Dear Mesdames
and Messieurs:
Thank you for accepting the noble task of
sitting as judges in the 2013 Tan-ok ni Ilocano Festival of Festivals. You
were, of course, chosen on account of your sterling credentials and
unquestioned integrity.
I argue that no singular activity has
raised awareness of and pride in Ilocano greatness more than the two-year old
Tan-ok. With tens of thousands of people watching it live and many more
witnessing it on television and online, it is no doubt the most witnessed event
in Ilocos Norte history.
It is a wonderful activity worth every
centavo (or million) spent for it, and Governor Imee Marcos is right to
push for this showdown of the respective festivals of every Ilocos
Norte town and city. Its return of investment cannot be quantified;
in fact, it is priceless. The greatness of the performances on stage permeates
the consciousness of our people, who in turn reflect and multiply greatness in
their respective spheres of influence.
I have one concern though, and this is on
truthfulness. Some groups have won in previous years because the performances
were really artistic and entertaining though lacking in authenticity while some
authentic festivals lost mainly because they were dull and unexciting.
Ilocos Norte Tourism Officer and Tan-ok
organizing committee head Ianree Raquel wrote an article for The Ilocos Times when he was still an
arts instructor in a state university. Its title was “Awe inspiring but
untruthful.” During a municipal fiesta, he witnessed a festival performance
which, he observed, gave primacy to entertainment over truthfulness, artistic
license over cultural integrity. His essay, excerpts of which follow, details
the same words I wish to convey.
“In the midst of awe with the spectacles
unfolding one after another, I begun asking: Where did these stories come from?
Am I watching stories by and of our people? Is this Ilocano culture, history,
tradition? Or, am I watching loose, misguided offshoots of the “creative” mind?
“It was difficult to battle with the visual
spectacle because, oftentimes, what we visually perceive cloud critical
perception.
“Understanding performance should not stop
at enjoyment for its own sake. I believe it is not enough to just dismiss a
production as “boring” or “entertaining!” To do so would default the claim of
the organizers, as announced by the host, that the festivities showcase Ilocano
culture, tradition, and history.
“Nonetheless, in our efforts to promote our
image as Filipinos with a rich and authentic culture on a globalized stage, a
more critical attitude towards the construction and presentation of our
“stories” is of great essence.
“Of course, one might readily say that
these were just stories. And in the context of artistic license, one might
claim freedom- that with the intention to “create,” and to “contemporise,” it
is the prerogative of the director, choreographer, or writer to use an uncanny
conflict
“Yet, in the midst of awe with the
spectacles unfolding one after another, I begun asking: Where did these stories
come from? Am I watching stories by and of our people? Is this Ilocano culture,
history, tradition? Or, am I watching loose, misguided offshoots of the
“creative” mind?
“Innovation is not at all wrong. But
training artists to be sensitive, respectful, and knowledgeable about the dance
forms, and stories, they stage, will significantly contribute to the
celebrations of fiestas, making the audience appreciate culture and history in
their rightful contexts.” (End of quote)
Raquel was referring to the Empanada
Festival of Batac which won the grand prize in the Tan-ok’s November 2011
debut. Let me clarify that he wrote the prophetic article in 2009. The then
arts instructor noticed the “uncanny conflict between balot and empanada.”
He also raised doubts whether “the empanada
was invented due to the will to survive scarcity, when the quintessentially
frugal Ilocanos would not think of using papaya or beans for empanada because
there is, obviously, a more practical dish to prepare—the dinengdeng. …More
so, pulverizing rice for pinais instead of cooking it plain, or perhaps lugaw.”
Last year, Laoag City’s Pamulinawen
Festival bagged the crown. Choreographed by nationally acclaimed dance guru
Christian Espiritu for whom I have very high respect and admiration, the
presentation was spectacular! It kept me smiling after watching it. Sweet! But
the smile would soon wear off, and that was when I began to ask, is this sweet
story really our story?
To begin with, Pamulinawen itself is a
questionable festival, for it was created with no clear historical and
cultural roots in the City of Laoag. It sprouted out of nowhere in the
mid-90s as a response to the well-established festivals in other parts of the
country. Laoagueños cannot associate themselves with it, and all they know is
that it is a song which, in turn out, originated, not in Laoag, but in another
town. Being the most popular Ilocano song, “Pamulinawen” was chosen as the
festival name, with high hopes that it would provide a good brand and good
recall.
So, what is the Pamulinawen? Because it is
virtually meaningless to the people for whom the festival was invented,
interpretation became an open field for artists. This led to a manufacturing of
facts and meanings. During the first Tan-ok, the presentation was about
blacksmiths in Laoag, a place never known and distinguished for blacksmiths. It
was a poorly research, poorly executed presentation which merited a poor finish
for Laoag. For all its vaunted resources—human and economic—Laoag, out of the
23 participating municipalities and cities, did not even land in the top
ten.
Pamulinawen
Festival at the Tan-ok 2012
Last
year was a complete turnaround for Laoag. It won first place as the
contingent interpreted Pamulinawen as a love song. The plot related the story
of difficult courtship, with the man trying various things to win a girl like
offering a bountiful harvest, doing the harana
(serenade) and giving flowers—none of which would work. The young man felt
sad but was determined to win the maiden's heart. Eventually, he
discovered the secret to winning the girl’s heart: he prayed to St.
William the Hermit, the city’s patron, and what immediately followed was
Pamulinawen’s sweet ‘yes’.
St. William the Hermit as patron of
courtship? Gimme a break.
It was a nice plot which
was elaborately, magically staged, except that the story is not
really ours. Certainly, it was not even St. William’s. If only the Laoag
storytellers would do even the laziest research, they would find out that being
a hermit, St. William is not exactly known for love and matchmaking.
He, in fact, turned his back on the world and lived in solitude in the
mountains. If only he could speak, maybe he would remark, “Haandak iramraman dita man. Nananahimik ako dito.”
These said, dear judges, the weight of
responsibility is on your broad shoulders to sift through truth from lies, to
draw the line between artistic license and plain deceit, to distinguish
well-defined, culturally rooted festivals from the pure imagination of a
manipulative few. As outsiders, you have the distinct opportunity to look
at the Tan-ok Festival with objectivity, and that allows you to help us shape
our own festivals and rediscover ourselves in the process. A lie told
often enough becomes the truth, warns Lenin. The lies must stop being told, and
more so in a grand scale as that of the Tan-ok.
Your job then does not begin when you sit
down on December 6 in your elevated seats at the Marcos Stadium. Judging what
is truthful and authentic entails a lot more work, for at the core of a good
cultural presentation is not gracefulness in dancing nor gigantic props and
glittering costumes, but a story—a true story of a people’s true greatness.
Again, thank you. I strongly wish to see
this year’s Tan-ok as I did in the past two years, but I am currently on
vacation abroad. Wherever I may be that night, my heart and mind will be with
my people, and wishing that only our true stories be celebrated and told.
Dios ti
mangtarabay kadakayo.
Respectfully,
Herdy La. Yumul and other Ilocanos in
search of cultural integrity
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