Philperiodicals

In this particular issue of the Woman’s Home Journal there were many articles published about education and literacy following the reforms brought about in 1936 by Rafael Palma, the first chairman of the National Council of Education. The magazine conveys a favorable stance in the Editor’s Note on Palma’s new educational system. 
On the following pages the topic of education is discussed in various articles, each focusing on different aspects. For example, this article by Flora A. Ylagan highlights the fact that women’s organizations have long been promoting the education of adult women. Ylagan then goes to name a few of the projects which were developed for this purpose by The National Federation of Women’s Clubs. 
Other articles in this issue concerning the topic of education are “Education for Public Opinion”, “Literacy in the Philippines” and “Education – It’s Worth”. Aside from these education-related articles, there are articles devoted to the home, marriage and health, pages containing commentary to women’s fashion and beauty, a section consisting of multiple cooking recipes and a couple of literary works, mostly short stories.

Enriqueta Lozano (1829-1895) was a prolific Grenadian writer and a conservative Catholic. In Spain she was the founder of the magazines Madre de familia and La Aurora de María. In the Philippines she collaborated, in addition to the magazine El bello sexo, with the newspaper El correo, and published the novel Emma Delaunay in the printing house of Revista Mercantil de Manila. 
It seems that at the end of 1861 she was living in Manila, in the area of Dilao, next to the cemetery (see Gaceta 1862:3).
The poem she published in El bello sexo had been a second runner of the poetry contest organized by the Sociedad económica de amigos del país de la Provincia de Granada in 1888 and she read it at the meeting of the said society as the minutes of the public session of June 6 of the same year indicate.

A few months after the Korean Armistice Agreement (27 July 1953), which put an end to the
Korean War and established the actual border at the 38th parallel, the Philippines Armed Forces
Journal reprinted an article from Military Review by Brigadier General Samuel Lyman Atwood
Marshall, an important journalist appointed chief combat historian of the U.S. Army during
WWII and the Korean War.
The strongly anti-communist article took up against Communist China, seen as the primary and
real enemy (at least in the Korean War), not the Soviet Union. For Marshall, the Chinese knew
what was at stake and had a clear strategy, having constantly outmatched the US-lead coalition:
the Chinese knew their objective was not the prevention of killing, but victory, and Marshall
believed the US had conformed with a stalemate, without ever committing enough resources.
Marshall advocated for “a new era of firmness” and enough budget to prepare for the next
communist aggression in Asia.
The reprint also included several pictures of the Filipino troops, fighting, praying, and enjoying
the visit of Filipino stars such as Pablo Virtuoso, Cora Madrid, or Rumelia Flores. Thank to that
we can imagine how their life was during the armistice negotiations

The poem, published alongside an illustration and written in a simple style for first grade students, describes the habits of a fictional Moro boy who lives in a nipa house, is a good swimmer and can paddle a vinta.

In A Hard Look at the Anti-red law, published by Panorama, Perfecto V. Fernandez, professor of
law at UPHI and constitutional lawyer, argued that the Anti-Subversion Act of 1957 (Republic
Act No. 1700), was “politically” fair (as it protected the Republic from totalitarianism, and the
enslavement of its citizens), but problematic from the perspective of the individual, as it
sacrificed political and opinion freedom for the security of the state. The law illegalized the
Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas-1930 and the Hukbalahap, without, as Fernández noted, giving
any mention to the means of the party, identifying communism with violence and preventing it
from legitimately aspiring for political power.
Fernández's opinion that if given the chance communism should be allowed as long as it
accepted the peaceful rules of the democratic game, gave voice to a minority that saw with
concern the political developments caused by the Cold War in the archipelago, as the law
negated political liberty and was contrary to democracy. Fernández suspected that the law had
different ideological reasons than the protection of democracy, as “Surprisingly, some of those
who say this profess an admiration for Franco but this can be excused because Franco was the
appropriate religious views”.

Semana de Manila was also linked to Spanish Franocist Foreign Propaganda, publishing many
articles by Falangist intellectuals and defending Hispanism, anti-communism, and the lifting of
any restrictions on Franco’s Spain, by then diplomatically isolated. Rafael S. Ripoll, one of the
directors of the Spanish-speaking journal El Debate (1919- ca 1970) published an article on
September 7, 1950, remembering the start of the Korean War on June 5.
The article paid special attention to the decision-making process within the UN, highlighting the
Russian collusion with the invasion and the belief that communists would now use both
subversion and direct military action in his conquest of independent nations, menacing the
Philippines, involved in the conflict with a contingent led by Mariano C. Azurin and a key player
in the US global defense system.
Typically for the cold-war period, the article finished hoping for a victory of freedom with the
help of god and faith in the cause. Nevertheless, Ripoll mimicked the Francoist rhetoric of the
alienation of the “reds”, making communists foreign enemies of the nation, dehumanizing them,
and legitimizing their total destruction. Interestingly, for Ripoll, these red hordes that invaded the
Republic of Corea were as barbaric as the Japanese.