What explains the words in this painting? Did you know that Oriang’s second husband, Julio Nakpil, a national hero, musical composer and one of the most respected leaders of the Katipunan, used “Giliw” as his alias? Oriang’s words are a constant reminder to all about a basic cosmic truth that many often forget: “Fear history, for it respects no secrets.” Behind Oriang is a forest, through which a river flows and which paradoxically appears to come to a full stop. Perhaps it is the artist’s statement concerning the continuities and discontinuities of history and memory? Oriang appears relaxed in the painting while leaning on a red pillow draped with crimson fabric. Yet she holds aloft a saber. Why did the artist place a heart-shaped symbol beneath the hero, and what is the script at its center? What does it mean? Why did the artist paint in the foreground a fence, which provides little obstruction? In her autobiography, Oriang recalls her disposition while helping throw off the colonizer’s yoke: she always took sides. She was no fencesitter, for sure.