Tagalog Novel Mga Prodigal (The Prodigals) © 2010 by Luna Sicat Cleto

Book Review by Jophen Baui

Mga Prodigal may be an allusion to "The Prodigal Son", a story from the Bible that Jesus Christ told his disciples to illustrate a Father's love to his returning lost son. In the story, the son wanted a share of his fortune so he could go his way forth and be free to live as he wanted. For a while, he lived the "good life", but as a consequence of his poor stewardship of his inheritance, he ended up bankrupt. In the end, he decided to go back to his father, who welcomed him back with open arms.

In Ms. Sicat's novel however, the title Mga Prodigal symbolizes the Filipino's desire for freedom from poverty and from oppression. To be a prodigal is to fight the general situation of poverty, by leaving the homeland to search for greener pastures abroad. Overseas Filipino Workers now populate the globe, and as this novel affirms, their stories are as many as the grains of sands in the dessert. In Mga Prodigal the stories told cinematically are generally dim. While reading, one may ask of the characters, "but do they have a choice?" Many of their stories will remain undocumented, so it will be difficult to generalize on whether Filipinos have gained more or lost more from their ventures overseas. In fact the general impression is that there are more positive OFW stories - many are financially able to invest in decent homes, their children attend better schools, their lifestyles are improved. Ms. Sicat however is not interested in positive stories. She probes the truth behind OFWs so called "sacrifices".

Like the stories of millions of Filipinos abroad, the novel is an unfinished account with many beginnings and almost no endings.  Every character in this novel has an unfinished sad story to tell. Every chapter is a snippet that contributes to a general depression that will make Filipino readers think more deeply about their choices. Ms. Sicat succeeds in presenting graphic scenes showing the losses and lack and limits that Filipinos have to go through in their collective experience. 

READ A NOVEL BY A FILIPINO "Gustong-gusto niya kapag nanggagaling sa Nasuli ang kanyang Auntie at Uncle. Marami silang dalang prutas at gulay. Kung tag-kaimito, tag-kamunsil, tag-bayabas, tag-sinigwelas, tag-makopa. Doon din nanggagaling ang mga bulaklak na birds of paradise na tumutubo sa likuran ng kanilang bahay at angcome down my love na umaabot sabanggerahan mula sa pagkakakapit nito sa santol sa gilid ng bintana. Naalala rin niya ang mga dahon nglagundi na pinapakuluan ng kanyang Auntie. Ito ang pinapainom sa kanilasa umaga bago sila pumasok saklase." from the novel Lumbay ng Dila by Genevieve Asenjo WATCH YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE Click Here!

Regardless of their educational background the dominant-all-men characters in this novel are all lumped under one category - the working labor class. Ms. Sicat tuned in to their grievances, their loneliness, their unfulfilled dreams for better lives and homes.  Antonio, a former member of the NPA, and now an electrician in Sharjah, Dubai, experiences extreme loneliness from separation from family, and witnesses some sad consequences of living and working far away from home.  He works with fellow Filipinos, who each try to make lives back in their hometowns better, but at the cost of their sanity and emotional well-being. By going back and forth in Antonio's past and present, the novel shows how labor as an end in itself gives personal fulfillment, dignity, and freedom. Then in other chapters, the story explores the often constricted and demeaning labor situation experienced by Filipinos in their quest for better life. The men - Antonio, Vito, Ernie, Alvin, Marvin, Treb, and Mitoy sweat in their workshops and assignments while haunted by the ghosts of their unhappy lives. They repair broken air-conditions and fix problematic electrical lines while their families break and disintegrate before their very eyes. Amidst their personal grudges and dissatisfactions they trade Pinoy escapist and sarcastic humor, and bond in all-macho-men drinking sprees. Very rarely do they show their feelings to each other, but the novel is full of their heartaches.

Are you a writer? Come visit us.

