By Guillermo Gómez Rivera

I am lucky to have known Gilbert Luis R. Centina III for a long time. His father has roots in Calinog, Iloilo, like my mother, Lourdes, which makes us blood relatives. But the beauty of it all is that we are also cultural and ideological relatives because in spite of our human failings, the art of poetry and writing has made us invincible, therefore victorious, in our personal lives.

"The art of poetry and writing has made us invincible, therefore victorious, in our personal lives."

Gilbert as an Augustinian religious and I, as an alumnus of the University of San Agustín in Iloilo, live by our Filipino roots, which consist of both indigenous Visayan and Ilustrado Spanish cultures fragrantly springing from an old Sector de Mestizos or El Parian from the Spanish colonial period that makes us Christian Asiatics and Hispanics. Although Gilbert now resides in Spain and has become a U.S. citizen, he remains a Filipino at heart.