Tuesday, November 24. 2009Meeting Martin and Petrona
Speaking of nice old things, I found myself in the middle of an antiques show at the Greenhills tiangge a couple of months ago, while Beng took a friend who was visiting from the States, Julie Hill, to the pearl booths.
Now, Greenhills is a place that people associate more often with the new and the fake (or the “replica,” as it’s more stylishly called) than with the old and the authentic. But many years ago, I’d stumbled on one of my most fabulous vintage pen finds in this same place – a huge mid-1920s Swan Eternal in terrific condition, a steal at P500 – so I was hoping to spot another sleeper in a tin cup or cigar box (in my fantasies, a Parker “snake” or Senior Maxima, for a princely P1,000). As it happened, no collectible pens were about that day – which was just as well, because I could relax and enjoy the objects that were there. Next to pens and other writing instruments, I’m drawn to what collectors call ephemera – odd bits and pieces of paper that, as the word suggests, may once have served some short-lived purpose: a flyer for a show (say, the July 4, 1964 Beatles show at the Rizal Coliseum), an issue of a bygone publication (A. V. Hartendorp’s pre-war Philippine Magazine, near-mint copies of which can still be found in a book shop in Intramuros), postcards of old Baguio, and the ubiquitous studio shots of Carnival Queens from the 1930s. I’ve picked up some such pieces from antique shops (the term should arguably be “antiques shops,” since the shops themselves are fairly new, but common usage has gone the other way) and also on eBay, where I chanced upon a 1922 Christmas issue of the Philippine Collegian (which told me, among others, that nothing has changed much in nearly nine decades as far as university funding is concerned). The charm of ephemera for me lies less in the official record they provide of long-forgotten events, which a historian might look for, than in the way they revivify lost voices and suggest deeply personal stories behind the signatures and faces. When I came out with my first book in 1984 and had to decide on a book cover, I chose to use the photograph of a pretty Filipina, something I’d picked up from a tray in an Ermita antique shop for probably 50 centavos; I knew nothing about her, except that her name was “Charing,” which she signed the back of the photograph with in 1925. I’ve always wondered what was on her mind that day she had the picture taken – an impending marriage? A lost love? A summer vacation in some town in Pampanga or Iloilo? Might she have been the kind of woman that inspired Paz Marquez Benitez’ Julia in “Dead Stars?” That afternoon in Greenhills, undistracted by pens and similarly familiar objects, I let my eyes roam among the stalls of old bottles, medallions, chinaware, and ancient textbooks, and they landed on a small collection of what seemed to be legal documents written by hand. I was attracted both by the penmanship and the fine, swirly strokes that only old flexible pen nibs could produce, and by the elaborate documentary seals that harked back to Spanish times. The texts were all in old Tagalog, of the kind I’d found in old almanacs and prayer books, where the k’s were still c’s and the apostrophes still commas. Again, being no historian, I had little idea of the context behind these documents, which mostly had to do with the sale of land and the settlement of debts. Typically, one of them began thus, with a self-introduction: “Aco,i si Martin Carpio, asauang caisang catauan ni Petrona Roque…” I pause on that phrase, “asauang caisang catauan” – “the spouse of one body with” – and dwell on what marriage might have meant to such people as Martin and Petrona more than a century past. It’s very hard to make out the rest of the script with my untrained eye, but I do spot another phrase, “sa aming caguipitan ay aming ipinagbibiling muli,” “in our hour of need,” leading to the sale of another plot of land for eight pesos. The historian will do one thing with that bit of knowledge, and the fictionist (or creative nonfictionist) something else. I might imagine the kind of life Martin and Petrona lived – what they had for supper, what he did to amuse himself, what she suffered to keep him beside her, what the view was from the kitchen when she looked up from stirring the pot of guava-laced fish stew he favored. A distant mountain, perhaps, or just another soot-covered wall with an eye-slit for the smoke and the sadness to seep through? What would she have thought that day – the 6th of May, in the year 1885 – when he came home with the eight pesos in his pocket? She looks him in the eye but he can’t look back, consumed by a restlessness she’s seen before, and now recognizes with a terrible shudder: she will sup alone that evening; he will be out there where the roosters keep the dust down with their own blood, swearing to win it all back with one or two well-studied choices. My apologies to the real Martin Carpio and Petrona Roque – and to their descendants – for this fevered digression. The reality may well have been much happier and more prosaic, leading to healthy children, a flourishing business, and more land than all of them could live on. But the other possibilities were engaging enough for me to offer the dealer a fair price for the whole lot of hand-lettered deeds. Beng and Julie got their pearls; I got my stories, albeit some yet to be written. Email me at penmanila@yahoo.com, and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net. Trackbacks
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Given a chance, id rather live in those days than today...I am an OFW, and maybe if i live in that time, i will not be forced to leave my family just to be able to give them a good life. For life at that time i simple, very simple...If only i could turn back time..
