Dr. Marcelino A. Foronda, Jr.
Conferred AY 1991-1992
Professional Profile:
Introduction to the Festschrift in honor of Dr. Marcelino Foronda Jr.
The practice of honoring a well-known figure in academe by giving him a Festschrift on his sixtieth birthday is European in origin.
In the European tradition, the Festschrift consists of a re-publication of the honoree’s works in one volume and is sponsored by his colleagues and former students.
This original idea of the Festschrift, however, has been modified in the United States and elsewhere. The modified Festschrift is a collection of essays contributed by friends and colleagues in their own line of expertise and published in one volume to honor the celebrant.
Dr. Marcelino Foronda Jr., well-known historian, writer, and professor, deserves the distinct honor of being the first recipient of a Festschrift in De La Salle. Friends, colleagues and admirers have contributed articles in his honor. It is doubly significant that De La Salle University is also celebrating its Diamond Jubilee.
Dr. Foronda represents the “classical man of letters rare in our culture and society.” Andrew Gonzales, FSC, president of De La Salle University, has the following to say of him:
Literate and expressive in four languages, he calls to mind various men of letters who have enriched Filipino life and culture since the nineteenth century. In his interest in Ilokano studies, from literature, history, folklore, religion to anthropology and philosophy, one thinks of him as a successor of that great though controversial humanist, Don Isabelo de los Reyes. In Ilokano literature, he locates himself in the tradition set by Ignacio Villamor, another great Ilokano writer. But in his humanistic and antiquarian interests, as well as in his love of books and of collecting Filipiniana, one cannot help but consider him in the path of Norberto Romualdez, the legislator of the national language of this country. And in his meticulous care for historical detail and the exactitude never to overstate but above all, to present what is verifiable and available, Professor Foronda continues the scholarly trend set by Horacio de la Costa of the Society of Jesus.
Dr. Foronda’s biodata is impressive.
An alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas, Prof. Marcelino A. Foronda holds a Ph.D. from the Universidad de Salamanca, Spain. He did post-doctoral studies at Stanford and Notre dame Universities, U.S.A. He is professor and former chairman of the History-Political Science department of De La Salle University where he was chairman of the Research Council and editor of Dialogue.
Dr. Foronda pioneered in Philippine oral history, in the study of Rizalist cults and of Iloko literature in Hawaii, as well as in aspects of Philippine local and cultural history and bibliography. He has done archival and library research in the Philippines, Spain, the United States and Mexico, and has published books, monographs, and articles on the above-mentioned fields here and abroad.
Among his publications are: A Filipiniana Bibliography, 1743-1982, Manila, 1983; Oral History in the Philippines and Other Historical Essays, Manila, 1979; America is in the Heart: Ilokano Immigration to the United States, 1906-1930, Manila, 1976; Kutibeng: Philippine Poetry in Iloko, Manila, 1976; Cultural Life in the Philippines during the Japanese Occupation, 1942-1945, Tokyo, 1976; Dallang: An Introduction to Philippine Literature in Ilokano and Other Essays, Honolulu, 1978; Kailukuan: Historical and Bibliographical Studies, Manila, 1978; Mother Ignacia and her Beaterio, Makati, 1975; Cults Honoring Rizal, Quezon City, 1961; Insigne y Siempre Leal: Essays on Spanish Manila, Introduction by Ambassador Pedro Ortiz Armengol, Manila, De La Salle University History Department and the Research Center, 1986; Oral History Approach and the Chinese in the Philippines, ed. By Theresa Cariño, Manila, De La Salle University Press, 1985; Eusebio S. Garcia and the Chemical Industries of ther Philippines, in Anuaryo/Annales, III, 1 (1984-1985); The Chinese in the Philippines: An Oral History Approach, Manila: DLSU China Studies Program, 1984.
Dr Foronda was research and travel grantee of the U.S., Spanish, U.S.S.R., Chinese and Mexican governments and of the Ford, Asia, Lee (Singapore), Bayaning Filipino, and Filipinas Foundations, and of the National Endowment for the Humanities (U.S.A.) and the Japan Foundation for the Promotion of Science. He has read papers in international conferences in New York City, Moscow, Mexico City, Kyoto, Jogyakarta, Bangkok, Penang, Tokyo, and Michigan and has lectured in various parts of the Philippines.
Dr. Foronda is president of the Philippine National Historical Society, a past president of both the Philippine Bibliographical Society and Philippine Booklovers’ Society, and was at one time or the other executive boartd member of the American Studies Association of the Philippines, the Philippine Association for Military History, United Nations Association of the Philippines, the International Association of Historians of Asia, the Philippine Comparative Literature Association, and the Philippine Chapter of International PEN, among others. He is a regular member of the National Research Council of the Philippines.
The editor of the Journal of History, Dr. Foronda is one of two Asians who are on the Advisory Board of the International Journal of Oral History, published in the United States.
A former Fulbright-Hays Visiting Lecturer in Asian Studies at the Central Michigan, Wake Forest and Farleigh Dickinson Universities, and a Visiting Professor of Philippine Studies at Waseda University, Tokyo, Dr. Foronda has received the University of Santo Tomas Alumni Association, the American Historical Committee, the National Press Club, and the Tawid (Ilokano Heritage) awards for historical writing.
Dr. Foronda is currently a Visiting Professor at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at Kyoto University. He also recently took his oath of office as Member of the Board of the National Historical Institute, a position to which he was appointed by President Corazon Aquino.
Dr. Foronda is listed in Who’s Who in the World (Chicago, 1980), the Directory of Selected Scholars and Researchers in Southeast Asia (Singapore, 1974), and in the Rosters of Philippinists (Moscow, 1980) and U.S.A., 1980).