Mga Prodigal also hits off tangentially at the political system. Antonio is a former NPA rebel. The NPA way embraces poverty and not runs away from it, but from Antonio's point of view, this cause is given a better insight and a more hopeful slant. Ms. Sicat however will probably write another novel that will essay the stories of those who went to this extreme. Who knows what unfinished stories they have to tell? Meanwhile, the Filipino prodigal who is the hero in this story, he who labors and sweats overseas, would rather not confront the system. Some may have actually become richer, yet in many intangible ways, they have become poorer than the ordinary Filipino laborer who chooses to stay.

This novel in Tagalog is recommended reading for every Overseas Filipino Worker and aspiring OFW. Short and insightful at 165 pages, with guide questions for classroom discussions and book clubs.

Gina Apostol's, The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata

Gina Apostol in her “Acknowledgements; Recuperated Pasts”, The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, writes:

“This book was planned as a puzzle: traps for the reader, dead-end jokes, textual         games, unexplained sleights of tongue; but at the same time, I wished to be true to       the past I was plundering. My concept of Raymundo is cut out of imagined cloth;       but the details I conjured had to breathe through the web of his actual history. In       addition, I needed to conceive Raymundo’s memoirs on my own terms, and so I         banned theorists and many secondary sources from my diet."

Magnify Blindness (or Let a Blind Lead the Blind)

A Book Review by Jophen Baui

The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata doesn’t deviate from the usual hypothesis and deductions regarding the events leading to the 1898 revolution. However, the protagonist is both there and not there, always between involvement and simply knowing, calculating but never decisive unless forced into a situation, and passionate about books and reading. “The question”, however, “is whether the chief protagonist's soul is 'too narrow' or 'too broad' in relation to reality” in this case, to the germination of the 1898 revolution.

The Revolution

In June 1896, a crucial time in Philippine history, Andres Bonifacio sent Dr. Pio Valenzuela as an emissary to Dapitan to obtain Rizal’s opinion or agreement to an armed revolution. The Kataas-taasang Kagalang-galangang Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan or KKK led by Bonifacio, the Supremo, had, by then, recruited men and women from both the rich and poor classes of people and was aiming for no less than the country’s freedom from Spain. According to records of Philippine history Jose Rizal did not endorse the revolution, and is believed to have had remarked that based on insufficient arms and lack of logistics alone, the time wasn't ripe for a people's revolution.

In Apostol's novel, Raymundo Mata is with Dr. Pio Valenzuela during this errand to Dapitan. Raymundo Mata is Dr. Pio Valenzuela’s decoy who will help him gain audience with Rizal. In order to distract the Spanish wards, their script is that Dr. Pio Valenzuela will consult with Dr. Rizal about Raymundo Mata’s night blindness so that the doctor's errand would come off as a medical rather than a political mission.

At the time, Raymundo Mata works in a printing press, reads a lot, a college graduate who used to dream about becoming a writer, but now finds it tragic that in spite of his diploma, he has ended up as a regular blue-collar worker who is unpopular among his colleagues in the press. Bullied when he was a student, he is simple and a coward due to others making him believe as such. Nevertheless, he has become a member of the secret society KKK. He admiresAndres Bonifacio, who, he has long discovered, loves to read, too, and he envies Emilio Aguinaldo – Miong, his childhood friend in Kawit – because Miong is a Mayor and commands authority wherever he goes, in spite of the fact that he doesn’t read that much at all.

Mata, witnesses and notes the details of Rizal’s Dapitan: a lush environment planted with fruit trees where Rizal has installed a water system; green forest surroundings where he roams around collecting butterflies to send to his friend in Germany; a wide clearing where he has built a clinic and conducts daily medical consultations –treating all sorts of illnesses that comes to him from all the surrounding areas; and with a school where he teaches fencing and other practical arts to young boys .

While noting the hero's busyness in detail, Raymundo Mata’s main question is implied: “In the thick of his activities, how is the man, Rizal, able to still find time to write?” Mata’s pre-occupation is with the writer  – the author of Noli Me Tangere, a book he has read, and El Filibusterismo, which he hopes to read.  In fact he steals a fictional third book still in writing by the time he leaves Dapitan with Dr. Pio Valenzuela, because he is sure that like the Noli, this next book will also be a good read. Raymundo Mata craves for Rizal’s words like a historian craving for clincher details in minor events that inform on the major events. 