Thanks sir butch, for a very good story... Yup! Life is so simple then.
How I wish my father's brothers and sisters need not sell our lola's small farmland. Memories of my childhood days vacationing in my lola's farm still lingers on me: being a 5-year old helping out to plant rice; shooing maya birds in the ricefield; harvesting rice. On a free time my aunt would climb guava trees while I was putting them in my shirt; sometimes she would climb a big thorny-pomelo tree while I am gathering them down. How I wish I could buy back that small piece of land and stay there on my retirement. If arroyo will not touch these ampatuans because of votes then nothing else remains
in the justice system of the country. The arroyos escaped and eluded all the corruption charges but this gruesome massacre involved lives. Now you people be the judge if shes going to touch these bastards.H grabe ang ginawa nilang pagmasaker sa mga mag pa-file ng kandidatura...sakim at dayukdok sa kapangyarihan...takot na matalo sa halalan kaya sa filing palang hinadlangan na ang makakatungali.mga may gawa ng karumaldumal na pagpatay...DIYOS NAMING MAKAPANGYARIHAN,PAGBAYARIN MO NG MAHAL ANG MAY KAGAGAWAN NITO!!!!!
Ganyan ang mga muslim...sariling laman nilalapa....Opppsss...kumain ba sila ng baboy????
Siguro kumain sila ng baboy...di ba sabi madalas ng ibang nag ko-comment dito, pag may masamang ginawa ang tao, dahil sa kumain sila ng baboy..... This is not the first time...Madalas mang yari ito kahit noon pa. Mas malala pa nga...Di lang gaanong binibigyan ng pansin, kasi ordinaryong tao lang... Di asawa, relative ng puliticians at di mga reporter ng media. Madalas pa nga di na inililibing... Kinakain na lang mga mga baboy ramo at ligaw na aso.... Iniisip nila, tutal malapit na naman ang RAMADAN...mababawasan ulit ang kasalanan....kaya sulit-sulitin na lang ang pag gawa ng kasamaan.... Yan ang turo ng Banal na KORAN.... Mga turo ni Prophet MOhammad, aka child molester. ngayon sabihin ng mga muslim na ang nagpapasama sa isang nilalalang ay ang pagkain ng baboy...mas hayup pa sila sa baboy...ganid at sakim sa kapangyarihan...d naman kayo( mga muslim) kumakain ng baboy ,bakit mala demonyo ang ginawa niyo sa kalahi niyo? mabuti pa kumain na rin kayo ng baboy para maging maka-tao kayo.
Pulitika nga naman at pera pag pumasok sa usapan ay walang kinikilala kahit sino..
Totoo noon pa yan problema..may nag blog pa nga noon na ang mga botante ng magpunta sa mga presinto ay di na sila naka boto dahil "tapos" na eleksiyon.. Yan ay dahil talaga sa "pera" kung sino ang siyang may pinaka mataas ang "bid" ay siyang mananalo sa Magindanao..ganoon siguro ang kalakalan dyan.. Brutal at maduming eleksiyon.. mag pa-file palang ng kandidatura..papano kung mag-uumpisa na ang eleksiyon.. At ang problema pa hindi na puwede ang mga militar ang magbabatay..kaya mas lalong peligro.. We are talking good old days and good old places when we were young but to think that somewhere in this country,there are kids who can never enjoy that ggod places dahil may mga warlords na sumusupil sa kanilang kalayaan.limitado lang ang lugar na napupuntahan nila.what memory they can get and Im wondering,what kind of future this so called "their leaders"can give them.They are brutal and Unhuman.mabuti pa ang hayop papatay lang just for their food or deffending their youngs.but this massacre will put this country in a very bad reputation.
