Brother Andrew B. Gonzalez, FSC
Conferred AY 1988 – 1989
Remembering Brother Andrew Gonzalez FSC
(February 29, 1940 – January 29, 2006)
By Ma. Lourdes S. Bautista
April 2006
When Brother Andrew Gonzalez, FSC passed away from complications of diabetes on January 29, 2006, a month to the day he would have turned 66, everyone who knew him thought it was an untimely death – there was still so much he wanted to do and so much that needed to be done. But the consolation for those left behind was that he had already accomplished in one lifetime what ordinary mortals could only hope to accomplish in several lifetimes.
Among other things, he was an outstanding institution builder. In his four terms as President of De La Salle University (1979-1991 and 1993-1998), he built the school up from a small boys’ college in the sixties to the research university it is today. He constructed several buildings in DLSU-Manila and founded the College of Saint Benilde as a center for innovative learning; he instituted the trimestral system to attract and retain faculty by matching the salaries of industry; he doubled the student population to keep pace with the growing population of the country; he promoted graduate education and initiated consortia arrangements to sustain new master’s and doctoral programs. For all these and more, he was conferred the title of President Emeritus of De La Salle University on September 28, 2005.
He was an outstanding linguist, a prolific language scholar contributing important studies in descriptive linguistics, historical linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics. And so it is such a surprise to find out, reading his last book God-Talk, that he had planned on becoming a professional theologian, and it was only on orders of the Provincial of the Christian Brothers in the Philippines that he had gone into linguistics. He felt negatively about the decision then, but he eventually came around to seeing it as part of the ways of Providence.
In descriptive linguistics, he wrote articles on various phonetic, syntactic, and lexical features of Tagalog and his most noteworthy contribution in this area might be his doctoral dissertation on the semantics of Kapampangan. His work on historical linguistics includes a study of the old Tagalog grammars and religious writings of the Spanish missionaries. As one of only a handful of psycholinguists in the Philippines, he did a pioneering case study of the acquisition of Tagalog by two children, his niece and his nephew, and he also prepared a state-of-the-art paper on child language studies in the Philippines. In the area of applied linguistics, Br. Andrew made contributions to both the theory and the practice of language teaching. It was through his influence that English for Specific Purposes became an established approach in Philippine schools.
But it is in the area of sociolinguistics that he has had the greatest impact. Together with his dear friend and esteemed colleague, Bonifacio P. Sibayan, he made Philippine sociolinguistics well-known throughout the world. He wrote the canonical work on the Filipinos’ quest for a national language (Language and Nationalism: The Philippine experience thus far, 1980 – in his opinion, his most important work). He laid out the language agenda for the Philippines for the twenty-first century: the maintenance of English and the development of Filipino, especially its intellectualization. He was at the forefront of policy formulation, especially with regard to the national language and the language-in-education policy. He directed several language surveys and co-authored a work reviewing and critiquing 70 language surveys done in the Philippines. Together with an adviser, he explored the features of Philippine English in the print media and went beyond impressionistic descriptions to more quantitative descriptions. His attempts to define when errors became features of the new Englishes and his proposition that the sociolectal varieties of English in the Philippines are a function of the extent and quality of education rather than social class have given rise to important research in the field. He studied not only the dialectal features of Philippine English but the features of Philippine English as they have evolved over different generations of Filipino users of English.
His legacy to Philippine linguistics should be measured not only in terms of his substantial contributions to scholarship but also in terms of his efforts to build up persons and institutions in the discipline. He taught and mentored a number of students who are now doing important work in linguistics and language education. More importantly, he strengthened the Linguistic Society of the Philippines by building up its financial resources and by making it a visible provider of training and research expertise for language-related matters. He was Executive Secretary of the Linguistic Society of the Philippines for 17 years and editor of its journal, the Philippine Journal of Linguistics, for 21 years. Mainly through his efforts, the Linguistic Society of the Philippines and the Philippine Journal of Linguistics have had an impact on Philippine social sciences and Philippine education.
Another institution that Br. Andrew helped establish on solid ground is the Philippine Social Science Council. Together with Fr. Frank Lynch, SJ and other pillars of the social sciences in the Philippines, he was instrumental in negotiating with funding agencies and donors for support for the programs and projects of the PSSC. He was the linguistics discipline representative to the PSSC Board of Trustees for several years and he was the PSSC Chair in 1981. He was involved in PSSC activities and remained engaged with PSSC concerns even when he was no longer on the Board.
Br. Andrew had a stint on the national stage when he was appointed Secretary of Education, Culture and Sports by President Joseph Estrada in July 1998. But Pres. Estrada was ousted from office in January 2001 and so Br. Andrew’s term was brief. In that space of time, however, he revised the Basic Education Curriculum and initiated the use of the Lingua Franca for teaching in the first three grades. He also cleaned house, being credited with putting in place a relatively corruption-free system for procuring textbooks and supplies for the public schools.
But in the end, the achievement that matters most is that he was a great human being and, according to the Brother Visitor of the La Salle Provincialate, Br. Eduardo Fernandez FSC, his greatness lay in selfless service. He did many little acts of kindness and generosity, and one example was donating most, if not all, of his honoraria to support the ASSCOM-DLSU Friendship Hospital in Apalit, Pampanga as his way of serving the men, women, and children of his hometown. The description of him in the obituary prepared by the De La Salle Brothers of the Philippine Province captures the essence of the person we have lost: ‘A man of vision, a man with a mission, institution builder, academician, linguist, intellectual. A disciple and citizen, prophet and professional, who brought the transforming power of the Gospel to bear on every human endeavor in order to realize God’s kingdom of truth, justice, love and peace.’
Let me end on a more personal note. In appearance, Brother Andrew looked formidable, tall and big and sometimes with a scowl on his face. But he was kind and gentle and caring. He showed those qualities especially to his advisees and young colleagues. Before the advent of cell phones, he pushed his advisees on by sending persistent telegrams inquiring about the progress of their thesis or dissertation. After the publication of a scholarly article or the presentation of a paper at a conference, one invariably received a typewritten (sometimes handwritten) note conveying his congratulations for a job well done and occasionally giving comments on how the paper could be further improved. Whenever he traveled abroad, he brought back pasalubongs for friends and staff – and he apologized for not continuing the practice when his trips became more and more frequent. Every year, two or three weeks before Christmas, his driver or his secretary would arrive at the office or at the house, delivering the delicious fruitcake baked by his nephew, together with a personalized card. He always celebrated with his friends during good times (over a fine meal) and always commiserated with us during bad (likewise over a fine meal). For this and many more reasons, we will always love and cherish him; he will always live in our hearts.