Face to face with Rizal, Raymundo desires to discover the writer. But inDapitan, Rizal, the author, is not living up to his reputation as an author in the romantic sense, while Mata, the participant in history is not being a historian. In Dapitan everything is a clock-ish routine of practical, urgent matters and Mata’s desire for an autograph is always checked by his inferiority over what Rizal would think of him -- he, a simple working man in a printing press, brought to Dapitan not by his choice but by the bad condition of his eyes, which even Mayor Miong, his cousin-kababayan in Kawit knows to be without treatment. In the end, he gets Rizal’s autograph when Rizal signs the prescription pad with the medicines for his ailment.

What’s it All About

Apostol’s novel veers away from an inquiry on that historical mark that will lead to the 1898 Philippine revolution. As she stays true to the facts of the past, Apostol does not alter nor validate what is already assumed in historical records. Instead hers is an exposition of the reader Mata's attitude toward the writer Rizal. Mata sees irony in Rizal the novelist and Rizal the MacGyver of Dapitan. While he is in awe of the novelist, he does not ask any question nor comments nor reacts on any of the themes of the Noli.

Mata is not at all curious about history happening before him. He is more curious about the reason for Josephine’s tears (crying over her stillborn child). He is aware that a revolution is brewing, yet he doesn’t go deep into any debate or discussion about it, before, during, or after the revolution. Instead, like Forrest Gump, he just always finds himself at the right place or he is forced into it. However, unlike Forrest Gump, he doesn’t make the most of it, and misses the point of it all. 

The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata problematizes the engagement of “minor” voices in history and parodies their chatter.

If Raymundo Mata were not a fictional character, why would one immortalize his memoirs into a book? Who would take a second look on his vulgarities, his sexual fantasies with the major women around that time of the revolution (Leonor, Oryang, K, and Segunda), his frustrations, and his notes on the Katipuneros, who, in the novel, were his batch mates in college? 

Estrella Espejo, the editor, sometimes hails him as a hero as long as she can relate with an  experience. By virtue of her age and wisdom, if she can recall a commonality in the experiences jotted, she would use it as a gauge for authenticity. Diwata Drake, the reader, reads some psychological meanings into Mata's dithering, procrastination, non-commitment. Mimi Magsalin, the translator, labors over Mata's words and finds them linguistically challenging.  She has translated literally and is the first intervention between the memoirist (Mata) and an absent first reader. TrinaTrono, the publisher, finds the memoir novel, and so it has got to be sold as such, something new, something organic, or something ground breaking, which could win the publishing house a book award.

Within the novel's fictional space, nobody can categorically claim that he or she is the one closest to the truth of the Revolution. Four unreliable voices poke at a historically known fact, peeking at history's most ignored actors in the revolution, the Katipunero recruits. Then, Diwata Drake, Mimi Magsalin, Tina Trono, and Estrella Espejo are pittied against each other -- in small italic fonts on footnote trails,  to muddle Mata's version of the 1898 revolution. It is amusing to listen to their voices debate over trivial matters. The fictional footnotes reveal that their personal agenda are also texts to be scrutinized. In fact, the novel basks in the luxury of setting out everything and everyone under scrutiny -- the katipuneros and their women, Jose Rizal and Josephine Bracken, Dr. Pio Valenzuela, and Emilio Aguinaldo, and events in Philippine history which have not yet found closures as to their validity. Only Raymundo Mata is not exempted from this gaze. But Gina Apostol has set him up under a magnifying lens shrinking on one side and enlarging on another any authoritative stamp on his memoir entries. 

Readings:

A Theory of the Novel

Apostol Gina. The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata. Anvil Publishing. 2009

Martinez-Sicat, Maria Teresa. Imagining the Nation in Four Philippine Novels. University of the Philippines Press. 1994

Teozin, Lucio F. “Rationalism and Rebellion in the Heroic Confession”. Quest for Truth, A Study of Six Filipino Novels in English. New Day Publisher. 1990

http://www.english-to-tagalog.com Copyright © 2004-2006 by Josefina Wordhouse Services All Rights Reserved. Do not copy any article for mass distribution, electronically or otherwise. 

