Metro Infanta Foundation

Chile
Arizala, Rudy & Maria Loretto
Arizala, Ma. Alejandra

Ambassador Arizala brings back fond memories of Infanta
by Mila Glodava

This Christmas we would like to feature Ambassador Rudy Arizala and his family now residing in Chile. Ambassador Arizala has been the soul of Metro Infanta Foundation. Over the years, the ambassador has been constant in his efforts to help us maintain our connection to our beloved town. His articles, poems, short stories and essays on Infanta and the many people who touched his life and ours, have become the glue that connected our community in Diaspora. In fact, Amb. Arizala has brought back many fond memories of our hometown, especially for many of us who have forgotten our past. He duly noted the inevitable changes in our town, some for good, and some questionable. He remembered many minute details of our past, and we have posted many of them on the pages of this website. Some of them we can no longer access since we changed its layout and software. Thus, it is our aim to repost on this web pages the timeless stories of our past.

Ambassador Arizala reminds us often of the saying, "Ang hindi marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hindi makakarating sa patutunguhan." Lao Tzu, the ancient Chinese philospher agrees with him, according to the often repeated quote, "A journey of a thousand leagues starts from where you stand," and " to return to the root is to find peace; to find peace is to fulfill one's destiny." Indeed, the ambassador's thought-provoking and inspirational articles have stirred in us a deep longing to look back to our past. Fortunately, we were able to publish most of his articles in a book, "Labong ng Kawayan: Walking through the paqthways and streets of Infanta," for posterity. I hope you have had a chance to pick up a copy which we distributed free of charge to all the private and public schools in Infanta and neighboring towns. But this was before the calamity of 2004! I hope some of those copies were recovered from the flood waters of the typhoon.

On a personal note, I have met the ambassador only once during the launching of "Labong ng Kawayan," in June 2002, yet I feel I have known him all my 60 years, and consider him my friend of a lifetime. He has written poems for me and my family and I am very touched by them.

Now it's our turn to say "Thank you, Ambassador," for the memories and we hope you will continue to do so when your time allows.

As our way of saying thanks, we would like to share with you some of the writings, or "musings" as he sometimes calls them, in the next few days, lest we forget from which we came. In the spirit of the season, however, we will feature his writings on Christmas celebrations in the in Infanta and Philippines at large.

Tomorrow, Dec. 22, we would like to start with a feature article on Ambassador Arizala written by a Denver writer, Colleen Smith.