Lica's Babies
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
Sunday, February 3, 2013
COMPETITIVE STRATEGY INFORMATION SYSTEM
COMPETITIVE
STRATEGY
INFORMATION
SYSTEM
ARSON
P. BALANA
COmpetitive Strategy
Max's of Manila
Max's of Manila, popularly known
as Max's Restaurant, is a Philippine-based restaurant serving
fried chicken and Filipino dishes.
History
In 1945, after World War II, American troops
stationed in Quezon
City became
friends with Maximo Gimenez, a teacher who had graduated fromStanford University. Some soldiers came to
his nearby house for a drink or two, until they insisted that they pay for
their drinks.
Gimenez decided to open a café which served
chicken, steak, and drinks. He was joined by his wife Mercedes, sister-in-law
Felipa Serrano Sanvictores, his niece Ruby who managed the kitchen, and her
husband Claro. Ruby's fried chicken proved popular with G.I.s. and locals also
began patronising the establishment.[
Encouraged by her mother to expand the menu
and serve more Filipino food, Ruby set up the Baclaran branch along Roxas
Boulevard in Parañaque. They decided
to name the restaurant "Max's"
after Maximo.
Max's Restaurant bills itself as "The house
that fried chicken built". In 1998 it started franchising.
Locations
Max's Restaurant currently has over 127
branches in the Philippines. The chain also has branches in the U.S. states
of California, Hawaii, and New Jersey, and its first Canadian
branch in Toronto, Ontario. A store opened in Vancouver, British Columbia in March 2012. More
branches will open soon[when?] in Sydney, Australia, and Dubai, United Arab Emirates,
and Queens,
New York.
In
popular culture
In earlier television and cinema
advertisements, the restaurant usually marketed itself as a place for Filipino
families to get together. It also established its slogan "Saráp to
the bones!" ("Delicious to the bones!").
More recently, a popular series of
television advertisements told the story of a Max's employee who was the
childhood love of a popular TV celebrity, played by Piolo Pascual. The series showed the two
characters as children, then as adults accidentally meeting at Max's. The
denouement of the story is when the celebrity recognizes the employee from
their childhood. This commercial became so popular that it launched the showbiz
career of Isabel
Oli,
the model who played the employee.
Aside from its advertising, the story of
how Max's Restaurant started has entered into popular culture. It was portrayed
in the episode "Sino siMax?" ("Who is Max?") of the
long-running Filipino drama anthology Maalaala Mo Kaya.
Products
The restaurant's signature dish is its
fried chicken. Aside from this, Max's Chicken also offers traditional Filipino dishes:
1.
List down the four
competitive strategies of a BUSINEss.
Ø Achieving your vision usually requires accomplishing results in a
variety of areas. Goals provide the mechanism to specify the set of
results that will define vision achievement. In this way goals
clarify and focus your vision. To accomplish this clarity and focus goals
need to describe the operating, financial, social, and other conditions you
must bring about to achieve your vision. Effective goal setting includes
defining how goal achievement will be measured. This means
identifying the indicator or indicators that will be used and the quantitative
or qualitative value of these indicators that will define goal achievement.
Cost Leadership
Cost leadership is the first competitive
advantage businesses often attempt to gain. Cost leadership as an advantage
occurs when a business is able to offer the same quality product as its competitors,
but at a lower price. Cost leadership can occur when a company finds ways to
produce goods at a lower cost through the perfection of production methods or
by the utilization of resources in a more efficient manner than competitors.
Other factors, such as proprietary technology, can also factor into this type
of advantage. Cost leadership may be classified as an offensive strategy,
whereby businesses attempt to drive competitors out of the market by
consistently using price strategies designed to win over consumers.
Differentiation
Differentiation is a second strategy that
businesses often use to set themselves apart from competitors. In a
differentiation strategy, low cost is only one of many possible factors that
may set aside a business from others. Business that differentiate themselves
typically look for one or more marketable attributes that they have that can
set them apart from their competitors. They then find the segment of the market
that finds those attributes important and market to them. The process can also
work in the other direction with businesses conducting research to determine
which things consumers find most important and then developing a niche market
for those products or characteristics.
Defensive Strategies
Another way for a business to gain a
competitive advantage is to utilize a defensive strategy. The advantage gained
by this type of strategy is that it allows the business to further distance
itself from its competition by, in some sense, maintaining a competitive advantage
it has gained. Therefore, this strategy is closely related to differentiation
and cost leadership because it is a method used by businesses to keep those
advantages in place once they have been attained. Whereas the other two
strategies are more offensive in nature, this strategy becomes an actual
advantage as it becomes increasingly difficult for so-called competitors to
offer any real opposition to the business.
Alliances
Competitive advantages can also be gained by
businesses that seek strategic alliances with other businesses in related
industries or within the same industry. Businesses have to be careful not to
cross the line between alliances and collusion, though. Collusion occurs when
businesses within the same industry work together to artificially control
prices. Strategic alliances, on the other hand, are more along the lines of
joint ventures that businesses use to pool resources and gain themselves
exposure at the expense of other competitors not in the alliance.
2.
Describe how an
information system may help in realizing each of them.
Ø Max's Restaurant's
beginnings started in 1945, after World War II. Maximo Gimenez, a Stanford -
educated teacher, befriended the American occupation troops stationed at Quezon
City. Because of this friendship, the soldiers regularly visited Maximo's
nearby home for a drink or two. Later on, the troops insisted that they pay for
their drinks. This prompted Maximo to open a cafe; where the troops could enjoy
food and drinks.The cafá initially served chicken, steak and drinks. Maximo's
niece - Ruby, who managed the kitchen, created a special recipe for chicken
that became an instant favorite for the GIs. Soon, the Filipino public heard
about the delicious chicken - tender, juicy and crispy - and they came too!
Max's Restaurant was born.Over the years, Max's Restaurant's popularity grew
and became known as "the house that fried chicken built". It has
expanded in Metro Manila, Southern and Northern Luzon, Cebu and California,
USA.Looking towards the next millennium, Max's Restaurant has established
itself as a household name, an institution, and a proud Filipino tradition. The
second and third generations of the family continue to zealously uphold the
standards and traditions set by Maximo and Ruby for all Max's Restaurants..Today
Max's Restaurant has opened a window of business opportunity for dynamic
individuals interested and willing to invest in the long standing tradition of
quality which only a Max's Restaurant can offer. It opened its doors to
franchising for the first time in the second quarter of 1998. This is the
opportunity to join the thriving food service industry in the Philippines.
3.
State what
competitive strategy that company is using and why.
Ø MANILA, Philippines—The Max’s restaurant group is bringing popular
American smoothie and specialty snack chain Jamba Juice to the Philippines,
taking advantage of rising consumer affluence and health consciousness.
Officials of the Max’s group—which also owns the Philippine master
franchise of Krispy Kreme and Max’s Corner Bakery on top of its flagship Max’s
fried chicken brand—announced on Thursday that the first Jamba Juice store in
the country will open on November 11 at Bonifacio Global City.
The California-based beverage chain, which has grown its network
to over 700 stores in the United States since its establishment in 1990, is
setting up shop in Southeast Asia for the first time.
“We believe that the Philippines has a good potential for being
one of the strongest markets for Jamba Juice, given the interest that Filipinos
have shown, especially recently, for active living,” Fuentebella said.
Apart from the first store in BGC, the group is now looking at
Greenhills, Mall of Asia and Alabang Town Center as the next locations for
Jamba Juice.
Apart from bringing a new brand into the country, Max’s president
Robert Trota said plans were in place to expand here and abroad.
Asked whether the group would debut on the stock exchange soon to
gain access to more funds for expansion, Trota said: “Because of the internally
generated funds, we have no immediate plans to go public but it could happen in
the near future.”
The flagship Max’s restaurant brand, a well-known restaurant brand
in the Philippines that began operations in 1945, has 122 stores in the country
and 10 stores overseas (eight in the United States, one in Canada and one in
Dubai).
The plan is to set up shop in Seattle, Washington, and Vancouver.
There are also some potential franchisees in Australia, Trota
said.
The group has yet to map out plans for expansion to Asia but it is
not closing its doors.
Trota said there may be opportunities in Singapore and Hong Kong
but the key would be to find a good local partner, he said.
“We want to concentrate on North America because we haven’t even
saturated it,” Trota said.
Every year, the Max’s group plans to open six to 10 stores locally
and three to five stores overseas.
After successfully gaining foothold in Dubai, Trota said the group
would like to have at least 10 stores in the Middle East.
For now, the overseas expansion plan targets areas with a large
population of overseas Filipinos.
“Right now, we are benefiting from Filipino communities. That’s
our entry to the market,” he said.
Meanwhile, the group’s bakeshop brand, Max’s Corner Bakery, now
has 112 branches in the Philippines while Krispy Kreme, which was brought by
the group to the Philippines in 2006, now has 24 stores. New Krispy Kreme
stores are set to open in Cebu and Davao.
Monday, April 4, 2011
BRAIN TWISTER
BRAIN TWISTER:
Isa lang ako sa
America at
Isa rin ako sa
Japan dalawa sa
Indonesia tatlo dito sa
Philippines ngunit
Hindi ninyo ako
Makikita sa
Hongkong at lalo na sa
Globo.
