06/09/2026
The Carolinian community mourn the passing of the National Artist of the Philippines for Literature, Dr. Resil Buagas Mojares, who passed away on September 5, 2026, at the age of 83.
Widely revered as the "Visayan Titan of Letters," Dr. Mojares built a towering legacy as a historian, critic, teacher, and cultural icon whose life and work were intrinsically woven into the spirit of the University of San Carlos and Philippine scholarship.
His legacy will forever linger in the halls of our beloved university, as a Carolinian who earned his undergraduate degree in English and his master's degree in Literature, and later as a Professor Emeritus under the Department of Communication, Linguistics, and Literature and the founding director of the Cebuano Studies Center.
For Today's Carolinian, his passing is profoundly personal. Long before he became a pillar of Philippine letters, he helped shape this publication as an editor and later guided generations of young journalists as its adviser.
During the tumultuous years of the late 1960s and early 1970s, his writing championed radical nationalism, youth counterculture, and unflinching social critique in Cebu, forging an era of journalistic clarity and laying an ethical foundation that informed every line he would go on to write.
Through landmark works such as Origins and Rise of the Filipino Novel (1983), House of Memory (1997), and Brains of the Nation (2006), Dr. Mojares brought scholarly prestige to regional studies while remaining accessible to everyday readers.
Dr. Mojares taught us that knowledge and history do not belong behind university gates; they belong to the people who seek to understand their past in order to navigate their future. In honoring our former editor, mentor, and one of the country's finest minds, Today's Carolinian commits to carrying forward his standard of intellectual rigor, critical courage, and unwavering dedication to our shared heritage.
"It is the richness of memory which we must always nourish."
His contributions to literature, the academe, and society remain among the greatest gifts he leaves behind. May he rest in eternal peace.
—
Visual by Lee Ivan Castillo
Caption by Zsofia Antolijao
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