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Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Gabii sa Kabilin Sked


2011 Gabii sa Kabilin
May 27, 2011, Friday
4 p.m. Mass the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral
5 p.m. Blessing of tartanillas and buses; Yap Sandiego Ancestral House: Santacruzan sa Parian Procession start
5:30 p.m. Opening Program at the Cebu Normal University
Opening by Dr. Marcelo Lopez, president of Cebu Normal University
Message by Cebu City Councilor Margarita Osmena, chairman of the Committee on Tourism
Message by Agnes Magpale, Cebu Provincial board member
6 p.m. (All museums open) Museu Sugbo: Cebuano Sayaw; Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House: Dinner for a Cause; Plaza Independencia Fiesta Band
7 p.m. Yap-Sandiego Ancestral House: Cultural show of folk dances; Jesuit House: Harpist performances; Fort San Pedro: Movie on Cebu History
7:30 p.m. Casa Gorordo Museum: Youth and Music (featuring the Children’s Orchestra Marigondon Public School)
8 p.m. For San Pedro: Cultural Dances
8:30 p.m. Plaza Parian: Awarding of AboitizLand Photo Exhibit
9 p.m. Casa Gororod Museum: Performance by Izarzuri Vidal; Fort San Pedro: Tribal Band; Cathedral Museum of Cebu: Storytelling; Plaza Parian: Haran and Baile by Barangay Parian
10 p.m. Jesuit House: Cebuano songs; Plaza Independencia: Trivia Night; Casa Gorordo Museum: Panagtagbo Festival Launch by Barangay Tejero
11 p.m. Plaza Independencia: Fire Dance; Sacred Heart Alternative Gallery: Performance Art by Russ Ligtas

Monday, May 23, 2011

The Child and the Cross

Christianity came to our shores in the form of the Cross, which Magellan planted at the site of the present kiosk that house and commemorate it, and more successfully in the little statuette of the Holy Child, the Sto. Niño.

There is so much violence and love on the cross. I can imagine the original cross splattered with blood and bits of flesh probably from Jesus’ body, bloodied and wounded from lashing. He must have writhed in pain from fresh cuts as well as dried up ones. I think Mel Gibson was right in realistically depicting the violence on the cross.

It must have been so hard to endure such a sight for His loved ones, and much more for Him to withstand all that pain. And with a human body, He breathed His last on the cross, giving in to pain, exhaustion, violence.

Yet the cross, now we look at it, was overcome with so much love. All the ill will, hatred, conspiracy, envy that had Him crucified, were washed away (together with all the blood that dried) with His love for them who persecuted Him and for mankind. He lived as He preached. He turned the other cheek.

But apparently, it was easier for the Cebuano natives to embrace the new religion as symbolized by the God-Child. It’s hard for them to grasp why would Jesus, the Man-God be so seemingly powerless as to endure pain and death on the cross.

Like a child with less than remarkable parents, Christianity came crawling into our shores and tugged at our hearts. It doesn’t matter if men with dubious purposes carried the child on their shoulders.

The Sto Nino triumphed because we see the idea of the loving, forgiving God in the innocent child who holds no rancor and makes us genuinely happy.

Love is central to the message of Christianity. To love is to see the face of God (Les Miserables).

It’s not so hard to understand it. Love is like a flower blooming. It blossoms beautifully, quietly because it is. The birds fly because they do. The tide rushes to the shore and recedes back to the sea. It doesn’t need a reason why. It just does.

One loves. One just does. And lives like a palm swaying to the wind’s whisper. Or like the brook murmuring as it meanders down among the rocks.

It made us see Him in His creations and not worship them no matter how beautiful they are like the moon and the stars that illumine the night, or the sturdy tree that gives ample shade.

Let us just remember God didn’t stay a child. He grew up and was crucified on the cross. There is as much love on the cross as in the face of the smiling God-Child.

USC

I spent the past 20 years almost entirely in just about the same place. Except for a few years working at an advertising agency in the city’s uptown area and going freelance for several projects with various companies, I’ve found myself at home in the P. del Rosario St. area.
I don’t want to romanticize the way my life revolved around this street but someone else beat me to it. The artist Celso Pepito - who used to have an art gallery in what is now ‘Till Dawn convenience store – used to tell me his fondness for this street.

The buildings here are of relatively recent construction. Among the architecturally and culturally significant buildings in this street are the exceptionally modern Sto. Rosario Church (but which now has an eclectic look inside) and the classic building of the University of San Carlos.

The school's history is worth discussing here in detail as its past was deeply interwoven with the city's history.

The university traces its roots to the Jesuit founded grammar school of old Parian in the 16th century and was instrumental in the Christianization of the Chinese settlers of Parian. In 1595, Jesuits priests Antonio Sedeno, Pedro Chirino, and Antonio Pereira came to Cebu and established the school. In Fr. Pedro Chirino’s Relacion de as Islas Filipinas was the first mention of the existence of a Chinese quarter in Cebu.

The Jesuits founded it to help the Chinese residents of Parian learn reading, writing, arithmetic and Christian doctrine. In 1604 the school was named Colegio del San Ildefonso. It was closed in 1767 with the expulsion of the Jesuits from the Philippines.