Makikita nyo lang ako
Madalas sa libro.
Ano ba ako?
6 letter word sa
Tagalong
_u_ _o_
9 letters rin sa
English
_ _ _i_ _.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Dekada '70
Edit Draft dekada 70'
...Full View
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From:
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Dekada '70 is a 2002 Filipino drama film released based on a book called Dekada '70 written by Filipino author, Lualhati Bautista
Plot
The film tells the story of the life of a middle-class Filipino family who, over the space of a decade, become aware of the political policies that have ultimately led to repression and a state of Martial law in the Philippines. Filipina actress Vilma Santos stars as Amanda, who realizes the implications of living within a dictatorship after sorting out the contradictory reactions of her husband and five sons. Her husband (Julian), played by Filipino actor, Christopher de Leon, supports his eldest son's (Jules), played by Filipino actor, Piolo Pascual; efforts to rail against the government while refusing to follow Amanda's wish to find a job. Her second son (Gani), played by Filipino actor, Carlos Agassi, is in the United States Navy. Her third son (Eman), played by Filipino actor, Marvin Augustin, writes illegal political exposes. The fourth son (Jason), played by Filipino actor, Danilo Barrios fell victim to a corrupt police department, and her youngest son named (Bingo), played by Filipino actor, John W. Sace, is still a boy.
Cast
* Vilma Santos - Amanda Bartolome
* Christopher de Leon - Julian Bartolome
* Piolo Pascual - Jules Bartolome
* Marvin Agustin - Emmanuel Bartolome
* Carlos Agassi - Isagani Bartolome
* Danilo Barrios - Jason Bartolome
* Hindi Alam - Bingo Bartolome
* Kris Aquino - Student Leader
* Ana Capri - Mara
* Dimples Romana - Evelyn
* Philip Salvador - Carlos Bartolome Sr.
* Jhong Hilario - Willy
* Carlo Muñoz - Rene
* Tirso Cruz III - Evelyn's Father
* Orestes Ojeda - Dr. Rodrigo
* Joshua Dionisio - Carlos Bartolome Jr./Cocoy/Caloy
* John Wayne Sace - Bingo Bartolome
* Marianne de la Riva - Evelyn's Mother
* Manjo del Mundo - policeman
* Kakai Bautista - rallyist
Differences from the novel
* Near the end of the film, the Bartolome family is seen passing by the casket of former Filipino politician, Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1983. This scene is not in the novel, because it was released shortly before Aquino's assassination.
Dekada '70 (Dekada '70: Ang Orihinal at Kumpletong Edisyon), translated literally into English as "[Decade] '70's ", is a Filipino novel written by Lualhati Bautista.[1]
Dekada '70 is the story of a family caught in the middle of the tumultuous decade of the 1970s. It details how a middle class family struggled with and faced the changes that empowered Filipinos to rise against the Marcos government. This series of events happened after the bombing of Plaza Miranda, the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the proclamation of Martial Law and the random arrests of political prisoners. The oppressive nature of the Marcos regime, which made the people become more radical, and the shaping of the decade were all witnessed by the female protagonist, Amanda Bartolome, a mother of five boys. As Amanda's sons grow, form individual beliefs and lead different lives, Amanda reaffirms her identity to state her stand as a Filipino citizen, mother and as a woman. Dekada '70 introduces the new generation of Filipino readers to a story of a family from a particular period in Philippine history. Its appeal lies in the evolution of its characters that embody the new generation of Filipinos, as well as being the story about a mother and her family, and the society around them that affects them. It is a tale of how a mother becomes torn between the letter of the law and her responsibilities as a mother.
A defining but not subversive Filipino novel, Dekada '70 was one of the two grand prize winners for the 1983 Palanca Awards for the novel.[2] It was adapted into a film by Star Cinema in 2002, starring Christopher de Leon and Vilma Santos.
what filipino ideologies are mirrored in the film cite.
From time to time, a politically and socially relevant film like Dekada '70 that likewise ranks high in form and quality emerges from the commercialized world of Filipino movies.
Dekada '70 well reflected conditions and events under the US-Marcos fascist regime — the widespread and intense suppression, brutality and human rights violations as well as the people's fierce resistance. In a simple but clear manner, the film mirrored the social and political crisis during the dictatorship that gave rise to a surging mass movement and a burgeoning revolutionary movement.
what issues during colonialism are still depicted in this contemporary film?
Filipinos began creating artistic paintings in the 17th century during the ... from the Philippines, who has won numerous awards for his role in Dekada'70. ... The films in this period dealt with more serious topics following the Martial law era. ... Islamic and other Asian architecture can also be seen depicted
...Full View
Photo for arson balana
From:
arson balana
...
View Contact
To:
Dekada '70 is a 2002 Filipino drama film released based on a book called Dekada '70 written by Filipino author, Lualhati Bautista
Plot
The film tells the story of the life of a middle-class Filipino family who, over the space of a decade, become aware of the political policies that have ultimately led to repression and a state of Martial law in the Philippines. Filipina actress Vilma Santos stars as Amanda, who realizes the implications of living within a dictatorship after sorting out the contradictory reactions of her husband and five sons. Her husband (Julian), played by Filipino actor, Christopher de Leon, supports his eldest son's (Jules), played by Filipino actor, Piolo Pascual; efforts to rail against the government while refusing to follow Amanda's wish to find a job. Her second son (Gani), played by Filipino actor, Carlos Agassi, is in the United States Navy. Her third son (Eman), played by Filipino actor, Marvin Augustin, writes illegal political exposes. The fourth son (Jason), played by Filipino actor, Danilo Barrios fell victim to a corrupt police department, and her youngest son named (Bingo), played by Filipino actor, John W. Sace, is still a boy.
Cast
* Vilma Santos - Amanda Bartolome
* Christopher de Leon - Julian Bartolome
* Piolo Pascual - Jules Bartolome
* Marvin Agustin - Emmanuel Bartolome
* Carlos Agassi - Isagani Bartolome
* Danilo Barrios - Jason Bartolome
* Hindi Alam - Bingo Bartolome
* Kris Aquino - Student Leader
* Ana Capri - Mara
* Dimples Romana - Evelyn
* Philip Salvador - Carlos Bartolome Sr.
* Jhong Hilario - Willy
* Carlo Muñoz - Rene
* Tirso Cruz III - Evelyn's Father
* Orestes Ojeda - Dr. Rodrigo
* Joshua Dionisio - Carlos Bartolome Jr./Cocoy/Caloy
* John Wayne Sace - Bingo Bartolome
* Marianne de la Riva - Evelyn's Mother
* Manjo del Mundo - policeman
* Kakai Bautista - rallyist
Differences from the novel
* Near the end of the film, the Bartolome family is seen passing by the casket of former Filipino politician, Benigno Aquino, Jr. in 1983. This scene is not in the novel, because it was released shortly before Aquino's assassination.
Dekada '70 (Dekada '70: Ang Orihinal at Kumpletong Edisyon), translated literally into English as "[Decade] '70's ", is a Filipino novel written by Lualhati Bautista.[1]
Dekada '70 is the story of a family caught in the middle of the tumultuous decade of the 1970s. It details how a middle class family struggled with and faced the changes that empowered Filipinos to rise against the Marcos government. This series of events happened after the bombing of Plaza Miranda, the suspension of the Writ of Habeas Corpus, the proclamation of Martial Law and the random arrests of political prisoners. The oppressive nature of the Marcos regime, which made the people become more radical, and the shaping of the decade were all witnessed by the female protagonist, Amanda Bartolome, a mother of five boys. As Amanda's sons grow, form individual beliefs and lead different lives, Amanda reaffirms her identity to state her stand as a Filipino citizen, mother and as a woman. Dekada '70 introduces the new generation of Filipino readers to a story of a family from a particular period in Philippine history. Its appeal lies in the evolution of its characters that embody the new generation of Filipinos, as well as being the story about a mother and her family, and the society around them that affects them. It is a tale of how a mother becomes torn between the letter of the law and her responsibilities as a mother.
A defining but not subversive Filipino novel, Dekada '70 was one of the two grand prize winners for the 1983 Palanca Awards for the novel.[2] It was adapted into a film by Star Cinema in 2002, starring Christopher de Leon and Vilma Santos.
what filipino ideologies are mirrored in the film cite.
From time to time, a politically and socially relevant film like Dekada '70 that likewise ranks high in form and quality emerges from the commercialized world of Filipino movies.
Dekada '70 well reflected conditions and events under the US-Marcos fascist regime — the widespread and intense suppression, brutality and human rights violations as well as the people's fierce resistance. In a simple but clear manner, the film mirrored the social and political crisis during the dictatorship that gave rise to a surging mass movement and a burgeoning revolutionary movement.
what issues during colonialism are still depicted in this contemporary film?
