Author Description

The Life and Times of the Perdon Family Renato Perdon Manila Prints Australia, $30.00 Reviewed by Aila Lenard The Life and Times of the Perdon Family is Renato Perdon’s 11th publication. I have read most of his books. The previous ones were products of years of painstaking research into the history of the Philippines. The number of history books that Renato has written attest to his love of history and research. So it is not the least bit surprising to know that Renato has come up with a book about the geneaology of his family. After all, if he can research into those events that only indirectly affected him, he can just as easily delve into those that have a direct bearing on his life. His background as a Filipino historian and his skills as an archivist come in handy in his quest to retrace his family roots and story. One good thing about a historian writing about his family history is that the book is not limited to a mere tracing of family roots. Renato also writes about the saga of his ancestors against a backdrop of the major events occurring at that time. Those who read about his family history will gain some insights into how this family handled life under the socio-political climate of the times. What I find fascinating about the book is the cultural explanation the author adds every now and then. To give an example, Renato’s parents were married in an era when a dowry was a co-requisite for marrying. According to him, this tradition was responsible in part for distributing a family’s wealth or, in the case of Renato’s parents, reducing the family’s land property. The way that a couple’s standing might depend on the amount of land their parents were able to grant them gives the reader a glimpse of the part that tradition played in the people’s economic and social pattern of life in that era. The author occasionally includes socio-political commentaries which also explain life in a particular time. Many of these are found in Renato’s account of