Filipino Freedom in Rizal's El Filibusterismo

Filipino freedom is one of the by-words in the June month-long celebration of Jose Rizal (June 19, 1861 – December 30, 1896), his legacy to the Filipino race. In the quote below is a gentle rebuke to the Filipino malaise that has not found its cure to this day – a lack of true nationalism – a love for this country, the Philippines.  A side look at this quote gives away some insights on the present state of the nation.

“As long as the Filipino people have not enough spirit to proclaim, brow held high, and breast bared, their right to a free society, and to maintain it with their sacrifices, with their very blood; as long as we see our country men privately ashamed , hearing the cries of their revolted, and protesting in conscience but silent in public, or joining the oppressor in mocking the oppressed; as long as we see them wrapping themselves up in their selfishness and praising the most iniquitous acts with forced smiles, begging with their eyes for a share of the booty, why give them freedom?” – El Filibusterismo

Think About What Rizal Wrote

"As long as the Filipino people have not enough spirit to proclaim, brow held high, and breast bared, their right to a free society...

Two people power revolutions later, note how many student's hands inside a classroom will go up when a teacher asks, “Who likes to go abroad to work [and reside there permanently]?” Are there still many remaining Filipinos out there who will choose to stay put in this land and not become another country’s citizen? How many Pinoys, when faced with a direct challenge from another culture will insist on their Filipino-ness and defend it against another nation’s impositions? 

Or to put it another way, how many have embraced another way of life merely because it’s not Filipino or because it’s not “local?” Have we truly set ourselves free after getting rid of the major oppressors (Spain: 1521-1898; USA: 1900 – 1960 and onwards; Japan: 1942-1945; Marcos: 1972-1986) when other more subtle invasions brainwash our cultural mindset? 

and to maintain it with their sacrifices,

We declare the OFWs as heroes who have sacrificed greatly. But are most of their sacrifices for the good of the country? Should this question be asked or is it assumed that everybody who goes abroad and has his or her family in mind will eventually give back to his homeland?

with their very blood;

After the first quarter storm in the early seventies, this generation has yet to see another of this kind of sacrifice, in the truest revolutionary sense. 

as long as we see our country men privately ashamed,

Filipinos take pride in the professionals out there in other countries who are truly making their marks. But in most households in developed nations, a great number of Filipino workers belong to the lowest rank, and they are numbered among the more exploited laborers in the world.  

Back home, a nurse has to pay a hospital in order to have practice and experience after she passes the board exam. A teacher earns only enough to pay rent. A policeman has to augment his income through other irregular means.

hearing the cries of their revolted

How extensive has been the documentation of the sufferings of the OFWs? Mostly, the noise is about successes. In fact any kind of international success is a palliative to the ailing Filipino morale: So Hail Manny Paquiao! Cheers for Charise! Loud applause for the Filipino Indie Filmmakers winning festivals abroad!

and protesting in conscience but silent in public, 

Many people end up merely smirking at dead-end-win-some-lose-more deals reached by prosecutors of corruption. Cynicism prevents the citizens, especially the young people, from getting involved – at least in pronouncing their anger collectively and shaming the shameless propagators of bad governance.

or joining the oppressor in mocking the oppressed;

The influential who have the means to initiate change mostly play safe and just go through the motions. To preserve their vested interests, some hack away at every deal they could muster; the underpaid, the marginalized, the naive, the vulnerable, the ignorant be damned.  Those who are in charge of basic services are at their wits end in solving crisis-after-crisis, but nobody notices their gargantuan efforts since grand scale corruption drowns all their efforts like a Tsunami.

as long as we see them wrapping themselves up in their selfishness 

The ZTE scandal, the Jocjoc-Agri under the table deal, the PCSO foul plays, the GrandScale Landlordisms, the PIATCO scam, the unresolved murders of progressive journalists and social workers, the endless grandstanding in the house of representatives... and the list goes on....

and praising the most iniquitous acts with forced smiles,

Justice should always prevail but most of the time, the guardians drop their weapons and serve their pockets. They shrug their shoulders at “isolated irregularities” saying nothing ‘major, major’ has been happening and everything is all right. Hopefully greed will stop running amok on the streets.

begging with their eyes for a share of the booty,

When is freedom truly free? 

why give them freedom?”