Filipinos began creating artistic paintings in the 17th century during the ... from the Philippines, who has won numerous awards for his role in Dekada'70. ... The films in this period dealt with more serious topics following the Martial law era. ... Islamic and other Asian architecture can also be seen depicted
nationalism literary poem and essay
nationalism literary poem and essay
Nationalism involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. Often, it is the belief that an ethnic group has a right to statehood,[1] or that citizenship in a state should be limited to one ethnic group, or that multinationality in a single state should necessarily comprise the right to express and exercise national identity even by minorities
Example purity,loyalty
Essay on Nationalism
Nationalism is the devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation. Nigeria is a country that has been through a lot of turmoil in the years that it has existed. The root of the nationalism that has built up over the years goes back many generations. There have been lots of different areas that help contribute to the nationalism that we see in Scotland today. The people that live in Nigeria are very proud of who they are and their ancestors that have come before them. I am going to look at a few of the things that I believe have helped contribute to the nationalism that we see in Nigeria today. There are many different areas that I really want to look at including the unifying and diverse force. The first thing that I believe is very important to Nigerian nationalism is the culture that has been evolved over the years. This includes everything from literature to the sports that the Scottish plays. I also want to look at the way that the Nigerians have developed a legislative body even though it does not have all of the powers that they would like it to have.
Nationalism Personified
It is my desire to believe in the words,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
That all men are created equal… that they are endowed
By their creator with certain unalienable rights.
That among these; are life, liberty
And the pursuit of happiness.
My desire to achieve an atmosphere and
An environment of nationalism
Must begin with my understanding of accepting
The fact that there are things wrong
With the scope of where we are
And then address the reality of how
To change the landscape.
Nationalism personified is the
Perfect barometer for accepting
Indifference and making a change at
The same time
We cannot provoke, talk about, use rhetoric in describing
Or even moderately discuss the problem
Without addressing any and all possible solutions
The personification of nationalism is in knowing
That we can’t complain about racism if we treat
One another with indifference
The personification of nationalism is in knowing’
That we can’t complain about the political infrastructure
If we don’t exercise our right to be informed and
THEN vote
We’ve taken for granted the fact that we have it
As well as we do and
If we’re not careful, we’ll awake one day to a
Totalitarian society, stripped of our ideologies and independence
So in closing, my question is this;
What makes a nation?
My answer;
The people within it and the people within it must change
If the perspective of nationalism is to change
[ i see my country ]
i see my country
as it ought to be
everyone loving
and everyone free
freedom they say
to let it ring
but yet we ignore
countries without these things
we say that we are the land of the free
yet we are really only imperialistic
we forces our view on others
it seems we don't understand
that maybe that country
likes how it is
we are people
who should be ashamed to say
i am Pilipino
all the way
Nationalism involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. Often, it is the belief that an ethnic group has a right to statehood,[1] or that citizenship in a state should be limited to one ethnic group, or that multinationality in a single state should necessarily comprise the right to express and exercise national identity even by minorities
Example purity,loyalty
Essay on Nationalism
Nationalism is the devotion to the interests or culture of one's nation. Nigeria is a country that has been through a lot of turmoil in the years that it has existed. The root of the nationalism that has built up over the years goes back many generations. There have been lots of different areas that help contribute to the nationalism that we see in Scotland today. The people that live in Nigeria are very proud of who they are and their ancestors that have come before them. I am going to look at a few of the things that I believe have helped contribute to the nationalism that we see in Nigeria today. There are many different areas that I really want to look at including the unifying and diverse force. The first thing that I believe is very important to Nigerian nationalism is the culture that has been evolved over the years. This includes everything from literature to the sports that the Scottish plays. I also want to look at the way that the Nigerians have developed a legislative body even though it does not have all of the powers that they would like it to have.
Nationalism Personified
It is my desire to believe in the words,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident,
That all men are created equal… that they are endowed
By their creator with certain unalienable rights.
That among these; are life, liberty
And the pursuit of happiness.
My desire to achieve an atmosphere and
An environment of nationalism
Must begin with my understanding of accepting
The fact that there are things wrong
With the scope of where we are
And then address the reality of how
To change the landscape.
Nationalism personified is the
Perfect barometer for accepting
Indifference and making a change at
The same time
We cannot provoke, talk about, use rhetoric in describing
Or even moderately discuss the problem
Without addressing any and all possible solutions
The personification of nationalism is in knowing
That we can’t complain about racism if we treat
One another with indifference
The personification of nationalism is in knowing’
That we can’t complain about the political infrastructure
If we don’t exercise our right to be informed and
THEN vote
We’ve taken for granted the fact that we have it
As well as we do and
If we’re not careful, we’ll awake one day to a
Totalitarian society, stripped of our ideologies and independence
So in closing, my question is this;
What makes a nation?
My answer;
The people within it and the people within it must change
If the perspective of nationalism is to change
[ i see my country ]
i see my country
as it ought to be
everyone loving
and everyone free
freedom they say
to let it ring
but yet we ignore
countries without these things
we say that we are the land of the free
yet we are really only imperialistic
we forces our view on others
it seems we don't understand
that maybe that country
likes how it is
we are people
who should be ashamed to say
i am Pilipino
all the way
CYAN ABAD-JUGOCERES ALABADODEAN FRANCIS ALFARGREGORIO T. AMANO (Gregorio Taer Affiano)FE MARIA ARRIOLAPEDRO AUNARIO (Pedro Rivero Aunerio)RICA BOLIPATA-SANTOSALBERT B. CASUGACONCHITINA R. CRUZ
CYAN ABAD-JUGO took her master's in Children's Literature at Simmons College , Boston , and is currently pursuing a PhD in English Studies: Creative Writing at the University of the Philippines . Her first book, Father and Daughter: The Figures of Our Speech, was a joint project with father Gémino H. Abad (Anvil 1996). This was followed by a collection of short fiction called Sweet Summer and Other Stories (UP Press 2004). Her most recent book, Leaf and Shadow: Stories About Some Friendly Creatures (Anvil 2008), includes her children's story "Behind The Old Aparador" which won second place at the Carlos Memorial Palanca Awards in 2003.
CERES ALABADO Born: Manila ; October 26, 1923. Fictionist, teacher. Her parents are Dr. Gervacio Cuyugan, a surgeon, and Jacinta Santos, a nurse. She is married to Corban Kabiling Abalado, a lawyer. They have five children. She finished primary schooling at the Lucena Elementary School and secondary schooling at the Philippine Women's University (PWU), 1939. She earned her bachelor of arts and bachelor of science in education from the PWU, 1950; and master's degree in education, with distinction, from the same university, 1956. She obtained a diploma from the Institute of Children 's Literature in Connecticut , USA ; and took a piano teacher's music course from the Holy Ghost College in Manila , 1943. Alabado taught at the PWU, where she also served as administrative officer, and at the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Education. She served as coordinator for the National Economic Council of the University of the Philippines , US Assistance for International Development (USAID) library research project, 1968-1970, and consultant for Nutrition Center 's Aklat Adarna writing workshop which later put out the children's book series, Bulilit (Kid). She has attended various international conferences on juvenile literature.
Alabado founded the Children's Literature Association of the Philippines and Pamana Inc, both aimed at developing children's literature; and the Filipino Library, the first to publish Filipino picture books for children. Her other organizational affiliations are the Children's Museum and Library Inc, Association for Childhood Education International, Education Forum, and Philippine Librarians Association.
Alabado's published books of juvenile literature, including those for preschoolers and teenagers, are The Little Lizard and Other Stories, The Big Lonely House and Other Stories, Tupo and the Blow Pipe and Other Stories, What is Christmas?, Possession, The Terrible Devil, Tasaday, The Rattan Gatherer, What is Red?, What is Blue?, What is Yellow?, Dog, What Do You Say?, Asog, I See Red in a Circle, and Batang RP (RP Child). She also wrote Writing for Children in the Philippines and in the Third World . Alabado has been anthologized in numerous publications in the United States . She was editor of Kosmik, a science magazine for children. She wrote the novel Kangkong 1986, and has also written for television, radio, and the movies.
Alabado received the PWU Jubilee Award, the Catholic Mass MediaAwards, and the Philippine Board of Books for Young People (PBBY) General Achievement Award.
DEAN FRANCIS ALFAR, born 1969, is a playwright, novelist, and writer of speculative fiction. He advocates the writing of fantastic literature. His articles and fiction have been published both locally and abroad, such as in Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and more. His works have garnered him ten Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including the Grand Prize for his novel, Salamanca (2006), as well as the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards for the graphic novels Siglo: Freedom and Siglo: Passion. Alfar edits the Philippine Speculative Fiction series. He is also a comic book creator, a blogger, and an entrepreneur.
GREGORIO T. AMANO (Gregorio Taer Affiano)
Born: Vigan, Ilocos Sur; November 17, 1934. Fictionist, teacher. He is the son of Esteban Amano and Olympia Taer. He obtained his education degree from the Philippine College of Arts and Trades in Manila . He was later granted a scholarship under the Colombo Plan to study in Tokyo , Japan . He taught at the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, became principal then chief of the Education Department if the Ilocos Norte College of Arts and Trade (now a college of Don Mariano Marcos State University ) in Laoag City . He is a member of Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano (GUMIL) Laoag, GUMIL Ilocos Norte and GUMIL Filipinas. He is at present a professor and administrator at the Don Mariano Marcos State University .
