by Red Constantino

“[H]ow do we exist, save on the lips of our friends?” wrote Virginia Woolf to Molly MacCarthy on 11 June 1939. The day before, Woolf said, “you were absolutely incandescent.”

After three days of a pewter sky came sunshine.

Zachary See, an intellectual who hides the fact that he’s a baker of seriously lovely scones, and historian Ambeth Ocampo, strode into the Constantino Foundation compound the other week to see the exhibit, Letizia: A Life in Letters. They joined Girlie and Kartini Alampay, who had walked in minutes earlier.

It was the day before free public access to the Linangan Gallery ended. The exhibit’s visitors seemed gratified with their experience. Girlie and Kartini were certainly delighted to have their photos taken with Ambeth, Zach, and my mum Lourdes Constantino, Dudi to friends and family, [READ]

Historian Ambeth R. Ocampo appreciated the exhibit when he dropped by the other week: “A recording of her playing the piano accompanied me as I walked through the exhibition. I felt like a child in a candy store, not knowing where to start or where to look.” If you fill up this form (https://forms.gle/YYFDFJAfS1uejQ5Q9) you [READ]

This Exhibition Brings A Hidden Figure Into The National Spotlight

From April 9 to May 30, the retrospective “Letizia: A Life in Letters” will be open to the public and will spotlight the life and writings of the esteemed but humble historian and nationalist

By Mel Wang | April 10, 2025 | Rolling Stone Philippines

Letizia Roxas Constantino, the late wife to nationalist historian and acclaimed journalist Renato Constantino, had often shied away from the spotlight. Despite being an esteemed writer, historian, and academic herself, Letizia had little desire to be a prominent figure in historical textbooks. When the matriarch was invited to be a guest speaker at The Philippine Booklovers in 1978 in place of her husband, she emphasized that she was at the podium “quite by accident.” “Instead of the major Constantino, you have this afternoon, the minor [READ]

A visit from the royalty of good causes: Three generations of fine Filipinas dropped by to see the Letizia: A Life in Letters exhibit. It was a pleasure to guide Teresita Ang See, her daughter Meah, and Meah’s daughter, Mayim, around the Constantino Foundation’s Linangan Gallery.

Tessy, as the academic and civic leader is known to friends, and Meah, are family friends. Meah is also a writer and, like her mother, is actively involved in countless social causes.

Renato and Letizia knew Tessy. Past foundation president, the late RC Constantino, his wife, Dudi (seen in the picture with her son, Red) and their children are good friends with both Tessy and Meah. It was thus a delight in Panay Ave. to receive Mayim as well, now a young woman pursuing a career in the arts.

Tessy and Meah are behind the celebrated Bahay Tsinoy, museum of Chinese in Philippine Life in Manila [READ]