In this volume, stories from yesteryears seek to bring to life realities that could make visible what is invisible to the visions of our present moment: the 17th-18th century Spanish notions about Filipino identity; the constitutive discourses if our heroes; domination and resistance in the implementation of policies and programs to stop cholera during the administrative career of W.H. Taft: collaboration by local elites during the Japanese occupation; US-Philippine security relations, and; Angelo De La Cruz hostaged by so-called international terrorists.

Crossings: Portraits of a Revolutionary opens with the carefree days of Peña’s youth and ends with samples of his translation of some of the best of world literature into Filipino or English. In between, the reader enters a world of encoded communications, a network of underground couriers, romantic interludes, a chase through the forest with enemy soldiers at his heels. There is also a glimpse into an exile’s everyday life in China during the Cultural Revolution.

The inspiring true story of how volunteers saved their city from a volcano’s devastation, transformed an abandoned military base into an economic miracle, and changed a people and a nation forever.