Amano began writing in Ilocano in 1957.That same year, his poem “Arado” was published in Bannawag. Since then, he has published many poems, essays on practical arts, and short stories in the same magazine. His best-known stories are “Dimo Koma Biroken Ti Kaasida” (Do Not Look For Their Mercy), “Talna” (Peace), and “Bubon” (Well). Some of his works were anthologized in Tugot (Foot-prints), edited by Onofrecia I. Ibarra and Hermenegildo A.Viloria and published by GUMIL Ilocos Sur. A former editor of the Philippine Educational Journal, he has also authorized four popular books on practical arts.
In 1986 he won first prize in the short story writing contest in the Gov Roque Ablan Awards for Iluko Literature
FE MARIA ARRIOLA
Born: Quezon City ; June 10, 1943. Essayist. Her parents are Amado Capellan and Pacita Erum. She is married to Emmanuel Arriola Jr. with whom she has two daughters. She obtained her bachelor of arts in English and psychology from St. Theresa's College in 1963. She has worked as an interviewer for National Life Insurance Co, 1963-1965; account executive for Philippine Advertising Counselors, 1965-1969; research assistant for ICARP, 1973-1975; research associate of the Population Center Foundation, 1975-1980; and freelance copywriter, 1980-1984. Deeply involved in the Philippine feminist movement, she is a board member of Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibolna Kamalayan (KASIBULAN, Women in the Arts and Newly Emergent Consciousness) and secretary-general of TERESA MAKABAYAN, a group of Theresian alumnae active in social causes.
Arriola authorized Si Maria, Nena, Gabriela, Atbp., Kuwentong Kasaysayan ng Kababaihan (Maria, Nena, Gabriela, and Others, Historical Narrative of Women),1990, a publication of St. Scholastica's College Institute of Women's Studies and GABRIELA, an alliance of progressive women's organizations; and co-authorized History of the Burgis,1987, with Mariel N. Francisco. She edited Luksong Tinik (Leaping Game), 1992, a book on childrearing, and The Body Book, 1993.
PEDRO AUNARIO (Pedro Rivero Aunerio)
Born: Ermita, Manila ; June 29, 1878 Died: January 27, 1943. Essayist. His parents are Hugo Aunario and Maximiana Rivero. He was married to Cristina Maglaque with whom he had 11 children. He started as a reporter for newspapers like La Patria, La Aurora, La Fraternidad, La Democracia, and El Renacimiento, then became associate editor of La Vanguardia in 1916. Aside from his daily articles, he also contributed to Renacimiento Filipino, Cultura Filipina, Philippine Review, and The Citizen.
Aunario served in the government as representative of the Mountain Province at the Philippine Assembly between 1916 and 1923, and member of the Independence Mission headed by Manuel L. Quezon in 1919. He was also a correspondent of the Royal Spanish-American Academy .
A crusading journalist, Aunario became known for his vitriolic editorials and exposes of anomalies in government. One of his frequently anthological articles, “Oracion del Periodista” (The Journalist's Prayer), is an exhortation to his colleagues to adhere to ethical responsibilities.
Aunarios' first collection of articles, En el yunque cotidiano (On the Daily Anvil), won the Premio Zobel in 1934.His second, Pugnas de lenguas (The Fight Between Languages), consisting articles published in La vanguardia in 1938-1940,won the Commonwealth literary award for the essay category in 1940. In the banner article “Pugna de Lenguas,” he proposed the establishment of an Academy of Foreign Languages which would make world literary classics available to the masses.
RICA BOLIPATA-SANTOS teaches at the Department of English at the Ateneo de Manila. She is also consultant for Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation and is the Executive Director for the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW). She is a columnist at the Philippine Star and has published essays in various publications. She has won a Free Press Literary Award, as well as the 2007 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for Love, Sesire, Marriage: Reflections of a Young Wife (Milflores Publishing).
ALBERT B. CASUGA, a Philippine-born Canadian writer, lives in Mississauga , Ontario , Canada , where he continues to write poetry, fiction, and criticism after his retirement from teaching and serving as an elected member of his region's school board. He was nominated to the Mississauga Arts Council Literary Awards in 2007. A graduate of the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas (now University of Santo Tomas , Manila ), he taught English and Literature at the Philippines ' De La Salle University and San Beda College. He has authored books of poetry, short stories, literary theory and criticism. He has won awards for his works in Canada , the U.S.A. , and the Philippines . His latest work, A Theory of Echoes and Other Poems was published February 2009 by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House .
Casuga was a 1972 Fellow at the Siliman Writer's Workshop in Silliman University , Dumaguete. He won the national Philiippine Parnaso Poetry Contest ( now defunct) in the 70s; First Prizes in the Mississauga , Canada Library Systems Literary Contests in 1990 (for Fiction), 1996 (for Poetry), and 1998 (for Poetry). He was editor of the Journal of Arts and Sciences in UST (1961-62), Graduate School Journal of UST (1964), Literary Editor of the San Beda College Journal (1965-1968), and Assistant Literary Editor of the UST's Varsitarian (1962). His works were published in the Philippines Free Press, Graphic Weekly Magazine, NOW Philippines, The Sunday Times Magazine, Asia-Philippines Leader, Poetry Magazine (Maryland), Amihan (UST), De La Salle Philosophy Journal, San Beda Journal., Philippine Writing (edited by the late NVM Gonzalez), and poetry anthologies; viz., A Habit of Shores (UP Press, e. Gemino H. Abad); Cited extensively in Isagani Cruz's Beyond Futility (Philippine Literary Criticism. He publishes a literary blog at http://ambitsgambit.blogspot.com/.
CONCHITINA R. CRUZ teaches creative writing and comparative literature at UP Diliman. A Palanca and National Book Award winner, she is the youngest poet in A Habit of Shores, the third and last volume of the Man of Earth series of anthologies which spans a century of Philippine poetry and verse in English. While on a Fulbright grant, Cruz studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She is also a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Philippine Studies and the online journal High Chair. Her works include Disappear, a chapbook published in 2005 by High Chair, Dark Hours, published in 2005 by The UP Press, and Elsewhere Held and Lingered, published in 2008 by High Chair.
CONCHITINA R. CRUZ teaches creative writing and comparative literature at UP Diliman. A Palanca and National Book Award winner, she is the youngest poet in A Habit of Shores, the third and last volume of the Man of Earth series of anthologies which spans a century of Philippine poetry and verse in English. While on a Fulbright grant, Cruz studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She is also a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Philippine Studies and the online journal High Chair. Her works include Disappear, a chapbook published in 2005 by High Chair, Dark Hours, published in 2005 by The UP Press, and Elsewhere Held and Lingered, published in 2008 by High Chair.
CERES ALABADO Born: Manila ; October 26, 1923. Fictionist, teacher. Her parents are Dr. Gervacio Cuyugan, a surgeon, and Jacinta Santos, a nurse. She is married to Corban Kabiling Abalado, a lawyer. They have five children. She finished primary schooling at the Lucena Elementary School and secondary schooling at the Philippine Women's University (PWU), 1939. She earned her bachelor of arts and bachelor of science in education from the PWU, 1950; and master's degree in education, with distinction, from the same university, 1956. She obtained a diploma from the Institute of Children 's Literature in Connecticut , USA ; and took a piano teacher's music course from the Holy Ghost College in Manila , 1943. Alabado taught at the PWU, where she also served as administrative officer, and at the Ateneo de Manila University Graduate School of Education. She served as coordinator for the National Economic Council of the University of the Philippines , US Assistance for International Development (USAID) library research project, 1968-1970, and consultant for Nutrition Center 's Aklat Adarna writing workshop which later put out the children's book series, Bulilit (Kid). She has attended various international conferences on juvenile literature.
Alabado founded the Children's Literature Association of the Philippines and Pamana Inc, both aimed at developing children's literature; and the Filipino Library, the first to publish Filipino picture books for children. Her other organizational affiliations are the Children's Museum and Library Inc, Association for Childhood Education International, Education Forum, and Philippine Librarians Association.
Alabado's published books of juvenile literature, including those for preschoolers and teenagers, are The Little Lizard and Other Stories, The Big Lonely House and Other Stories, Tupo and the Blow Pipe and Other Stories, What is Christmas?, Possession, The Terrible Devil, Tasaday, The Rattan Gatherer, What is Red?, What is Blue?, What is Yellow?, Dog, What Do You Say?, Asog, I See Red in a Circle, and Batang RP (RP Child). She also wrote Writing for Children in the Philippines and in the Third World . Alabado has been anthologized in numerous publications in the United States . She was editor of Kosmik, a science magazine for children. She wrote the novel Kangkong 1986, and has also written for television, radio, and the movies.
Alabado received the PWU Jubilee Award, the Catholic Mass MediaAwards, and the Philippine Board of Books for Young People (PBBY) General Achievement Award.
DEAN FRANCIS ALFAR, born 1969, is a playwright, novelist, and writer of speculative fiction. He advocates the writing of fantastic literature. His articles and fiction have been published both locally and abroad, such as in Strange Horizons, Rabid Transit, The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, and more. His works have garnered him ten Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, including the Grand Prize for his novel, Salamanca (2006), as well as the Manila Critics’ Circle National Book Awards for the graphic novels Siglo: Freedom and Siglo: Passion. Alfar edits the Philippine Speculative Fiction series. He is also a comic book creator, a blogger, and an entrepreneur.
