Popcorn Sellers in the Luneta

Workers in the Luneta gather in the murky light carrying baskets. Is it dusk or dawn? Luneta was the former name of Manila’s Rizal Park, a large, popular public park and a respite from the city. In the park vendors sold food from kiosks or baskets, especially to the weekend crowds.

The painter Anita Magsaysay-Ho often painted working women. She said, “In my works, I always celebrate the women of the Philippines. I regard them with deep admiration and they continue to inspire me—their movements and gestures, their expressions of happiness and frustration, their diligence and shortcomings, their joy of living. I know very well the strength, hard work, and quiet dignity of Philippine women, for after all, I am one of them.”

Magsaysay-Ho is considered one of the most important Filipino artists of the twentieth century, and was the only female member of the Thirteen Moderns, the most significant group of Modernist artists in the Philippines.