Bishop Joaquin de Arevalo reopened the school in 1783 and turned over the administration to the diocesan clergy. Fr. Ernesto Lagura, SVD in a paper delivered at the Centennial Congress on Higher Education wrote:

“…the Diocese of Cebu turned it into a Seminary, the Real Seminario de San Carlos, named after the great patron of ecclesiastical training of the Renaissance. The diocesan clergy administered the Seminario until 1862 when the Dominican Order assumed its administration. To assure a sufficient number of teachers, the Bishop of Cebu (Fray Romualdo Gimeno) asked the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul to succeed the Dominicans. In 1867, the Vincentians assumed the administration of the school, now named Seminario-Colegio de San Carlos as it began to admit externos, that is, students who were enrolled without the intention of joining the priesthood.”

The school the Jesuits founded metamorphosed into two schools in the 20th century. IN 1924, by virtue of a papal decree the seminary was separated from the college for externos. The college was transferred from Martires St. (now M.J. Cuenco Ave.) to its present location in 1930. Now named Colegio de San Carlos, it expanded extensively under the German priests of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD) who took over the school in 1935. In July 1, 1948, it became a university.

The university benefited greatly from the expulsion of German SVD priests from China in the 1950s and 1960s. A whole generation of Filipinos living in Visayas and Mindanao studied under these German priests who were also men of science. There were psychologists, ethnologists, demographers, philosophers, anthropologists, and more. Among them were Father Joseph Goertz, whose interests in Philippine folktales lead to the establishment of the Cebuano Studies Center and Fr. Rudolf Rahmann, last German president of USC who founded the well respected Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society (PQCS).

My favorite writer Henry David Thoreau said he traveled extensively in Walden Pond where he lived a hermitic existence. I can say the same of the P. del Rosario St. area. How is it that one has traveled so far and wide when he has just practically stayed in the same place for some time?Perhaps, the only journey there is, is the journey within no matter where it may have taken us.

Leon Kilat


My friend Max’s cyber name is Leon Kilat. The guy is doggedly a fan of the revolutionary hero, you can’t help but get curious yourself of both the hero and Max for his silent yet moving "hero worship." So one day, I asked him about it. Fact is, I kind of suspected already that he’s the man’s great great-grandson or some blood relation. I have been harboring all these sort of notion for sometime, I was beginning to think that Leon Kilat looks like Max himself.

Well, contrary to my fantastic imagination, Max, said he just admires the man and is amazed and touched by his tragic plight. And I guess, me, too. That puts us in the same boat.

No other man stands so boldly and mightily in the struggle for independence against Spain in Cebu than Leon Kilat. He who was reputed to be invincible and brave, who sowed the seeds of the revolution in the city, only to die of deceit and betrayal at the hands of the nervous elites of Carcar.

Like the death of Bonifacio at the hands of Aguinaldo, Leon Kilat’s death touches a sensitive nerve even until today. A former officemate who hailed from Carcar once told me in a hushed voice who were principally behind Leon Kilat’s death. It’s funny why he should be speaking to me almost in a whisper. He said that’s just how it is dealt with in Carcar.

Just a few days before his death, the Katipuneros roamed the city victoriously after having driven the Spanish authorities to a pathetic retreat at Fort San Pedro.

I related the story to my 7-year-old son Joshua while touring him around the city, and every now and then he would pepper me with questions of the siege, the drama and the tragedy of those eventful days that began on April 3, 1898.

The Katipuneros intended to starve the Spanish forces holed up in Fort San Pedro, hoping they would eventually surrender. The rest of the city celebrated the triumph of the local Katipuneros. Well, the Parian elite was mostly nonchalant as expected. It was mostly the native sons of San Nicolas who comprised the revolutionary forces.

It still baffles me why they didn’t deliver the decisive blows by storming the fort. Or perhaps they they were just incapable. The ambivalence (if it was) gave time for the Spanish colonialists to send for reinforcement to Cebu, thereby ending the Cebuanos’ short-lived victory.

What happened afterwards is blood curling. Those who participated in what was later known as the battle of Tres de Abril were sought and executed. Even those merely suspected were not spared. Blood of martyrs flowed in the days after Spanish forces regained control of the city.

Others retreated from the city in time. One of them was Leon Kilat or Pantaleon Villegas, leader of the revolutionary forces, native of Bacong, Negros but who came to Cebu to organize the local Katipunan.

He arrived in Carcar, treated to a sumptuous dinner, made to lie in a warm bed. In other words, received with deceitful hospitality for that was all part of the plan. A historian friend of mine disputes some of the known details concerning the treachery. He said ; it was one of Leon Kilat’s men who gave away the secret of his seeming invincibility.

Why the treachery? The group of Carcar leaders who hatched the plan were afraid Spanish forces might storm the town, having heard of what happened ‘ in the city. So they thought killing Leon Kilat would spare them the ire of Spanish authorities.

Today, Leon Kilat’s statue stands proudly riding a horse in a corner of the street leading to the Carcar church.