GREGORIO T. AMANO (Gregorio Taer Affiano)
Born: Vigan, Ilocos Sur; November 17, 1934. Fictionist, teacher. He is the son of Esteban Amano and Olympia Taer. He obtained his education degree from the Philippine College of Arts and Trades in Manila . He was later granted a scholarship under the Colombo Plan to study in Tokyo , Japan . He taught at the University of Northern Philippines in Vigan, became principal then chief of the Education Department if the Ilocos Norte College of Arts and Trade (now a college of Don Mariano Marcos State University ) in Laoag City . He is a member of Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano (GUMIL) Laoag, GUMIL Ilocos Norte and GUMIL Filipinas. He is at present a professor and administrator at the Don Mariano Marcos State University .
Amano began writing in Ilocano in 1957.That same year, his poem “Arado” was published in Bannawag. Since then, he has published many poems, essays on practical arts, and short stories in the same magazine. His best-known stories are “Dimo Koma Biroken Ti Kaasida” (Do Not Look For Their Mercy), “Talna” (Peace), and “Bubon” (Well). Some of his works were anthologized in Tugot (Foot-prints), edited by Onofrecia I. Ibarra and Hermenegildo A.Viloria and published by GUMIL Ilocos Sur. A former editor of the Philippine Educational Journal, he has also authorized four popular books on practical arts.
In 1986 he won first prize in the short story writing contest in the Gov Roque Ablan Awards for Iluko Literature
FE MARIA ARRIOLA
Born: Quezon City ; June 10, 1943. Essayist. Her parents are Amado Capellan and Pacita Erum. She is married to Emmanuel Arriola Jr. with whom she has two daughters. She obtained her bachelor of arts in English and psychology from St. Theresa's College in 1963. She has worked as an interviewer for National Life Insurance Co, 1963-1965; account executive for Philippine Advertising Counselors, 1965-1969; research assistant for ICARP, 1973-1975; research associate of the Population Center Foundation, 1975-1980; and freelance copywriter, 1980-1984. Deeply involved in the Philippine feminist movement, she is a board member of Kababaihan sa Sining at Bagong Sibolna Kamalayan (KASIBULAN, Women in the Arts and Newly Emergent Consciousness) and secretary-general of TERESA MAKABAYAN, a group of Theresian alumnae active in social causes.
Arriola authorized Si Maria, Nena, Gabriela, Atbp., Kuwentong Kasaysayan ng Kababaihan (Maria, Nena, Gabriela, and Others, Historical Narrative of Women),1990, a publication of St. Scholastica's College Institute of Women's Studies and GABRIELA, an alliance of progressive women's organizations; and co-authorized History of the Burgis,1987, with Mariel N. Francisco. She edited Luksong Tinik (Leaping Game), 1992, a book on childrearing, and The Body Book, 1993.
PEDRO AUNARIO (Pedro Rivero Aunerio)
Born: Ermita, Manila ; June 29, 1878 Died: January 27, 1943. Essayist. His parents are Hugo Aunario and Maximiana Rivero. He was married to Cristina Maglaque with whom he had 11 children. He started as a reporter for newspapers like La Patria, La Aurora, La Fraternidad, La Democracia, and El Renacimiento, then became associate editor of La Vanguardia in 1916. Aside from his daily articles, he also contributed to Renacimiento Filipino, Cultura Filipina, Philippine Review, and The Citizen.
Aunario served in the government as representative of the Mountain Province at the Philippine Assembly between 1916 and 1923, and member of the Independence Mission headed by Manuel L. Quezon in 1919. He was also a correspondent of the Royal Spanish-American Academy .
A crusading journalist, Aunario became known for his vitriolic editorials and exposes of anomalies in government. One of his frequently anthological articles, “Oracion del Periodista” (The Journalist's Prayer), is an exhortation to his colleagues to adhere to ethical responsibilities.
Aunarios' first collection of articles, En el yunque cotidiano (On the Daily Anvil), won the Premio Zobel in 1934.His second, Pugnas de lenguas (The Fight Between Languages), consisting articles published in La vanguardia in 1938-1940,won the Commonwealth literary award for the essay category in 1940. In the banner article “Pugna de Lenguas,” he proposed the establishment of an Academy of Foreign Languages which would make world literary classics available to the masses.
RICA BOLIPATA-SANTOS teaches at the Department of English at the Ateneo de Manila. She is also consultant for Sa Aklat Sisikat Foundation and is the Executive Director for the Ateneo Library of Women’s Writings (ALIWW). She is a columnist at the Philippine Star and has published essays in various publications. She has won a Free Press Literary Award, as well as the 2007 Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award for Love, Sesire, Marriage: Reflections of a Young Wife (Milflores Publishing).
ALBERT B. CASUGA, a Philippine-born Canadian writer, lives in Mississauga , Ontario , Canada , where he continues to write poetry, fiction, and criticism after his retirement from teaching and serving as an elected member of his region's school board. He was nominated to the Mississauga Arts Council Literary Awards in 2007. A graduate of the Royal and Pontifical University of St. Thomas (now University of Santo Tomas , Manila ), he taught English and Literature at the Philippines ' De La Salle University and San Beda College. He has authored books of poetry, short stories, literary theory and criticism. He has won awards for his works in Canada , the U.S.A. , and the Philippines . His latest work, A Theory of Echoes and Other Poems was published February 2009 by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House .
Casuga was a 1972 Fellow at the Siliman Writer's Workshop in Silliman University , Dumaguete. He won the national Philiippine Parnaso Poetry Contest ( now defunct) in the 70s; First Prizes in the Mississauga , Canada Library Systems Literary Contests in 1990 (for Fiction), 1996 (for Poetry), and 1998 (for Poetry). He was editor of the Journal of Arts and Sciences in UST (1961-62), Graduate School Journal of UST (1964), Literary Editor of the San Beda College Journal (1965-1968), and Assistant Literary Editor of the UST's Varsitarian (1962). His works were published in the Philippines Free Press, Graphic Weekly Magazine, NOW Philippines, The Sunday Times Magazine, Asia-Philippines Leader, Poetry Magazine (Maryland), Amihan (UST), De La Salle Philosophy Journal, San Beda Journal., Philippine Writing (edited by the late NVM Gonzalez), and poetry anthologies; viz., A Habit of Shores (UP Press, e. Gemino H. Abad); Cited extensively in Isagani Cruz's Beyond Futility (Philippine Literary Criticism. He publishes a literary blog at http://ambitsgambit.blogspot.com/.
CONCHITINA R. CRUZ teaches creative writing and comparative literature at UP Diliman. A Palanca and National Book Award winner, she is the youngest poet in A Habit of Shores, the third and last volume of the Man of Earth series of anthologies which spans a century of Philippine poetry and verse in English. While on a Fulbright grant, Cruz studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She is also a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Philippine Studies and the online journal High Chair. Her works include Disappear, a chapbook published in 2005 by High Chair, Dark Hours, published in 2005 by The UP Press, and Elsewhere Held and Lingered, published in 2008 by High Chair.
CONCHITINA R. CRUZ teaches creative writing and comparative literature at UP Diliman. A Palanca and National Book Award winner, she is the youngest poet in A Habit of Shores, the third and last volume of the Man of Earth series of anthologies which spans a century of Philippine poetry and verse in English. While on a Fulbright grant, Cruz studied and taught at the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where she received her MFA in Writing. She is also a recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Grant. Her poetry has appeared in Mid-American Review, Indiana Review, Philippine Studies and the online journal High Chair. Her works include Disappear, a chapbook published in 2005 by High Chair, Dark Hours, published in 2005 by The UP Press, and Elsewhere Held and Lingered, published in 2008 by High Chair.
The Summer Solstice Nick Joaquin
The Summer Solstice
Nick Joaquin
THE MORETAS WERE spending St. John’s Day with the children’s grandfather, whose feast day it was. Doña Lupeng awoke feeling faint with the heat, a sound of screaming in her ears. In the dining room the three boys already attired in their holiday suits, were at breakfast, and came crowding around her, talking all at once.
“How long you have slept, Mama!”
“We thought you were never getting up!”
“Do we leave at once, huh? Are we going now?”
“Hush, hush I implore you! Now look: your father has a headache, and so have I. So be quiet this instant—or no one goes to Grandfather.”
Though it was only seven by the clock the house was already a furnace, the windows dilating with the harsh light and the air already burning with the immense, intense fever of noon.
She found the children’s nurse working in the kitchen. “And why is it you who are preparing breakfast? Where is Amada?” But without waiting for an answer she went to the backdoor and opened it, and the screaming in her ears became wild screaming in the stables across the yard. “Oh my God!” she groaned and, grasping her skirts, hurried across the yard.
In the stables Entoy, the driver, apparently deaf to the screams, was hitching the pair of piebald ponies to the coach.
“Not the closed coach, Entoy! The open carriage!” shouted Doña Lupeng as she came up.
“But the dust, señora—“
“I know, but better to be dirty than to be boiled alive. And what ails your wife, eh? Have you been beating her again?”
“Oh no, señora: I have not touched her.”
“Then why is she screaming? Is she ill?”
“I do not think so. But how do I know? You can go and see for yourself, señora. She is up there.”