Filipinos deserve true Filipino Freedom.

Designing Filipino, The Architecture of Francisco Manosa

Designing Filipino....coffeetable book 
Eric Carruncho, 254 pages

BOOK REVIEW
"Meditation on a Monograph"
(c)2005 by Jophen Baui

Flicking through this luminous monograph and coffee table book, and goggling at photographs of bahay-kubo and bahay na bato inspired homes, resorts, institutions, and religious landmarks, I was again stirred up to ask the oft-repeated question of what counts as Filipino art. A hefty, glossy brochure, this monograph re-creates the already actualized aesthetic passion of one true Filipino architect.

“Three factors make architecture truly Filipino,” says Manosa, “Filipino values, Philippine climate and the use of indigenous materials….”

“The point was not to rebuild the bahay kubo and bahay na bato – their time had come and gone – but to learn from them. What was their essence? What made them Filipino? And how do you build modern structures that meet present-day needs while retaining that essence?”

Found in the short biography at the beginning of the book, these words serve as wise haligi to Manosa’s vision of a uniquely Filipino design. Francisco Manosa, named by Asiaweek in September 1982 as one of the seven visionary architects of Asia, is considered “the most outspoken champion of an indigenous Filipino architecture.”

“His striking designs for residences and institutions incorporate vernacular forms and make extensive use of indigenous materials while stretching the boundaries of contemporary tropical design.”

Nostalgic Pinoy

In this book, each captioned shoot of his showcased legacy arouses nostalgia for everything provincial and pinoy --

·         Snapshots of houses contiguous with the spaces surrounding them and marked by “a return to the old… from the age-old customs and traditions of the people and the lessons of the past” – an apotheosis of which is the “coconut palace”.

·         Vistas of churches and commemorative structures that provide a “tangible feel of the Philippines” because… they are “rich in historical significance…” such as the EDSA shrine and the St Joseph Parish housing the bamboo organ in Las Pinas.

·         A panorama of resorts and hotels that “espouse Filipino values, consider our tropical climate, use Filipino motifs…” – noteworthy of which is the Mactan Shangri-La Hotel in Cebu.

·         And finally, a perspective of high rise buildings and institutions that considered local “climate, geography and materials…” and echoing culture – the San Miguel building, one epitome of such.

Filipino Aesthetic

Far from merely showing off pictures, however, deliberate in the design of this book is a sala-sala of insights for creative inspiration. Artists should be inspired by the book’s outspokenness, its vocal and visual articulation of an aesthetic Filipino philosophy. For example, the spread that is pages 24 and 25 captions an elongated blueprint of the upper floor of the “coconut palace” as consisting of “seven suites, each intended to showcase a distinct cultural group: the Ilocos Room, the Igorot Room, the Tagalog Room, the Visayan Room, the T’Boli Room, the Maranao Room and the Zamboanga Room. In each case, authentic artifacts and motifs were used for the décor.” Virtually entering these rooms lets me into even the color preferences of these cultures – enriching, and one that local tourists may miss.

How about also providing a tukod for artists who aspire to become a “champion” in whatever art medium and leave their own marks of excellence? Consider the book’s effort at providing even aerial views and topographic plan that shows how structures were “designed and sited to blend with the natural landscape.”

Appreciate its descriptions of unifying motifs and design principles using actual blueprints and accounts of serendipity. [I am amused that even the hexagonal design idea for the coconut palace came from the coconut itself, how it is trimmed and cut.]

The book is also a construct with a built in shed or sibi to protect the creative from the glare of “inferiority.” “We must believe in ourselves, our capabilities, innovativeness and creativity, and stop imitating alien cultures and architectures. We must believe that in accepting what we are and what we have – both their limitations and potentials – we can finally emerge as equals.”

