Sapang Palay : hacienda, urban resettlement and core of the city of San Jose Del Monte, Bulacan / Jaime B. Veneracion.

The book narrates the personal engagement of the author with Sapang Palay, learning in the process the wider historical context in which it was transformed from a hacienda into a resettlement of urban "informal settlers." The forced evacuation of urban dwellers into the rural frontier of San Jose del Monte created social contradictions among the various classes, ethnic groups and political groupings that would be resolved only with the help of "integrators" and "movers." In the early phase of resettlement, philanthropists and government personnel were at the forefront. As the settlers got adapted to their new environment, they gradually developed community consciousness. At that point, student activist and ideologues entered the picture, and took over in leading the people to make demands on the government through organizing and mass actions. Developing social and civic consciousness has remained central to the story of Sapang Palay. The political forces saw the transformation of their community into a city as the solution to these problems of conflicts, divisions, and contradictions. THE AUTHOR Jaime Balcos Veneraction, writer, professor, and historian, finished his doctorate in Philippine Studies (History, Anthropology and Political Science) at the University of the Philippines in 1983. His dissertation on his province was eventually published as Kasaysayan ng Bulakan in 1986. Since then, he has published Philippine Agriculture During the Spanish Regime, which received the Best Book Award in 2004 from National Academy of Science and Technology. He was twice a recipient of research scholarship in Spain (in 1988 and 2001).He was a visiting professor at the El Colegio de Mexico and the California State University (hayward, San Francisco Bay Area, USA) in 1996. In 2009, he was invited to conduct courses on the Philippines at the Universidad de Pais Basco in Victoria, Spain. As a Visiting professor at the Bulacan State University, he helped establish the Center for Bulacan Studies in 1998. He was the founding president of ADHIKA ng Pilipinas (the national association of historians) from 1989 to 1995 and present president of SAMPAKA, the Samahang Pangkasaysayan ng Bulakan. For his various achievements in research, teaching and historical writing, the latest of which was Bulakan ng mga Bayani, he was given the UP Centennial Professor Award in 2009. During the Araw ng Maynila 2010, Mayor Alfredo S. Lim awarded him the Tanging Parangal for his contributions in the field of history, culture, and the arts.