When Doña Lupeng entered the room, the big half-naked woman sprawled across the bamboo bed stopped screaming. Doña Lupeng was shocked.
“What is this Amada? Why are you still in bed at this hour? And in such a posture! Come, get up at once. You should be ashamed!”
But the woman on the bed merely stared. Her sweat-beaded brows contracted, as if in an effort to understand. Then her face relax her mouth sagged open humorously and, rolling over on her back and spreading out her big soft arms and legs, she began noiselessly quaking with laughter—the mute mirth jerking in her throat; the moist pile of her flesh quivering like brown jelly. Saliva dribbled from the corners of her mouth.
Doña Lupeng blushed, looking around helplessly, and seeing that Entoy had followed and was leaning in the doorway, watching stolidly, she blushed again. The room reeked hotly of intimate odors. She averted her eyes from the laughing woman on the bed, in whose nakedness she seemed so to participate that she was ashamed to look directly at the man in the doorway.
“Tell me, Entoy: has she had been to the Tadtarin?”
“Yes, señora. Last night.”
“But I forbade her to go! And I forbade you to let her go!”
“I could do nothing.”
“Why, you beat her at the least pretext!”
“But now I dare not touch her.”
“Oh, and why not?”
“It is the day of St. John: the spirit is in her.”
“But, man—“
“It is true, señora. The spirit is in her. She is the Tadtarin. She must do as she pleases. Otherwise, the grain would not grow, the trees would bear no fruit, the rivers would give no fish, and the animals would die.”
“Naku, I did no know your wife was so powerful, Entoy.”
“At such times she is not my wife: she is the wife of the river, she is the wife of the crocodile, she is the wife of the moon.”
“BUT HOW CAN they still believe such things?” demanded Doña Lupeng of her husband as they drove in the open carriage through the pastoral countryside that was the arrabal of Paco in the 1850’s.
Don Paeng darted a sidelong glance at his wife, by which he intimated that the subject was not a proper one for the children, who were sitting opposite, facing their parents.
Don Paeng, drowsily stroking his moustaches, his eyes closed against the hot light, merely shrugged.
“And you should have seen that Entoy,” continued his wife. “You know how the brute treats her: she cannot say a word but he thrashes her. But this morning he stood as meek as a lamb while she screamed and screamed. He seemed actually in awe of her, do you know—actually afraid of her!”
“Oh, look, boys—here comes the St. John!” cried Doña Lupeng, and she sprang up in the swaying carriage, propping one hand on her husband’s shoulder wile the other she held up her silk parasol.
And “Here come the men with their St. John!” cried voices up and down the countryside. People in wet clothes dripping with well-water, ditch-water and river-water came running across the hot woods and fields and meadows, brandishing cans of water, wetting each other uproariously, and shouting San Juan! San Juan! as they ran to meet the procession.
Up the road, stirring a cloud of dust, and gaily bedrenched by the crowds gathered along the wayside, a concourse of young men clad only in soggy trousers were carrying aloft an image of the Precursor. Their teeth flashed white in their laughing faces and their hot bodies glowed crimson as they pranced past, shrouded in fiery dust, singing and shouting and waving their arms: the St. John riding swiftly above the sea of dark heads and glittering in the noon sun—a fine, blonde, heroic St. John: very male, very arrogant: the Lord of Summer indeed; the Lord of Light and Heat—erect and godly virile above the prone and female earth—while the worshippers danced and the dust thickened and the animals reared and roared and the merciless fires came raining down form the skies—the relentlessly upon field and river and town and winding road, and upon the joyous throng of young men against whose uproar a couple of seminarians in muddy cassocks vainly intoned the hymn of the noon god:
That we, thy servants, in chorus
May praise thee, our tongues restore us…
But Doña Lupeng, standing in the stopped carriage, looking very young and elegant in her white frock, under the twirling parasol, stared down on the passing male horde with increasing annoyance. The insolent man-smell of their bodies rose all about her—wave upon wave of it—enveloping her, assaulting her senses, till she felt faint with it and pressed a handkerchief to her nose. And as she glanced at her husband and saw with what a smug smile he was watching the revelers, her annoyance deepened. When he bade her sit down because all eyes were turned on her, she pretended not to hear; stood up even straighter, as if to defy those rude creatures flaunting their manhood in the sun.
And she wondered peevishly what the braggarts were being so cocky about? For this arrogance, this pride, this bluff male health of theirs was (she told herself) founded on the impregnable virtue of generations of good women. The boobies were so sure of themselves because they had always been sure of their wives. “All the sisters being virtuous, all the brothers are brave,” thought Doña Lupeng, with a bitterness that rather surprised her. Women had built it up: this poise of the male. Ah, and women could destroy it, too! She recalled, vindictively, this morning’s scene at the stables: Amada naked and screaming in bed whiled from the doorway her lord and master looked on in meek silence. And was it not the mystery of a woman in her flowers that had restored the tongue of that old Hebrew prophet?
“Look, Lupeng, they have all passed now,” Don Paeng was saying, “Do you mean to stand all the way?”
She looked around in surprise and hastily sat down. The children tittered, and the carriage started.
“Has the heat gone to your head, woman?” asked Don Paeng, smiling. The children burst frankly into laughter.
Their mother colored and hung her head. She was beginning to feel ashamed of the thoughts that had filled her mind. They seemed improper—almost obscene—and the discovery of such depths of wickedness in herself appalled her. She moved closer to her husband to share the parasol with him.
“And did you see our young cousin Guido?” he asked.
“Oh, was he in that crowd?”
“A European education does not seem to have spoiled his taste for country pleasures.”
“I did not see him.”
“He waved and waved.”
“The poor boy. He will feel hurt. But truly, Paeng. I did not see him.”
“Well, that is always a woman’s privilege.”
BUT WHEN THAT afternoon, at the grandfather’s, the young Guido presented himself, properly attired and brushed and scented, Doña Lupeng was so charming and gracious with him that he was enchanted and gazed after her all afternoon with enamored eyes.
This was the time when our young men were all going to Europe and bringing back with them, not the Age of Victoria, but the Age of Byron. The young Guido knew nothing of Darwin and evolution; he knew everything about Napoleon and the Revolution. When Doña Lupeng expressed surprise at his presence that morning in the St. John’s crowd, he laughed in her face.
“But I adore these old fiestas of ours! They are so romantic! Last night, do you know, we walked all the way through the woods, I and some boys, to see the procession of the Tadtarin.”
“And was that romantic too?” asked Doña Lupeng.
“It was weird. It made my flesh crawl. All those women in such a mystic frenzy! And she who was the Tadtarin last night—she was a figure right out of a flamenco!”
“I fear to disenchant you, Guido—but that woman happens to be our cook.”
“She is beautiful.”
“Our Amada beautiful? But she is old and fat!”
“She is beautiful—as that old tree you are leaning on is beautiful,” calmly insisted the young man, mocking her with his eyes.
They were out in the buzzing orchard, among the ripe mangoes; Doña Lupeng seated on the grass, her legs tucked beneath her, and the young man sprawled flat on his belly, gazing up at her, his face moist with sweat. The children were chasing dragonflies. The sun stood still in the west. The long day refused to end. From the house came the sudden roaring laughter of the men playing cards.
“Beautiful! Romantic! Adorable! Are those the only words you learned in Europe?” cried Doña Lupeng, feeling very annoyed with this young man whose eyes adored her one moment and mocked her the next.
“Ah, I also learned to open my eyes over there—to see the holiness and the mystery of what is vulgar.”
“And what is so holy and mysterious about—about the Tadtarin, for instance?”
“I do not know. I can only feel it. And it frightens me. Those rituals come to us from the earliest dawn of the world. And the dominant figure is not the male but the female.”
“But they are in honor of St. John.”
“What has your St. John to do with them? Those women worship a more ancient lord. Why, do you know that no man may join those rites unless he first puts on some article of women’s apparel and—“
“And what did you put on, Guido?”
“How sharp you are! Oh, I made such love to a toothless old hag there that she pulled off her stocking for me. And I pulled it on, over my arm, like a glove. How your husband would have despised me!”
“But what on earth does it mean?”
“I think it is to remind us men that once upon a time you women were supreme and we men were the slaves.”
“But surely there have always been kings?”
“Oh, no. The queen came before the king, and the priestess before the priest, and the moon before the sun.”
“The moon?”
“—who is the Lord of the women.”
“Why?”
“Because the tides of women, like the tides of the sea, are tides of the moon. Because the first blood -But what is the matter, Lupe? Oh, have I offended you?”
“Is this how they talk to decent women in Europe?”
“They do not talk to women, they pray to them—as men did in the dawn of the world.”
“Oh, you are mad! mad!”
“Why are you so afraid, Lupe?”
“I afraid? And of whom? My dear boy, you still have your mother’s milk in your mouth. I only wish you to remember that I am a married woman.”
“I remember that you are a woman, yes. A beautiful woman. And why not? Did you turn into some dreadful monster when you married? Did you stop being a woman? Did you stop being beautiful? Then why should my eyes not tell you what you are—just because you are married?”
“Ah, this is too much now!” cried Doña Lupeng, and she rose to her feet.
“Do not go, I implore you! Have pity on me!”
