of your country. For the greatest gratification a man can have is to make his mark upon history." It was his mother Concepcion Maramba, who taught him how to love deeply without counting the cost, his future wife and family, his country, his God, with a mission to serve our nation and its people, especially the least of his brethren. She was a chemist and a pioneer in Home Economics, who introduced the course in Centro Escolar de las Mujeres, Philippine Women's University, and the University of the Philippines. And she went on to be the president of the National Federation of Women's Clubs. (MORE INSIDE)
