The Sentro Rizal () is a

Philippine government The government of the Philippines () has three interdependent branches: the legislative, executive, and judicial branches. The Philippines is governed as a unitary state under a presidential representative and democratic constitutional repub ...

-sponsored organization whose main objective is the global promotion of Filipino

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

, and

language Language is a structured system of communication that consists of grammar and vocabulary. It is the primary means by which humans convey meaning, both in spoken and signed language, signed forms, and may also be conveyed through writing syste ...

. Established by virtue of the

National Cultural Heritage Act The National Cultural Heritage Act, officially designated as Republic Act No. 10066, is a Philippine law that created the Philippine Registry of Cultural Property (PRECUP) and took other steps to preserve historic buildings that are over 50 year ...

of 2009, its headquarters is located at the

National Commission for Culture and the Arts The National Commission for Culture and the Arts of the Philippines (NCCA; , ) is the official government agency for culture in the Philippines. It is the overall policy making body, coordinating, and grants giving agency for the preservation, d ...

(NCCA) office in

Intramuros Intramuros () is the historic walled area within the city of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. It is administered by the Intramuros Administration with the help of the city government of Manila. Intramuros comprises a centuries-old hist ...

Manila Manila, officially the City of Manila, is the Capital of the Philippines, capital and second-most populous city of the Philippines after Quezon City, with a population of 1,846,513 people in 2020. Located on the eastern shore of Manila Bay on ...

. Sentro Rizal aims to promote Philippine arts, culture, and language throughout the world through the establishment of Philippine centers in various countries which initiate and organize cultural training programs and activities for overseas Filipinos. Sentro Rizal is named after José Rizal, the Philippines' acclaimed national hero, writer, and polymath. His works '' Noli Me Tángere'' and '' El Filibusterismo'' are acknowledged to have sparked the country's quest for independence in 1898. He championed love of family and country, peace, freedom, human dignity, knowledge, use of local language, bravery, women's role in nation building, unity, compassion, productive involvement of the youth, among others.

Logo

The official logo of the Sentro Rizal is composed of two elements, the ''

balangay A balangay, or barangay, is a type of lashed-lug boat built by joining planks edge-to-edge using pins, dowels, and fiber lashings. They are found throughout the Philippines and were used largely as trading ships up until the colonial era. The ...

'' and ''

baybayin Baybayin (,), also sometimes erroneously referred to as alibata, is a Suyat, Philippine script widely used primarily in Luzon during the 16th and 17th centuries and prior to write Tagalog language, Tagalog and to a lesser extent Visayan lang ...

'' which are both significant to Filipino heritage. The letters "S" and "R" are rendered in the ancient Filipino syllabic script known as ''baybayin'' and are stylized to form a ''balangay'', an ancient Philippine edged-pegged plank boat, reflecting the maritime heritage of the Philippines and depicting the character of Filipino migrants. The ''balangay'' also represents the quest of individuals in exploring the real essence of Filipino identity through culture and arts. The Sentro Rizal acts as the ''balangay'' which provides overseas Filipinos and their children the means to connect to their roots – instilling a strong sense of nationhood and pride among them in being Filipinos. The color of the Sentro Rizal logo was patterned from NCCA's logo – blue and gold.

Cultural centers

As of September 2020, there are 35 Sentros Rizal in the following locations: Map of Sentro Rizal Centers

Activities and programs

In 2015, the first

Filipino language Filipino ( ; , ) is the national language of the Philippines, the main lingua franca, and one of the two official languages of the country, along with Philippine English, English. It is only a ''de facto'' and not a ''de jure'' standard langu ...

pilot class was conducted in Phnom Penh,

Cambodia Cambodia, officially the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. It is bordered by Thailand to the northwest, Laos to the north, and Vietnam to the east, and has a coastline ...

. Twenty-four students completed the first beginner's level language class, dubbed "''Masayang Matuto ng Filipino''". The Commission on Filipinos Overseas has made use of

digital media In mass communication, digital media is any media (communication), communication media that operates in conjunction with various encoded machine-readable data formats. Digital content can be created, viewed, distributed, modified, listened to, an ...

in disseminating

Filipiniana Filipiniana, or originally Filipiñana, based on the definition by Isagani Medina from "Collection Building: Filipiniana", in his ''In Developing Special Library Collections, Filipiniana: Proceedings'' (November 1992), are Philippine-related boo ...

for overseas Filipinos, called the "Virtual Sentro Rizal". This Filipiniana collection consists of 250

gigabyte The gigabyte () is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The SI prefix, prefix ''giga-, giga'' means 109 in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one gigabyte is one billion bytes. The unit symbol for the gigabyte i ...

s of data including 72 hours of video of Filipino cultural materials covering different genres across regions.

References

External links

Official website of the Sentro Rizal

Sentro Rizal introductory video
{{Philippine Registry of Cultural Property, state=autocollapse Cultural promotion organizations Memorials to José Rizal Government agencies under the Office of the President of the Philippines Education in Intramuros Organizations established in 2009 2009 establishments in the Philippines

Logo

Cultural centers

Activities and programs

See also

References

External links