Arsenio N. Luz (December 14, 1888 – 1966) was a Filipino showman, businessman, journalist and educator, remembered for being the General-Director of the Philippine Carnival which ran the Manila Carnival. He was an attaché for several Philippine Independence Missions to the U.S. as the representative of the press. He led trade negotiations during the transition to the Commonwealth and served as President Manuel L. Quezon's economic advisor at Malacañang throughout the Commonwealth Period. He was a charter member of the Boy Scouts of the Philippines and the first Filipino President of the Rotary Club of Manila. He was manager of the Philippine Government Commercial Agency's New York branch and represented the Philippines at several conventions and expositions.
Early life
Luz was born on December 14, 1888, to Don Manuel Mitra de San Miguel-Luz and Doña Segunda Solis Katigbak, best known as the first love of José Rizal, in Lipa in Batangas province, which had become a city earlier that year.
Education
Luz graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Liceo de Manila (Manila Central University) and studied law in the Escuela Derecho de Manila. While working for the Philippine Government in New York he took a special course in advanced journalism at Columbia University.
Career
Luz worked at El Renacimiento, and La Vanguardia. From 1913 to 1915 Luz was a professor and head of the Spanish department at the University of the Philippines. He later became editor of the Nacionalista Party's official news organ El Ideal.
In 1919, the Philippine Government sent Luz to the United States to work as a commercial agent and manager in the Philippine Government Commercial Agency, in the Marble Palace 280 Broadway, Manhattan, New York City. Luz served under James J. Rafferty, the director of the agency.
On December 19, 1919, at the New York Agency of the Philippine National Bank, Luz was one of some fifty business men to meet Jaime de Veyra and Teodoro Yangco, the Resident Commissioners of Philippines who represented the Philippines in the U.S. House of Representatives, in order to develop and establish the new Philippine-American Chamber of Commerce. Luz was one of four men appointed to nominate twelve directors for the Chamber and propose a means of the Chambers functioning. The other three men were Charles C. Robinson, vice-president of the Philippines National Bank; Charles D. Orth, of Hanson and Orth; and B. E. Reuter.
As manager of the Philippine Government Commercial Agency, Luz represented the Philippines at the 1920 Foreign Trade Convention of San Francisco. In 1921, he was sent to London, to represent the Philippines at the Tropical Products Exposition
Return to the Philippines
Manila Carnival
In 1922, Luz returned to the Philippines after being appointed editor and manager of The Philippines Herald and Director-General of the Philippine Carnival. The Philippine Carnival ran the Manila Carnival. Luz succeeded Jorge B. Vargas, who held the position for a year. In 1932, Luz was recognized as a Publicity Leader in the Philippines due to his position of Director General of the Philippine Carnival which made Philippine progress internationally known. He served as Director-General for 17 of the company's 31 years, until the Carnivals ended in 1939. For his work as the Director General of the Philippine Exposition Inc. Luz was listed as a Manila leading Businessman in Miguel Cornejo's 1939 Commonwealth Directory.
Business Ventures
Throughout the 1930s Luz became involved in several in several industries. From 1933 to 1941, Luz was a Principal of the Jacob Rosenthal & Co., Inc. In 1934, Luz was an incorporator of the Provident Insurance Company. In 1937, Luz was an incorporator of the Pan-Asiatic Broadcasting System, Inc which manufactured and operated radio transmitters and receivers. In 1938, Luz became a member of the National Produce Exchange in Manila. From 1938 to 1941, Luz was the General Agent of the National Life Insurance Company of the Philippines.
From 1935 to 1941, Luz was involved in numerous oil and mining companies as a director or incorporator. Companies included Filipinas Mining Corporation, Far East Oil Development Company, Land Surveys and Registration Inc, South Tayabas Oil Company, Inc, Mindanao Oil Company, Inc., Mineral and Commercial Development Company, O.R.O. Oil Company, South Cebu Oil Company, Inc., and the Sterling & Company, Inc.
In 1941, Luz's article If We Want to Avoid a Collapse was published in the 1940-1941 annual issue of The Commercial & Industrial Manual of the Philippines.