Through her poems, she unveiled her feelings and laid bare her life’s reflections, and for years, kept them from the public’s eyes. Thanks to the cheering and goading of people close enough to appreciate her talent and musings, “Sub Rosa: The Crucifix of a Poet and other Poems” was eventually born of Maria Linda Hanihara, an award-winning creative writer, editor, lawyer, wife and devoted mother to her special child, Mina Ellen.
Despite completing Imaginative Writing, Maria Linda still felt inadequate as a writer. She believed her “reservoir of experiences were shallow” since her youth was lived in comfort.
In UP College of Law, writing was like a mistress she attempted to hide and undermined what a friend of hers called her “gift.” For her, “writing was more like a hobby, the pursuit of which subsided when other fields beckoned.” There were periods of drought alternated with an inundation of creative output.
“I was immersed in my study, but I allowed myself to be distracted by composing poems even in the classroom. A classmate, who would go on to distinguish himself in the legal profession, was my pen friend and we would exchange notes and writings. I would write even on the white pages of our law books as my inspiration seemed to overflow. At that time, my seniors were the editors of The Collegian and they asked me to contribute articles,” says Maria Linda. She received a Focus Literary award as a student.
She finished her Bachelor of Arts, major in English as cum laude and Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines in Diliman. She also has an M.A. in International Relations, major in International Politics, from the University of Japan. She attended both the UP Summer Writers Workshop and the Siliman University Writers Workshop in the late 70s.
She contributed poems and short stories to several magazines and to her surprise, she won a poetry award from one of them. Notably, her poems were published in the October 1983 Edition of Caracoa III, the poetry journal of the Philippines Literary Arts Council. She was awarded an Accomplishment of Merit for the outstanding literary piece “Flowers” in the book, Inspirations in Ink.
After a brief stint at the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Office of the Solicitor General, she worked for The Japan Times, a major English daily, as a writer and International Desk and People Page editor.
“When I moved to Japan to take up my master’s degree in international relations, I realized how wrongly I had arrogated unto myself God’s hold on the pieces that were to define my life.” Then life took another turn after her husband, Keiji Hanihara, an executive of Sumitomo Steel, was assigned to the United States. In 1994, their daughter Mina Ellen was born and was diagnosed later as autistic. Maria Linda then resigned from her media work and focused on taking care of Mina Ellen.
“A daughter had been born to me and as she grew God began to open His box of surprises. I have heard people refer to their children as possessions and I deigned to understand, although in a sophomoric way, what they meant. Loving someone has always been easy for me, and I knew that it would require no extraordinary feat to love my child.
“But Mina Ellen was not going to be just an ordinary child—she was going to be different. She wasn’t going to collect gold medals like I did but she was going to teach me about myself. Because of what she was, I was going to return to myself, or to that part of myself that I had lost. Because of who she was, I began to draw from an inner strength that I never knew existed. Because God chose me to be her mother, I went through experiences I could never have imagined. Slowly, reality began to see myself in a different light; I began to see myself as the person that I really was.”
Guided by her muse and encouraged by sister, Miles F. Viernes, she began to compose herself and her words.
“Sub Rosa is my offering to appease the past and inspire the future. I recognize the certainties only divine intervention can change. I now embrace tomorrow and accept all the little surprises God has in store for me. I am beginning to really live,” shares Maria Linda.
First printed in May 2014, “Sub Rosa” features poems Maria Linda has written over a span of several years. The poetry book offers 125 poems, including the masterpieces that first appeared in Focus magazine, 1976, 1980; Literary Apprentice, 1981-82; Inspirations in Ink, 1992, and Caracoa III, 1983. In between chapters, readers will also find some of Mina Ellen’s artworks as an accomplished painter.
Mina Ellen’s artistic talent showed early as a student at the Cradle of Learners. In 2017, she had her first solo exhibition sponsored by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). Her second solo exhibition was again organized by the DENR entitled “September to Remember” in 2019. Thirteen acrylic paintings on canvas were displayed at the Biodiversity Management Bureau, Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife.
The second printing of Sub Rosa in June 2017 was dedicated to Maria Linda’s passing after she succumbed to breast cancer. Copies are available on Amazon.