So my words fro those Killers,"Screw you"OFW ako at ang sama ng tingin ng ibang lahi sa aming pinoy dahil sa kagagawan nyo.headline na naman tayo.TADO kayo My name is Ampatuan I am the king of Mindanao and Gloria A. is the goddess of Islam. The goddess hand was tainted in blood, the mangdadatus will washed it clean.
it doesn´t matter if Arroyo used Ampatuan for her advantaged during 2004 presidential election,at least she only cheated the election but didn´t massacre the people.
mapapatawad pa ng taumbayan ang pandadaya sa eleksyon pero ang pagmasaker sa mga taong inosente at walang kalaban-laban ay wala ng kapatawaran. bitayin na rin dapat ang mga taong sangkot sa pagmasaker para makuha ng mga biktima ang hustisya. ang batas ng mga muslim ay buhay sa buhay,ngipin sa ngipin kaya dapat lang na maparusahan ang mga kriminal gaya sa kanilang ginawang krimen. ang tanong sino ang magbibigay ng parusa kung mismo ang gobyerno takot parusahan ang mga nagkasala dahil sa pangambang mabunyag ang mga anomalya. should the Arroyo´s keep or break the tie´s with Ampatuan only them can decides for it. sa totoo lang mahirap para sa isang lider ang magdesisyon sa mga ganyan kritikal na bagay dahil sa kanilang pagiging partner in crimes. itoý isang malaking sampal at malaking kahihiyan sa kasalukuyan gobyerno dahil kaya malakas ang loob ng mga Ampatuan pumatay ng tao dahil iniisip nila nasa panig nila ang gobyerno,ngayon nasa taumbayan na ang pagpapasya kung kukunsintihin nila ang ganyan klaseng krimen mga kinatawan ng gobyerno ang may kagagawan. insecure ang mga Ampatuan kaya ipinaligpit nya ang mga taong iniisip nya aagaw sa kanilang mga posisyon sa gobyerno kaya kahit masama ang pumatay,pero para sa mga Ampatuan iyon na lang ang paraan para hindi sila maagawan ng mataas na posisyon sa kanilang nasasakupan lugar. politics,greed and money makes politicians crazy. Pls dont make any bad remarks to all the muslim people... There are only few, whose doing this. So pls..PEACE, LOVE, UNDERSTANDING & RESPECT..This is what defines the people who has a good understanding of what sorrounds them...
Seeing arnold clavio doing interview with toto mangudadatu who have just burried her wife and two sisters was a tad too "pushy" if not a little "tacky".
Come on now, have a little respect to the person. At least give him time to really adjust of not having his wife beside him. mr arnold clavio should have at least not asked him of how is he feeling right now? what do you think he's answer would be to that question? I really have a laugh on that one. Where the hell did he get his "journalism degree"? Just a thought. correction to the first paragraph:
"who have just buried his wife" thank you. You're just gonna have to get used to me, this is how i expressed my self in public. Always making sure that i will get your attention somehow. Besides, who cares what they would think about me! no hurt feelings, right? no matter what they say about you arnold, you're still an "okay" guy in my book.
Just a thought. Right after reading this article about the massacre, i could almost see the worse backlash it would bring to that region, that is, the question of "tourism".
Tourism is one of the major industry that they could possibly have in that region, and now, it would probably grind to a halt after the news about the massacre reverberated around the world. And guess who is going to be affected by this? no other than the poor who has been trying to earn a living in the tourism industry. So far, i have spoken to some of my friends that has some plans of diving in that region and they all told me they have already canceled their flight to mindanao and we're thinking of going to sao paolo instead. There you go folks! one for the gipper! This was just the "tip of the tremendous, huge, horrendous iceberg" that was about to hit that region. But then, of course, there isn't any icebreg in mindanao, that was just a "metaphor". Anyways, those "idiots" who have done this things we're probably not aware of the consequences they have created. However, thinking about it now, this matter could be just like a "blessing-in-disguise", like, most of those poor people that had been caught in between the government forces and whoever is responsible for the massacre will be up in arms against its own people. Now that would be a very good scenario, would it?. Just a thought. Ampatuans are really idiots,they thought killing their enemies would makes them triumphant always.
i´d believed the Ampatuans had been killing so many innocents people ever since they joined politics,they makes sure no one will dare to challenge them,killing their so called enemies are their trademark in order for them to remain in power. wait ´til Mangudadatus reign as powerful as Ampatuans clan and soon the remnants of Ampatuan will be in the mercy of their victims,if not they will quickly vanish. hindi man sila magbayad ngayon,sa darating na panahon pagbabayaran nila ang kanilang mga nagawang kasalanan. pagbabayaran nila ang lahat ng buhay na kanilang pinaslang. |
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