Encarnacion Alzona (1895-2001) is often remembered as the first Filipino woman to obtain a Ph.D. She had two Master’s degrees in history: one from the University of the Philippines (1918) and
another from Radcliffe College, Harvard University . She obtained a Ph.D. in history from Columbia in 1923. It’s a pity that her name and byline do not ring a bell among young readers today, because she was in her time the fairest historian in a hardy discipline dominated by men.
Listening to Dr. Alzona opened up another world, another time, where she lived on historical research and writing. I met her sometime in 1985 and asked her why she stopped writing in the 1960s. Her candid reply: “I am a hack writer. I do not write for free. Young people should do the writing [now] you know. If I [continue] to write, people will say: ‘She’s old-fashioned.’ So, I don’t write.”
I did ask Alzona what made her go into history, and the opening of her reply made me smile: “I was lazy. I did not like math or science. History is just reading, I liked that. Besides, I did not have to earn a living.”
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