Carlos,Kamille Klaire

BSECE

JPRIZAL

Gemma Cruz-Araneta,
a descendant of Rizal
is referred to most Filipinos a larger number of as a lovely lady than as a living relative of Jose
Rizal. (Click the photograph to view photographs of Gemma Cruz-Araneta at Almuerzo con
Gemma 2006.) Gemma is the grand-niece of Rizal through his sister Maria. In 1964 Gemma
won the title Miss International in the excellence challenge held at Long Beach, California. She
is the first Filipina to speak to her nation in a global magnificence expo and the first Filipina to
win the crown of Miss International. The individuals who know her family well were barely
astonished that Gemma gave her prize cash of 10,000 USD to Boys Town and Girls Home, both
orphanages.
Gemma Teresa Guerrero Cruz-Araneta is the little girl of extraordinary writer Carmen GuerreroNakpil by her first spouse Capt. Ismael Arguelles Cruz who was the grandson of Maria Rizal
through her child Mauricio. Ismael Cruz kicked the bucket amid the war and his wife Carmen
describes in "The Benovelence", how she had viewed her spouse taken away by the Japanese
and slaughtered, and she composed,
"...we had put our faith in the myth of the benevolent protector who did not materialize until fire,
shelling from both sides had reduced Manila to the last circle of hell and its people to wideeyed, shivering madmen. Those who had survived Japanese hate did not survive American
love. Both were equally deadly, the latter more so because sought and longed for.
In 1952 the widowed Carmen Guerrero wedded the modeler Angel Nakpil, a nephew of Julio
Nakpil who was confidant to Andres Bonifacio and was celebrated in his own directly through his
musical sytheses, one of which is the Himno Nacional of 1896. It is fascinating that Gemma is
specifically joined with the Rizal family and in a roundabout way to Bonifacio, in light of the fact
that Angel Nakpil was a nephew of Julio Nakpil who wedded Gregoria de Jesus, Bonifacio's
dowager.
A much more indirect association with essential occasions in the Philippines is through Leon
Ma. Guerrero (senior sibling of her mom Carmen) .who was then indicting legal advisor in the
Marcos-Nalundasan case. In her life story, Carmen Nakpil composed,
One morning, the doorbell rang and a dark, little woman in a terno was admitted. She and
Mama spoke quietly in the shuttered sala for a while. When the visitor left, I asked Mama who it
was. It was Mrs. Marcos, she said, the mother of Ferdinand E. Marcos. I pushed the subject.
What did she want? She said she had come to ask me, mother to mother, to speak to Leoni.
And tell him what? Mama did not reply and never said anything further. The press made the trial
a national event. Leoni lost the case and Marcos went free.
In 1968 when then President Ferdinand Marcos named Gemma Cruz Director of the National
Museum. who was simultaneously an individual from the National Historical nstitute. After
Martial Law was proclaimed in 1972, Gemma and her spouse, Antonio Araneta, and their kids,
Fatima and Leon, left for Mexico City where she lived until 1989. In Mexico, she acted as task
head of Centro de Estudios Economics y Sociales del Tercer Mundo (CEESTEM), counseling to

Carlos,Kamille Klaire
BSECE

JPRIZAL

then Mexican President Luis Echeverria. She likewise acted as Chief Program Assistant of the
United Nations Development Program (UNDP), managing the Mexican government's projects
with the UNDP
Gemma Cruz-Araneta was named Secretary of the Department of Tourism by President Joseph
Estrada, a position she held from June 30 1998 to 20 January 2001. In 2003, She was chosen
executive/trustee and president of Heritage Conservation Society of the Philippines (HCSP)and
was re-chosen in February 2006.
Like her mom, Gemma has separated herself too in composing. She has six productions to her
name: Makisig, the Little Hero of Mactan; Hanoi Diary; Beauty and Fashion for the Filipina (cocreator), Sentimiento: Fiction and Nostalgia, Katha at Salamisim, El Galeon de Manila: un
deface de historias (co-creator); and, Stones of Faith.