“No more of your comedy, Guido! And besides—where have those children gone to! I must go after them.”
As she lifted her skirts to walk away, the young man, propping up his elbows, dragged himself forward on the ground and solemnly kissed the tips of her shoes. She stared down in sudden horror, transfixed—and he felt her violent shudder. She backed away slowly, still staring; then turned and fled toward the house.
ON THE WAY home that evening Don Paeng noticed that his wife was in a mood. They were alone in the carriage: the children were staying overnight at their grandfather’s. The heat had not subsided. It was heat without gradations: that knew no twilights and no dawns; that was still there, after the sun had set; that would be there already, before the sun had risen.
“Has young Guido been annoying you?” asked Don Paeng.
“Yes! All afternoon.”
“These young men today—what a disgrace they are! I felt embarrassed as a man to see him following you about with those eyes of a whipped dog.”
She glanced at him coldly. “And was that all you felt, Paeng? embarrassed—as a man?”
“A good husband has constant confidence in the good sense of his wife,” he pronounced grandly, and smiled at her.
But she drew away; huddled herself in the other corner. “He kissed my feet,” she told him disdainfully, her eyes on his face.
He frowned and made a gesture of distaste. “Do you see? They have the instincts, the style of the canalla! To kiss a woman’s feet, to follow her like a dog, to adore her like a slave –”
“Is it so shameful for a man to adore women?”
“A gentleman loves and respects Woman. The cads and lunatics—they ‘adore’ the women.”
“But maybe we do not want to be loved and respected—but to be adored.”
But when they reached home she did not lie down but wandered listlessly through the empty house. When Don Paeng, having bathed and changed, came down from the bedroom, he found her in the dark parlour seated at the harp and plucking out a tune, still in her white frock and shoes.
“How can you bear those hot clothes, Lupeng? And why the darkness? Order someone to bring light in here.”
“There is no one, they have all gone to see the Tadtarin.”
“A pack of loafers we are feeding!”
She had risen and gone to the window. He approached and stood behind her, grasped her elbows and, stooping, kissed the nape of her neck. But she stood still, not responding, and he released her sulkily. She turned around to face him.
“Listen, Paeng. I want to see it, too. The Tadtarin, I mean. I have not seen it since I was a little girl. And tonight is the last night.”
“You must be crazy! Only low people go there. And I thought you had a headache?” He was still sulking.
“But I want to go! My head aches worse in the house. For a favor, Paeng.”
“I told you: No! go and take those clothes off. But, woman, whatever has got into you!” he strode off to the table, opened the box of cigars, took one, banged the lid shut, bit off an end of the cigar, and glared about for a light.
She was still standing by the window and her chin was up.
“Very well, if you do want to come, do not come—but I am going.”
“I warn you, Lupe; do not provoke me!”
“I will go with Amada. Entoy can take us. You cannot forbid me, Paeng. There is nothing wrong with it. I am not a child.”
But standing very straight in her white frock, her eyes shining in the dark and her chin thrust up, she looked so young, so fragile, that his heart was touched. He sighed, smiled ruefully, and shrugged his shoulders.
“Yes, the heat ahs touched you in the head, Lupeng. And since you are so set on it—very well, let us go. Come, have the coach ordered!”
THE CULT OF the Tadtarin is celebrated on three days: the feast of St. John and the two preceding days. On the first night, a young girl heads the procession; on the second, a mature woman; and on the third, a very old woman who dies and comes to life again. In these processions, as in those of Pakil and Obando, everyone dances.
Around the tiny plaza in front of the barrio chapel, quite a stream of carriages was flowing leisurely. The Moretas were constantly being hailed from the other vehicles. The plaza itself and the sidewalks were filled with chattering, strolling, profusely sweating people. More people were crowded on the balconies and windows of the houses. The moon had not yet risen; the black night smoldered; in the windless sky the lightning’s abruptly branching fire seemed the nerves of the tortured air made visible.
“Here they come now!” cried the people on the balconies.
And “Here come the women with their St. John!” cried the people on the sidewalks, surging forth on the street. The carriages halted and their occupants descended. The plaza rang with the shouts of people and the neighing of horses—and with another keener sound: a sound as of sea-waves steadily rolling nearer.
The crowd parted, and up the street came the prancing, screaming, writhing women, their eyes wild, black shawls flying around their shoulders, and their long hair streaming and covered with leaves and flowers. But the Tadtarin, a small old woman with white hair, walked with calm dignity in the midst of the female tumult, a wand in one hand, a bunch of seedling in the other. Behind her, a group of girls bore aloft a little black image of the Baptist—a crude, primitive, grotesque image, its big-eyed head too big for its puny naked torso, bobbing and swaying above the hysterical female horde and looking at once so comical and so pathetic that Don Paeng, watching with his wife on the sidewalk, was outraged. The image seemed to be crying for help, to be struggling to escape—a St. John indeed in the hands of the Herodias; a doomed captive these witches were subjecting first to their derision; a gross and brutal caricature of his sex.
Don Paeng flushed hotly: he felt that all those women had personally insulted him. He turned to his wife, to take her away—but she was watching greedily, taut and breathless, her head thrust forward and her eyes bulging, the teeth bared in the slack mouth, and the sweat gleaning on her face. Don Paeng was horrified. He grasped her arm—but just then a flash of lightning blazed and the screaming women fell silent: the Tadtarin was about to die.
The old woman closed her eyes and bowed her head and sank slowly to her knees. A pallet was brought and set on the ground and she was laid in it and her face covered with a shroud. Her hands still clutched the wand and the seedlings. The women drew away, leaving her in a cleared space. They covered their heads with their black shawls and began wailing softly, unhumanly—a hushed, animal keening.
Overhead the sky was brightening, silver light defined the rooftops. When the moon rose and flooded with hot brilliance the moveless crowded square, the black-shawled women stopped wailing and a girl approached and unshrouded the Tadtarin, who opened her eyes and sat up, her face lifted to the moonlight. She rose to her feet and extended the wand and the seedlings and the women joined in a mighty shout. They pulled off and waved their shawls and whirled and began dancing again—laughing and dancing with such joyous exciting abandon that the people in the square and on the sidewalk, and even those on the balconies, were soon laughing and dancing, too. Girls broke away from their parents and wives from their husbands to join in the orgy.
“Come, let us go now,” said Don Paeng to his wife. She was shaking with fascination; tears trembled on her lashes; but she nodded meekly and allowed herself to be led away. But suddenly she pulled free from his grasp, darted off, and ran into the crowd of dancing women.
She flung her hands to her hair and whirled and her hair came undone. Then, planting her arms akimbo, she began to trip a nimble measure, an indistinctive folk-movement. She tossed her head back and her arched throat bloomed whitely. Her eyes brimmed with moonlight, and her mouth with laughter.
Don Paeng ran after her, shouting her name, but she laughed and shook her head and darted deeper into the dense maze of procession, which was moving again, towards the chapel. He followed her, shouting; she eluded him, laughing—and through the thick of the female horde they lost and found and lost each other again—she, dancing and he pursuing—till, carried along by the tide, they were both swallowed up into the hot, packed, turbulent darkness of the chapel. Inside poured the entire procession, and Don Paeng, finding himself trapped tight among milling female bodies, struggled with sudden panic to fight his way out. Angry voices rose all about him in the stifling darkness.
“Hoy you are crushing my feet!”
“And let go of my shawl, my shawl!”
“Stop pushing, shameless one, or I kick you!”
“Let me pass, let me pass, you harlots!” cried Don Paeng.
“Abah, it is a man!”
“How dare he come in here?”
“Break his head!”
“Throw the animal out!”
”Throw him out! Throw him out!” shrieked the voices, and Don Paeng found himself surrounded by a swarm of gleaming eyes.
Terror possessed him and he struck out savagely with both fists, with all his strength—but they closed in as savagely: solid walls of flesh that crushed upon him and pinned his arms helpless, while unseen hands struck and struck his face, and ravaged his hair and clothes, and clawed at his flesh, as—kicked and buffeted, his eyes blind and his torn mouth salty with blood—he was pushed down, down to his knees, and half-shoved, half-dragged to the doorway and rolled out to the street. He picked himself up at once and walked away with a dignity that forbade the crowd gathered outside to laugh or to pity. Entoy came running to meet him.
“But what has happened to you, Don Paeng?”
“Nothing. Where is the coach?”
“Just over there, sir. But you are wounded in the face!”
“No, these are only scratches. Go and get the señora. We are going home.”
When she entered the coach and saw his bruised face and torn clothing, she smiled coolly.
“What a sight you are, man! What have you done with yourself?”
And when he did not answer: “Why, have they pulled out his tongue too?” she wondered aloud.
AND WHEN THEY are home and stood facing each other in the bedroom, she was still as light-hearted.
“What are you going to do, Rafael?”
“I am going to give you a whipping.”
“But why?”
“Because you have behaved tonight like a lewd woman.”
“How I behaved tonight is what I am. If you call that lewd, then I was always a lewd woman and a whipping will not change me—though you whipped me till I died.”
“I want this madness to die in you.”
“No, you want me to pay for your bruises.”
He flushed darkly. “How can you say that, Lupe?”