We are all guilty of killling Leon Kilat or Ninoy Aquino, for that matter when we lose faith in ourselves as a people, in our capacity for greatness. We become a people unworthy of our heroes, a people not worth dying for. It’s when we take pride and inspiration from those whose deaths help us believe in ourselves that they shall have not died in vain.

Well, I’m waxing sentimental again. In this cyber age, my friend Max is making quite a notable contribution. He is making a lot of people interested on the guy Leon. He is bringing him to everyone’s consciousness in chat rooms, discussion groups, blog sites, etc. I guess that’s what I meant about being a Bisaya in the cyber age.

Magellan

My friend Chad (not his real name) didn’t quite imagine he would one day travel and see the whole world. Born to poor parents who were farmers tilling a portion of the vast Velez-Paulin landholdings in Minglanilla, he went to school barefoot. His teachers sensing his sincerity and determination encouraged him to keep on with his studies.

Over bottles of fundador and other imported wine, he and his fellow seamen shared to me their lives and adventures traversing the world’s oceans. It’s not as colorful and enviable always as others often picture the lives of OFWs to be, they said. As a matter of fact, they all dream of being able to settle in the country one day, not having to work abroad and be separated from their loved ones.

Our kids were classmates at a school in the south where mostly children of OFWs went to study. And just as our kids bonded, so did we.

What struck me most during our conversations was Chad’s tale of fascination with Magellan’s arrival in Cebu. He said, when he was a kid helping his father till the land, he would often think of Magellan’s journey across the oceans and reaching Cebu in 1521. As a young boy, he fancied being able to do same when he grows up. He, like Magellan, wanted to circumnavigate the world.

There is much interest on Magellan’s supposed first circumnavigation of the world as evidenced by the numerous websites that touch on the matter. Naturally, Cebu and the two protagonists: Lapulapu and Humabon figure prominently in these websites. But it is Magellan who is taking centerstage. Magellan seems to have captured the imagination of people around the world for his dogged, brave almost impossible quest of finding an alternative route to the spices of India.

Before his discovery of the narrow straits at the tip of South America that now bears his name and his voyage across the Pacific ocean, the first by any European navigator, Vasco da Gama discovered for Portugal the route to India via the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Africa, thereby winning the race for a sea route instead of the land trip from India across Asia and into Europe of the much needed and valued spices of the East.

Magellan was a Portuguese who presented himself before the Spanish crown for a chance to lead a voyage across the Atlantic and finding an altenative route to the Indies. He was given less than remarkable ships and men and just enough provisions that He had to sneak in into Portuguese territory somewhere in what is now Brazil to get some supplies.

In Cebu, Magellan met his tragic end, denying him the honor and reward of his exploits. His death put the island (more particularly, Mactan) quite unexpectedly in European maps.

Pigafetta’s account of the battle of Mactan talked of the captain, Magellan stucked in the mud. Before the battle commenced, they made the fatal error of getting off their galleon and wading the treacherous, swampy shores of Mactan. (Pigafetta, may be the first travel writer in history as he paid for the chance to ride with Magellan in his search for a route to the valued spices of Asia just to be able to write about his travels.)

He observed that Magellan’s galleon couldn’t come nearer the shores of Mactan as the water was shallow and had to anchor farther from where Lapulapu’s forces were gathered. The Mactan warriors were not also within reach of the Spanish cannons, their most reliable, deadly weapon thereby forcing Magellan to get off his galleon and take that stupid walk in the swampy shores of Punta Engaño.

In the first place the battle was unnecessary as he was already welcomed by the native leader of Cebu, Humabon. I can’t say if Humabon is a cool, crafty, visionary or a cowardly sell-out but he did make it easy for Spain to make its first colony in the Indies and a vital post in the protection of its interest in this side of the world. Talk of geopolitics. Was that good for Cebu? It’s hard to tell what could have happened otherwise if he drove him away.

Pigafetta recounted that when Magellan sensed defeat, he ordered his men to retreat. Arrows rained on his warriors ironically after he lost the advantage of his cannons. He obviously underestimated the locals who can be defiant, proud and brave as opposed to his amiable newly found comrade Humabon. Lapulapu knew hand to hand combat with the big, tall white men was not necessary as they made for a good target practice. When Magellan clad in armor, big and heavy that he is ordered retreat, an arrow hit him in the leg.

Lapu-lapu’s warriors then lunge on the helpless Spaniards, probably cutting them to pieces. And who knows maybe some of his vital parts may have served as amulet and prize catch for the warrior tribe of Mactan.

One funny website made this hallucinatory claim that Magellan’s men were able to claim his body. They did so by maligning Pigafetta to discredit his eyewitness account. The fact is, Magellan’s body was left in the shallow shores of Mactan.

Some five centuries later, his story still inspire some people. Like my friend Chad whose dreams of seeing the world traversing the vast oceans, probably began with a classroom discussion, in Grade 3 of how Cebu came to be "discovered" by a Portuguese sailor in the service of the Spanish crown.

The world has indeed become smaller with the internet, cable tv and cellular phones. But it was Magellan who probed first that it was round.