Resil Mojares, cultural icon and national artist

IT is hard to imagine Philippine culture without Dr. Resil Mojares, who passed away at the age of 83 last Sept. 5, a day after his birthday. Conferred the National Artist for Literature award in 2018, he is a leading figure in the promotion of regional literature and history. As founding director of the Cebuano Studies Center — an important research institution which placed Cebu in the research and documentation map — he pioneered Cebuano and national identity formation. He also wrote books notable for their readability, depth and critical rigor. Over a period of 60 years, Mojares published more than 120 books, monographs, anthologies and essays in diverse forms: fiction, journalism, literary criticism and cultural studies. Among them are "Waiting for Mariang Makiling: Essays in Philippine Cultural History," "Brains of the Nation: Pedro Paterno, T.H. Pardo de Tavera, Isabelo de los Reyes and the Production of Modern Knowledge," "The Feast of the Santo Niño: An Introduction to the History of a Cebuano Devotion," "Interrogations in Philippine Cultural History: The Ateneo de Manila Lectures" and his last published book, the magnum opus, "Enigmatic Objects: Notes Towards a History of the Museum in the Philippines." In 2019, The Freeman, Cebu's longest-running newspaper, recognized Mojares as one of the Top 100 Cebuano Personalities. Until his later years, Mojares remained based in Cebu City, where he continued to write and mentor researchers as a professor emeritus at the University of San Carlos (USC), while remaining a central pillar of Visayan historiography and letters. Ian Rosales Casocot wrote a detailed account of Mojares' life and work. Mojares was born in 1943 in Polanco, Zamboanga del Norte, to two public school teachers. His father was from Tanjay, Negros Oriental, but was born in Ginatilan, Cebu. He earned his BA and then his MA in Literature at the University of San Carlos, where he also received postgraduate training from German anthropologists, notably Fr. Rudolf Rahmann. Mojares later attended the University of the Philippines in Diliman where he earned his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature where he wrote the foundational study on The Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel. In 1975, he established the Cebuano Studies Center at the University of San Carlos, becoming its founding director. It is now an important research institution, which has placed Cebu in the research and documentation map. In his work for the center, Mojares pioneered Cebuano and national identity formation. He personally collected materials and resources for the center not only locally but also abroad. As director of a pioneering research center in local studies, he received various grants that facilitated his pioneering work of mapping and gathering materials. He also set up important links with cultural agencies and organizations based in Manila and overseas. Mojares also received a fellowship from the UP Creative Writing Center, and teaching and research fellowships from the Ford, Toyota and Rockefeller foundations, the Fulbright Program and the Social Science Research Council in New York, and two prizes from outside the country: the Grant Goodman Prize for History from the Association of Asian Studies, and the Fok Ying Tung Southeast Asia Prize for his contribution to the development of civilization, culture and science in Southeast Asian countries. He also served as a visiting professor or fellow at the Universities of Wisconsin, Hawaii, Michigan, Kyoto University, UCLA, and the National University of Singapore. Dr. Mojares' works covered a wide field in arts, culture and history. He was appointed chairman of a special committee by the National Historical Commission of the Philippines to determine one key historical item in our history: where the First Mass was celebrated in the country. That committee, called in the press as 'The Mojares Panel,' had to settle this historical controversy for the Philippine Quincentennial Committee, related to the celebration of the Magellan Quincentennial of 2021. The Mojares Panel, tasked with determining the site of the First Easter Mass in 1521, used primary and secondary sources in their analysis. They used primary sources, such as historical accounts (including Antonio Pigafetta's journal, documents from the Spanish Royal Archives, and other navigator journals), archaeological evidence, and official church records; and secondary sources, such as various historical analyses, previous research studies, historical contextualization, and maps and geographic studies. The Mojares Panel synthesized these sources to arrive at their conclusion that Limasawa island in Leyte was the site of the First Easter Mass. The breathtaking study considered both the reliability of historical accounts and the tangible evidence provided by archaeology. Dr. Mojares' life was a towering achievement. He has joined the few who could be called the 'brains of the nation.'