15. Alejandro Reyes Roces (13 July 1924 – 23 May 2011) was a Filipino author,
essayist, dramatist and a National Artist of the Philippines for literature. He
served as Secretary of Education from 1961 to 1965, during the term
of Philippine President Diosdado Macapagal.
Noted for his short stories, the Manila-born Roces was married to Irene Yorston
Viola (granddaughter of Maximo Viola), with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth
Roces-Pedrosa. Anding attended elementary and high school at the Ateneo de
Manila University, before moving to the University of Arizona and then Arizona
State University for his tertiary education. He graduated with a B.A. in Fine Arts
and, not long after, attained his M.A. from Far Eastern University back in the
Philippines.[1] He has since received honorary doctorates from Tokyo University,
Baguio's St. Louis University, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, and the
Ateneo de Manila University. Roces was a captain in the Marking’s Guerilla
during World War II and a columnist in Philippine dailies such as the Manila
Chronicle and the Manila Times. He was previously President of the Manila
Bulletin and of the CAP College Foundation.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
16. During his freshman year in the University of Arizona, Roces won Best Short
Story for We Filipinos are Mild Drinkers. Another of his stories, My Brother’s
Peculiar Chicken, was listed as Martha Foley’s Best American Stories among the
most distinctive for years 1948 and 1951. Roces did not only focus on short
stories alone, as he also published books such as Of Cocks and Kites (1959),
Fiesta (1980), and Something to Crow About (2005). Of Cocks and Kites earned
him the reputation as the country's best writer of humorous stories. It also
contained the widely anthologized piece “My Brother’s Peculiar Chicken”. Fiesta,
is a book of essays, featuring folk festivals such as Ermita's Bota Flores, Aklan's
Ati-atihan, and Naga's Peñafrancia.
Something to Crow About, on the other hand, is a collection of Roces’ short
stories. The book has been recently brought to life by a critically acclaimed play
of the same title; the staged version of Something to Crow About is the first
Filipino zarzuela in English. This modern zarzuela tells the story of a poor
cockfighter named Kiko who, to his wife's chagrin, pays more attention to the
roosters than to her. Later in the story, a conflict ensues between Kiko’s brother
Leandro and Golem, the son of a wealthy and powerful man, over the affections
of a beautiful woman named Luningning. The resolution? A cockfight, of course.
Something to Crow About won the Aliw Award for Best Musical and Best Director
for a Musical Production. It also had a run off-Broadway at the La Mama
Theater in New York.
Through the years, Roces has won numerous awards, including the Patnubay ng
Sining at Kalinangan Award, the Diwa ng Lahi Award, the Tanging Parangal of
the Gawad CCP Para sa Sining, and the Rizal Pro Patria Award. He was finally
bestowed the honor as National Artist of Literature on the 25th of June 2003
17. The story was about the weird chicken which Kiko and his bROther found. They coudn't tell
whether it is a hen or a rooster. They keep on arguing to each other because Kiko insist that the
chicken is a rooster for they saw it on the field fighting another chicken. But his brother is not
convinced for the chicken has no comb or wattles, both disagree to one another.
They began to ask their mother and father, even the people on their village like Tasio and Mr.
Cruz. But all of them couldn't tell whether it's a hen or a rooster. And they also thought that it
was a "binabae".
So instead, they decide to bring it into the cockpit and make it fight to a rooster. But during the
fight there is a turn of events, things gone different for what they have expected. A lovesick
expression came into the rooster's eye, instead of fighting, the rooster began to do some love
dance but the peculiar chicken suddenly stub its spur into the rooster and the fight is over. The
brothers couldn't believe what they had saw.
Kiko thinks he convinced his brother that the chicken is a rooster, but he chicken act something
strange. It began to quiver, and egg came out and drop into his brothers hand.
SUMMARY