“Because it is true. You have been whipped by the women and now you think to avenge yourself by whipping me.”
His shoulders sagged and his face dulled. “If you can think that of me –”
“You could think me a lewd woman!”
“Oh, how do I know what to think of you? I was sure I knew you as I knew myself. But now you are as distant and strange to me as a female Turk in Africa.”
“Yet you would dare whip me –”
“Because I love you, because I respect you.”
“And because if you ceased to respect me you would cease to respect yourself?”
“Ah, I did not say that!”
“Then why not say it? It is true. And you want to say it, you want to say it!”
But he struggled against her power. “Why should I want to?” he demanded peevishly.
“Because, either you must say it—or you must whip me,” she taunted.
Her eyes were upon him and the shameful fear that had unmanned him in the dark chapel possessed him again. His legs had turned to water; it was a monstrous agony to remain standing.
But she was waiting for him to speak, forcing him to speak.
“No, I cannot whip you!” he confessed miserably.
“Then say it! Say it!” she cried, pounding her clenched fists together. “Why suffer and suffer? And in the end you would only submit.”
But he still struggled stubbornly. “Is it not enough that you have me helpless? Is it not enough that I feel what you want me feel?”
But she shook her head furiously. “Until you have said to me, there can be no peace between us.”
He was exhausted at last; he sank heavily to his knees, breathing hard and streaming with sweat, his fine body curiously diminished now in its ravaged apparel.
“I adore you, Lupe,” he said tonelessly.
She strained forward avidly, “What? What did you say?” she screamed.
And he, in his dead voice: “That I adore you. That I adore you. That I worship you. That the air you breathe and the ground you tread is so holy to me. That I am your dog, your slave...”
But it was still not enough. Her fists were still clenched, and she cried: “Then come, crawl on the floor, and kiss my feet!”
Without moment’s hesitation, he sprawled down flat and, working his arms and legs, gaspingly clawed his way across the floor, like a great agonized lizard, the woman steadily backing away as he approached, her eyes watching him avidly, her nostrils dilating, till behind her loomed the open window, the huge glittering moon, the rapid flashes of lightning. she stopped, panting, and leaned against the sill. He lay exhausted at her feet, his face flat on the floor.
She raised her skirts and contemptuously thrust out a naked foot. He lifted his dripping face and touched his bruised lips to her toes; lifted his hands and grasped the white foot and kiss it savagely - kissed the step, the sole, the frail ankle - while she bit her lips and clutched in pain at the whole windowsill her body and her loose hair streaming out the window - streaming fluid and black in the white night where the huge moon glowed like a sun and the dry air flamed into lightning and the pure heat burned with the immense intense fever of noon.
Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín (May 4, 1917–April 29, 2004) was a Filipino writer, historian and journalist, best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature.
After Jose Rizal and Claro M. Recto, both writers in spanish language, he is considered the third most important Filipino writer (but the most important writer writing in the English language).
Biography
Joaquín was born in Paco, Manila, one of the ten children of Leocadio, a colonel under General Emilio Aguinaldo in the 1896 Revolution, and Salome Marquez, a teacher of English and Spanish. Being read poems and stories by his mother, Joaquin taught himself by reading widely at the National Library of the Philippines and the library of his father, who by that time was a successful lawyer after the revolution. This developed further his interest in writing.
At age 17, Joaquín was first published in the literary section of the Pre-World War II Tribune under writer and editor Serafín Lanot. Before publishing in the Tribune, Joaquin worked as a proofreader of the paper.
After winning a Dominican Order-sponsored nationwide essay competition for La Naval de Manila, the University of Santo Tomas awarded Joaquín an honorary Associate in Arts (A.A.) and a scholarship to St. Albert's Convent, the Dominican monastery in Hong Kong. Upon his return to the Philippines, he joined the Philippines Free Press, starting as a proofreader. Soon, he was noticed for his poems, stories and plays, as well as his journalism under the pen name Quijano de Manila. His journalism was markedly both intellectual and provocative, an unknown genre in the Philippines at that time, raising the level of reportage in the country.
Si Bienvenido Lumbera ay isang makata, tagapuna, dramatista, at iskolar ng Pilipinas na may maraming napanalunan.
Siya ay Pambansang Alagad ng Sining ng Pilipinas at nakatanggap ng Gawad Ramon Magsaysay para sa Pamamahayag, Panitikan at Malikhaing Komunikasyon. Nanalo siya ng maraming gawad pampanitikan, kabilang ang mga Pambansang Gawad sa Aklat mula sa Pambansang Pundasyon sa Aklat, at ang Gawad Pang-alaala kay Don Carlos Palanca para sa Panitikan.
A Eulogy Of the Roaches
Bienvenido Lumbera (--present) plays are inspired by his love of country. The product of which, Sa Sariling Bayan:Apat na Dulang May Musika, a book he returns as proof of his love. The poem speaks about the politicians who had became pests for the country. I find it relevant for obvious reasons. It clearly shows what we are experiencing as of the moment. The Philippines is a very beautiful country. Who wouldn't love it? I guess, the answer to that is this. It is the corrupt politicians that we blindly forgive for the destructions they are doing not only to us, but to our children as well.
The last election was one, if not the most, heated election the Filipinos have ever seen. But even though people are more aware of the situation the Philippines are in right now, you would think that they have already learned something. Still, we continue to elect to position the very same people we know are robbing us of what this country deserves. The "trapos" are indeed blessed, because the Filipinos can easily forget.
Talambuhay ng kanyang unang kabataan
Isinilang si Lumbera sa Lipa noong Abril 11, 1932. Noong halos isang taon gulang pa lamang, ang kanyang ama na si Timoteo Lumbera (isang tagapukol ng lokal na kuponan ng beysbol), ay nahulog mula sa puno, nabali ang likod, at namatay. Pagkatapos ng ilang taon, nagkasakit ang kanyang ina na si Carmen Lumbera sa karamdaman na kanser at namatay. Sa taong limang taong gulang, siya ay naulila. Siya at ang kanyang nakatatandang kapatid na babae ay inampon ng kanilang pang-amang lola, Eusebia Teru.
Pumasok siya sa paaralan na may pagkabantulot. Sa unang araw, kinakailangan ni Eusebia na hilahin siya papuntang Mababang Paaralan ng Padre Valerio Malabanan, nagwawasiwas ng sangay ng puno. Sa totoo lamang, ang kabuuang unang taon ni Lumbera sa paaralan ay kalunus-lunos. Naalala niya ang kanyang guro, Gng. Contreras, na minsan pinapalo siya na may patpat nang dahil sa may inuulat na kanyang kapilyuhan sa guro mula sa tiyak na tuta ng guro na may pangalang Angel. Simula sa ikalawang baitang, gayumpaman, ang kanyang mabilis na pagtuto sa pagbabasa ay nabigyan ng kakilanlan kay Lumbera bilang kinikilingang mag-aaral. Mula't sapul, sinasabi nang pang-akademika, hinaharap ng paaralan ng ilang kahirapan.
Pagkatapos ng digmaan, bumalik sina Lumbera at ang kanyang lola sa tahanan sa Lipa. Si Eusebia, gayumpaman, ay kinabukasang sumakabilang-buhay dahil sa katandaan at naulila na naman siya. Para sa kanyang mga bagong tagapangalaga, pinagpipili siya sa mga dalagang tiyahin kung saan kinakailangan ng kanyang nakatatandang kapatid na tumira kina Enrique at Amanda Lumbera, ang kanyang nino't ninang. Sa huli ay wala silang anak na sarili at sinasabi ni Bienvenido, noong labing-apat na taong gulang pa lamang siya, na pinili niya sila sapagka't "ipapadala nila ako sa paaralan."
Para sa mataas na paaralan, lumipat si Lumbera sa paaralang pribado ng Akademiyang Mabini, kung saan umusbong ang kanyang pag-ibig sa wika. Nagtapos si Lumbera nag pangatlo at nagtalumpati ng mabulaklak na Klase sa Kasaysayan sa araw ng pagtatapos. HEY APPLE APPLE HEY!! KNIFE!! SEARCH ANNOYING ORANGE IN YOUTUBE AND SUBSCRIBE ON IT!!
Bienvenido Lumbera - A Eulogy of Roaches
Blessed are the cockroaches.
In this country they are
the citizens who last,
They need no police
to promulgate their peace
because they tolerate
each other’s smell or greed.
Friends to dark and filth,
they do not choose their meat.
Although they neither sow
nor reap, a daily feast
is laid for them in rooms
and kitchens of their pick.
The roaches do not spin,
and neither do they weave.
But note the russet coat
the sluggards wear: clothed
at birth, roaches require
no roachy charity.
They settle where they wish
and have no rent to pay.
Eviction is a word
quite meaningless to them
who do not have to own
their dingy crack of wall.
Not knowing dearth or taxes,
they increase and multiply.
Survival is assured
even the jobless roach:
his opportunities
pile up where garbage grows.
Dying is brief and cheap
and thus cannot affright.
A whiff of toxic mist,
an agile heel, a stick
—the swift descent of pain
is also final death.
Their annals may be short,
but when the simple poor
have starved to simple death,
roaches still circulate
in cupboards of the rich,
the strong, the wise, the dead.
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