Eveth Kimberly B. Ganaden Chelsea Liz E. Bello Leonardo Martin T. Fontanilla Jonathan S.

Sierva

By: MANUEL E. ARGUILLA

 Born

on June 17, 1911 in Nagrebcan, Bauang, La Union. Son of Crisanto Arguilla, a farmer, and Margarita Estabillo, a potter. He finished elementary school in San Fernando where he became an editor-in-chief in their school newsletter He entered the University of the Philippines where he joined the UP Writers Club and later became the president and the editor of the UP Literary Apprentice and finished in 1933

 He

married Lydia Villanueva, a fellow artist and writer. He joined the Bureau of Public welfare where he was the editor of Welfare Advocate, the bureau's publication. But he was executed on October 1944 at age of 33.

Main

Character
father of Berting and

Father

Baldo Mother Ana mother of Berting and Baldo Berting the younger brother of Baldo Baldo the writer and the eldest.

Other

Characters
Inzo and Peddong

Artemio,

Berting and Baldos friends.

Tia

Accol the midwife. Ikkao, Nana Dalen, Tia

Nana

Anzang they helped Tia Accol

It was the year the locusts came and ate young rice in fields, leaving only raw stumps that had to be plowed under again to make way for a second planting. Harvest time came late that year and far into the month of November we cut the hay in the fields.

I am so tired, said my mother, getting to her feet. She held to the corner of the pig-pen a moment before stooping to pick-up the now empty jar. In the dim light, she appeared big, especially in the middle. Being noticed it, too, and he asked, Mother why is your stomach so big? She has a child inside her, I told him. Thats why she is so big.

My mother suddenly left the side of the jars of suman which she had been stirring and with slow, dragging steps went over to the ladder. She dropped on the lowest rung with a sharp, agonized cry and father ran to her side, asking what was the matter in a voice that sounded both alarmed and angry.

His name shall be Jesus, said mother. Yeah, his name shall be Jesus, my father said.