In Mactan, Cebu, the Shangri La hotel used the stones and sand available in the area to build its sturdy walls. The twelve-story 1987 Eucharistic Congress tower was made from “200 bamboo poles….Gale-force winds tested its integrity and proved the soundness of this traditional way of building with bamboo.” Back pages of the book displays photos of industrial designs using bamboo, coconut, shells, local lumber, Note Capiz lightings and shades, shell works, wood inlay works, coco material works – all a direct output of innovating “from traditional forms using modern technology….”

Champion Filipino-ness

Thus, an artist flipping through the pages is inspired to become an able steward of local culture and indigenous materials. Outspoken and a champion of Filipino-ness, this book is a firm, authoritative witness to artists grappling for a voice. It affirms that every artistic medium is its own boundless space and limit; but without a vision any art is merely redundant. A Filipino-ness in every art executes the personal yet universal essence of belonging to an appointed environ that is the original design of creation. At least, for many artists here is more than a final clue to identity:

“I design Filipino, nothing else.” This is a bold declaration, coming from an architect now at the peak of his powers after a successful four-decade career. But it springs not so much from Manosa’s successes in his field as from knowing himself, where he’s from, where he’s going.

“Architecture,” he has said time and again, “must be true to itself, to its land and to its people. For the design of the built environment reflects man’s expression of his way of life, his emotional, philosophical, religious, technological and material values in response to his needs and environmental challenges.”

In a culture that often takes mediocrity for granted and is hasty towards becoming a part of the global culture, Manosa’s monograph is a trigger of sorts, some stubborn call to regional individuality, a celebration of Filipino uniqueness. 

more on expressions of the Filipino soul

Bencab - Filipino Artist, His Art and Vision

A BOOK REVIEW by JOPHEN BAUI

BENCAB by Krip Yuson and Cid Reyes, Mantes Publishing

Bencab, the coffee-table book essays the highlights of Ben Cabrera’s illustrious life as visual artist. Part one is a delicious read because Alfred Yuson chose those close-friend details that don’t clog or patronize, yet give intimate insight on the person of the artist. Part two is Cid Reyes’ intellectual digest of the art of Bencab, savvy and enlightening, truly an art critic’s stuff, seemingly low-profiled beside a feast of photographs of Bencab’s works, but in reality taking off like brush strokes as smoothly as its familiarity with the subject permits. 

Reading this book makes Bencab as reachable as the struggling artist, although already at his peak. After all, this artist is a Filipino who knows what it means to ride a jeepney and enter into the abstract thoughts of its passengers, live in a low class neighborhood and narrate all about roofs and patches, go abroad and survive a panorama of broken dreams, and travel to the past with a delight and passion for the costumes and facades of history.

The reader-friendly layout welcomes the reader into both Yuson's and Reyes's understanding of this very important person in the history of Philippine art. Highlights are enhanced by the creative and witty titles for each part… Pithy but witty labels with symbolic overtones summarize the intention that is to simply revel and take pride in Bencab’s  persona. In“Hand Over Heart”, read growth and passion as an artist; in “The Art of Being Filipino,” read compassion. 

Hand Over Heart

The chronological detailing of Bencab’s life in part one (Hand Over Heart) takes the reader to an easy journey, because crafting by Yuson is artfully short and visual, taking care that the images turn into sepia photographs that you can’t help but frame for posterity. Thus, the reader closes the book with pictures of Bencab and his Kuya Bading illustrating comics, Joyamentoring Bencab on stage design and abstractions, Bencab contemplating the provincial greenery in a bus ride from Bambang to UP,  Bencab poring over US embassy work while student protests rage outside the embassy, Bencab listening and drinking with Nick Joaquin inside Indios Bravos, and and of course, many pictures of Bencab sketching in Bambang, in his stall in London, at his house in Baguio, with his Tam-awan friends and finally laughing and joking with Yuson as he says “off the record” things.  Why, even Bencab with his girl admirers as he sketched them!

