Happy Pride Month, everyone! I want to start by saying it’s not enough to just say love is love. We must protect and actively support the LGBTQ community.

There is so much to say about the life and work of the two Filipinos honored here. Thankfully, they left for us an entire republic of letters. Their words and images in this exhibit speak for them, along with those shared by the dearest of their friends, such as Dr. Inday Pineda-Ofreneo, poet, feminist scholar, and biographer of Renato Constantino, and Prof. Bernard Karganilla, a student of Renato and Letizia, and Tita Princess Nemenzo, another ageless feminist icon who, like Tita Inday, was a friend of four Constantino generations, from the originals to many of their great grandchildren. So much to share, and yet we still have boxes and boxes and boxes we have yet to open in the foundation.

What helped us make this really tough exhibit come together was thanks to a few people. Renato and Letizia, who wrote voluminously and Letty who chronicled and kept everything, as you’ll read in one of the panels. I want to point out the boost given to us by the design, which always had a central concept, because of the twin arrows designed for the covers of 𝘈 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘥 and 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘶𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘢𝘴𝘵 by RC Constantino, our dad who was also the eldest of Tato and Letty – thank you Papa.

The never-ending relentless support of our mother, the activist and writer Dudi; nakatindig kaming lahat sa iyong balikat. Salamat din kay Marika Constantino, who helped us secure the image of Biboy Delotavo’s painting of A Past Revisited, which you’ll see in the exhibit.

The work of Ohm David and his team who produced the Letizia: A Life in Letters exhibit last year. The Yuchengco Museum team, such a fine crew of smart, sharp, keen people to work with – maraming maraming salamat sa inyo.

Ako, with my sister, Karmina Constantino-Torres, my wife Kala, and our son, Rio, we’re all proud followers happy to do the bidding of two incredible people we love deeply: we reserve the most colorful thanks – and extend the deepest of deep bows to two women. First, to the Curator – Ninel Constantino, painter and head of the Industrial Design Program of the UP Diliman College of Fine Arts, who happens to be both my sister and our neighbor in Kamuning. No one else could have captured Renato and Letty and their work this way; it is something I’ve always thought was uncontainable. Ang sagot sa ginawa mo ay masasabi nating tamang gamit ng salitang “Susmaryosep.”

Ginagamit ko rin ang salitang ito – SUSMARYOSEP – para sa kanyang Co-Curator, the graphic designer who goes by the name Yla Luna Constantino. I am so proud to be known as the brother of Ninel. And Kala and I are so proud to be called the parents of Luna.

Our current period will be remembered in history as a chapter of intense chaos. We are living in troubled times around the world, but also here. Our nation feels lost – not only because of garbage that sometimes calls itself senator and congressman. So-called Leaders who lead only in thievery, in the destruction of our native trees and mountains, who kill innocents, who refuse to pay hundreds of millions in taxes they owe to the country, who lead in mendicancy and cowardice and the dispossession of countless communities. We are in trouble because we are such a forgetful people.

This exhibit is our small contribution to correcting our state of national amnesia. May we all remember better and may we all be active participants ready to help deliver the lasting change our people and our land have long deserved. Thank you everyone. #FreePalestine!