Audio commentary by Ana Maria Theresa Labrador, University of Melbourne 

Transcription of audio:

When I look at this portrait I see actually a portrait of dignity, but behind it is a lot of heartbreak. Agoncillo really worked so very hard to seek independence for the Philippines. He negotiated with so many people, he went back and forth, Hong Kong, Washington  DC, and then Paris. He sacrificed financially. He nearly drowned at one point when his boat capsized in Scotland, but he seemed to be unflappable. As a person who comes from a privileged background, and with this education, he couldn't quite sort out why he was being rebuffed from both sides of the Atlantic. But with the U.S. co-opting the Philippine independence after their war against Spain, the U.S. turned the Philippines into another colony. He was so disappointed. In the course of studying this portrait, I learned so much about the quality of his character. You can see a man who's quite well dressed, and that Felix Resurreccion Hidalgo, the artist, wanted to really portray that kind of dignity that remained intact-- his valor, his integrity, as a Filipino and a human being.

— I am Ana Maria Theresa Labrador, Honorary Senior Fellow at the University of Melbourne in Austrailia and I am a Filipina.