The Art of Being Filipino

In part two, (The Art of Being Filipino), it is Bencab’s non-political stance but perceptive gaze,  which informs Cid Reyes of the latter’s compassion. Not only are Bencab’s strokes being rendered in acrylic but Bencab uses acrylic to invite others to gaze beyond the opacity of the commonplace. There is something to be read in the choice of medium and subjects --- Filipina circa 1800s, heroes of the past, the color sepia, disasters, images of exile – that is more than nostalgic and decorative. Reyes asserts that Bencab’s mythical rendering of drapes and holographic distortions of faces insist on every Filipino's reality. 

On the jacket, it reads: “The essay argues for the aesthetic potency and significance of Bencab’s visual themes.” This significance is Bencab’s stamp which is anchored in a local context, yet resonating the universal plea for a second look and consideration for the plight of those who have less in life. 

Why You Should Read the Book

Bencab is an abstract of the man, in a way similar to how Bencab does his quick portraits - expertly - in pen and ink. Besides, you can expect nothing less from two award winning authors.

The book will charmingly sit on your coffee table, and every visitor can flip through its 287 pages and not get tired; look at more than the 30 photographs of the artist and feel nostalgic, and feast at more than 150 pages of pictures of Bencab’s paintings and gawk at what they have missed. Then for more information about this artist, there are four pages of a chronological index of milestones in Bencab’s life at the back of the book. Part 1 has 16 short chapters, Part 2 has 20 subtitles. 

Recommended to all Bencab lovers and people like me who can only read and dream about owning a Bencab.

Bencab is only one favorite. Read other Book Reviews

Lumbay ng Dila, An Adaptation

Play Review by Jophen Baui

Lumbay ng Dila, a Filipino novel by Dr. Genevieve Asenjo has been adapted for the stage as "Ang Nanay Kong Ex NPA." The play adaptation by Mario Mendez derives mostly from the last part of the novel where a confrontation between the main character and her mother takes place. More than another conflicted mother-daughter reconciliation story, the play recalls similar struggles of activists, mothers specially, when in that turning point in Philippine history they had to weigh between their self-actualization as mothers and their belief in the deliverance of the masses through an armed revolution. Were they, in the end, found lacking?

This play was first staged at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute, Cultural Center of the Philippines, on the occasion of the Virgin Lab Festival on July 11, 2015.

Dialogue defines character, moves the plot, heightens emotion, inspires reaction, incites thinking. At least, this is how a play should go, but not so literally as to reduce the audience into passive receptors whose main take-away value after watching is becoming entertained. For the easily bored a play should have an accessible story, not mind boggling at all, and preferably short. So it's enough that they are able to enjoy it.

But after the curtain call, some people would ask "So what is the play all about?" - meaning more than the story, more than the didactic value, more than the skill and grace of the actors.

"Ang Nanay Kong Ex NPA" is one of those plays which does not aim to merely entertain. It is not a spectacle in the literal sense. This one act play adaptation is a confrontation, a mere exchange between two important characters in the novel. However, the exchange is not melodramatic. It doesn't have the usual expletives, and it doesn't have the usual cute expressions. What it has is understated dialogue on the issue of loss - in this case, the loss of a mother. This play succeeds in arousing empathy because while watching the character-actor hide and cloak her vulnerability by her seemingly unaffected words and responses, the audience can sense that deep longing within her. They experience the same holding off of emotion that makes one want to appear brave but nonetheless give her cowardice away.

In that actor's world, everything seems all right, and her words and actions camouflage her neediness in a way that has made her sound uncaring. But later, the audience realizes with her that it is not enough to ask that question which one has buried in that untouchable part of her soul. She also needs to understand and accept the answer to that question when the answer presents itself. 

This is what "Ang Nanay Kong Ex NPA" explores. There is so much that we stock in the trash bin of our memory - but as we willingly forget to throw them away, we are shortchanged. Our time is wasted, our energy, exhausted even as we engage ourselves in countless distractions and denials. [In this novel, and as hinted in the adaptation, the character has had several lovers in a series of failed relationships. This is a manifestation of her constant search for love.]

