Rizal Library exhibit precedes 8th de la Costa lecture
The Ateneo de Manila University School of Humanities and the Rizal Library launched on April 7, 2016 a photo and text exhibit of Fr. Horacio V. de la Costa’s life and works as part of the lecture series commemorating the gentle genius’ birth centenary.
Starting from the ground floor all the way up to the 2nd floor, the exhibit showcased a timeline of the Jesuit’s life, including his main works and achievements. A bust of Fr. de la Costa and a life-size poster of him also stood at the lobby.
On the poster was the iconic standing pose of Fr. de la Costa, dressed in his white vestment and with his hands clasped in front of him. The seal of the Society of Jesus and the old seal of the Ateneo were also seen on the poster.
The poster was designed by Joel Alexander de Leon from the Ateneo Art Gallery.
Fr. Rene B. Javellana, SJ, curator of the exhibit, explained that the seals represented Fr. de la Costa’s time in the Ateneo as an educator and his identity as a Jesuit.
Dr. Maria Luz Vilches, dean of the School of Humanities, gave a short speech during the opening of the exhibit and said that the Rizal Library was the best venue to place the photo and texts.
“This is where the students come and I hope that they can see what Fr. de la Costa was like in the past, that he’s more than just a statue at the Humanities building,” she said.
She also added that this exhibit should coincide with the posters arranged by the Department of History at the Kostka Walk.
The lecture with Dr. Coeli Barry
After the opening of the exhibit, the 8th lecture of the series continued with Dr. Coeli Barry, Director in the Master’s Program in Human Rights Studies at Mahidol University in Bangkok.
Dr. Barry said that while Fr. de la Costa was highly regarded, especially in the Philippines, his works were not widely read.
Despite this, Fr. de la Costa was still being celebrated and honored because “there may be qualities that we are hankering for that de la Costa possessed or hunger for a time when institutions, like Ateneo, allowed and provided the space to someone of his stature to do what he did.”
Dr. Barry added that the act of honoring someone also benefitted those who did the honoring for they attached themselves to the attributes the person embodied.
She also likened Fr. de la Costa to a celebrated Thai bureaucrat, Puey Ungphakorn, and said that they both possessed similar gifts.
“They had personal integrities that matched their intellectual abilities with ample resources,” she said. “Their works were tied to the growth of higher education and political development in their countries.”
They, Dr. Barry said, stood out because the institutions gave them platforms to speak on a host of issues that carried their voices far and wide.
To view the pictures of the exhibit, open Google Photos in a new tab.