When reality is now at hand and we are face to face with the difficult truth what gives? In this play, the character decides to let go and listen without judgment, to simply look and see without her lenses of assumptions, and to accept a presence who has no regrets at all about her decision. 

After watching the play, a redemption similar to the cleansing of forgiveness lingers in the mind of the audience. There is still that gap that will never be filled out, a complete blank that will not have its answer. But the nuanced last act of the actors open the way of healing as symbolized by a dance of acceptance that culminates in a white-shawl embrace.

Darna to Zsa Zsa Saturnnah

"From Darna to Zsa Zsa Saturnnah: Desire and Fantasy" - below is a summary of the essay by Rolando Tolentino. ________________________________________

After World War 2, Tagalog magazines returned to publishing stories that majored on realism. Around this time, Mars Ravelo’s Darna came out in Pilipino Komiks** magazine. At the time other magazines in Tagalog such as Liwayway, Aliwan, and Hiwaga fed popular consciousness with tales that bespeak of grim realities besetting the community – in particular, many stories caricatured women as victims in a highly masculine world.

But Darna was, by all counts, a subversion of all such story arch. Darna is not a wimpy woman but a child [Narda] who turns into a super woman stronger than 20 men when she swallows a magic stone. Darna fights a series of out-of-this-world villains—some, like Valentina, ang babaeng ahas, has also become iconic. In his essay, Tolentino proposes the idea that Darna’s entry into popular culture is more symptomatic of a desire, of women in particular, to deviate from the roles streamlined for them as women in a society always hailing the supremacy of men in its narratives.

Some questions about Darna’s “creation” is answered by some background understanding of her “creator”, and by insights on the map of the reigning literatures at the time. Why a superwoman: because Mars Ravelo is raised by a single mother who was a super Nanay (Mother). This alone breaks the notion that the men rule in this country. When it comes to the gist of it all in our daily routine, it is the women who factors in more energy and creative adaptations to the everyday challenges of our homes. But more than this, Tolentino comments that Darna exemplifies what a critic refers to as “DESIRE”. Reading about Darna, people imagine a world where there is a clear delineation between good and evil, and they feel nostalgic for the “good-old-times” of the idyllic patterns of rural life.

A question persists: Does this fantastic creation mirror the lives of the people at the time (post-war) and provide mimetic details of social and political realities? In the beginning of his essay, Roland Tolentino seems to poke at Philippine critics of literature raising their eyebrows on texts which do not conform to the realist mode. Beginning with a quizzical probe on the reactions of Film buffs on Enteng Kabisote’s winning the Metro Manila Film Festival, and ending with an analysis of popular graphic novel-turned-film-turned-play Zsa Zsa Saturnnah, Tolentino argues that indeed, while popular literatures took on escapist forms and forego realities, the escape route of fantasy did make reality even starker, causing the masses to begin to desire for the ideal.

While Darna feeds the women’s desire for superiority, Zsa Zsa Saturnnah feeds the cross gender’s desire to actualize the impossible dream of becoming a full pledged woman. Some other characteristics of this desire feed on the story of the super gay with a funny take on the superstars of popular Filipino movies. (The height of villainy in this graphic tale is perpetuated by aliens named Sharon, Vilma, Nora -- all of them are men haters in this graphic novel.)

Both Darna and Zsa Zsa , Tolentino writes, are deviations and subversions.Darna has become an icon in Philippine popular culture, and her versions may yet get as fantastic as technology will take her. Meanwhile, Zsa Zsa Saturnnah is one among subversions against literary conventions considered standard and canonical. These two "popular artifacts" may not be considered “mindless frothy” although they “offer no moral certitude” and “are not serious representations of life.” Their forms are not vehicles that offer any simplistic answer to the troubles of this world; neither are they exposes of anything that is already being experienced by a great number of people. Rather, they expose the different forms of desire** as these occur in popular consciousness.

**Pilipino Komiks (Ace Publications, Inc.) #77 (May 13, 1950)