'Toy napigket nga daga
Pitpitenmi nga umuna
Danggayanmi't kankanta
Takkiagmi a napigsa
Kettang ken bannogmi
dikam igingina 

     Mannamili
     Ilokano Folk Song

Lilia Quindoza Santiago

KEYNOTE

Defining the Step, Establishing the Context

          There is a song entitled Danum (Water) by a contemporary singing group in Baguio who call themselves Salidum-ay. This song is about water which comes from the mountains and flows into the plains.  The water from the mountain creates a map as it were, leaves traces of where it came from and where it is headed and when it finally reaches the sea, the water becomes one with the great cosmos. There is a metaphor being used here. When the water from the mountain finally reaches the ocean, then a more progressive and healthy way of life is born.

          I would like to use this example to illustrate both the process and essence of the creation of Panitikang Amianan—or Literatura ti Amianan—or Northern Philippine Literatures (NPLs). For the purpose of this paper, only the acronym NPLs will be used to account both the Filipino PA and the Ilokano LTA.

           The NPLs refer to all literary productions from the north of the archipelago.  These are songs and poems, stories, testimonials, essays, biographies, and novels written from northern Philippines in whatever language. While the literatures of the north are written predominantly in Iloko or Ilokano language, these literatures may also be written in the other languages in Regions I, II and III and the Cordillera Administrative Region and these include among others, Ifugao, which is the language of the epic, Hudhud, and Kalinga, which is the language of the Ullalum, another ethnoepic.  There are also the laji, the short lyric poems produced by people in Batanes, in their own language which is Ivatan. A good collection of these laji poems is collected by Dr. Florentino Hornedo and has been translated into English. 

A good part of NPLs are written in Pangasinense, an ethnolanguage very much alive, spoken, written and read by over a million people. These literatures may also be written in English or Spanish by writers whose roots or origins are traceable to the north. Thus, famous writers like Manuel Arguilla who hails from Naguilian, La Union; or Francisco Sionil Jose who has a quintet, five volumes of novels about Rosales, his hometown in Pangasinan; or Carlos Bulosan who is from Binalonan, an Ilocano speaking part of Pangasinan; or Salvador P. Lopez who is from Currimao, Ilocos Norte, may be considered part of NPLs.

          What are the qualities or characteristics of NPLs?  I will discuss six of these characteristics, using some poems as possible illustrations. 

          First, these are literatures produced in the mountains, and so there is a predisposition to look at the mountain as refuge, as a territory that is both bountiful and safe for life. 

          Second, these are literatures produced within a particular rhetorical space at particular historical conjunctures; I will explain what I mean by rhetorical space later.

          Third, these are literatures that are nationalist and patriotic even as these may not be written in the national language. 

          Fourth, these are literatures that have a long history of gender sensitivity even as the bulk of literary productions are male-dominated. 

          Fifth, there is a strong tendency among these literatures to be didactic, to preach like delivering sermons from the mount. 

          And sixth, these literatures have a predisposition toward migration; many writers migrate to other regions in the country or to other parts of the world.

Literatures from the Mountains

          NPLs are produced in mountainous terrain.   If we scour the terrain of Northern Philippines, we will discover that the area is one of the most mountainous areas in the country. The great majority of the population here speaks the Ilokano language and Ilokano is the lingua franca of the region. The region however is inhabited by many other ethnolinguistic groups like the Ivatan in Batanes, the Gaddangs, Itawis, Ibanags in the Cagayan Valley, the Kankanaey, Kalinga Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao in the Cordilleras and the Itneg and Tingguians in Abra in the Ilocos. 

          The biggest mountain ranges border the North.  These are the Sierra Madre in the East that straddles the provinces of the Cagayan Valley, the Cordillera mountain ranges at the center and the Caraballo mountain ranges toward the southern part.  The famous Banawe Rice Terraces are of course situated in the North, in the province of Ifugao.  It is no wonder that Northern Peoples are also called “peoples of the mountain (tagabundok or taong bundok).  Mountain life nurtures a culture and style of life suited to its own climate and ambience.  And because civilizations have been set-up here for over two thousand years, there is indeed a need to go up there and perhaps search for the cosmology and knowledge that lies buried in the terrain and entire habitation.

          Yet, the kinds of literatures produced in mountains do not stay undisclosed there. Like the water in the song of Salidum-ay these flow into the plains and affect the consciousness of those that lie in its path.  Freed from the mountains, they become like a transforming and transformative force toward a freer, and more progressive way of life.  And because these literatures are always wedded to song, dance and ritual, these may embody rhythms that are akin to the steps of indigenous men and women as they go up the terraces or hills, as they plant rice or carry the burdens of everyday living.

          There are plenty of stories and folk legends here.  These have all been transcribed by missionaries and other scholars.  There are versions and versions of the many epics and most of the literatures being produced there until today remains basically folk and oral literature.

Literatures of a rhetorical space

          There is yet another way of looking at NPLs in that they may be the result of claiming a rhetorical space.  What does this mean?  The literatures produced reflect certain ways, or modes of creation or articulations that are products both of historical and literary events.  As literatures in a specific rhetorical space, they may be regarded as points of articulation of desires and hopes for a different life and humanity.

          In more specific terms, the literatures of the north as creations in a rhetorical space may be construed as part of a counter-culture in connection with the culture and history of Ilokano literature.  For even as these are written in the various languages of the north, the main bulk of these literatures are still accessible through the region’s lingua franca, Ilokano.

          Ilokano literature has traditionally been divided into historical periods of development: the pre-colonial, the colonial and the postcolonial period.  Ilokano scholars of note, to wit, Dr. Marcelino Foronda and Dr. Leopoldo Yabes used these periodizations in their studies and collected anthologies. Thus, in pre-colonial literatures are found the traditional forms:  duayya (lullabye), badeng (ballad), dung-aw (dirge) and so on.  The epic, Biag Ni Lam-ang (The Life of Lam-ang), is believed to have been popularized during the Spanish colonial period, together with the liturgy, the komedya, zarzuela, and the moro-moro.  The Americans introduced the vaudeville, formal theatre and drama, the short story and other modern forms of literature.

          Ilokano writers Benjamin Pascual and Reynaldo Duque have outlined a periodization that they claim is truly Ilokano.  In their own terms, ‘Iloko’—or Ilokano—literature flourished and progressed in the following manner:

          1627 - 1935      - taking roots, reaching out

          1935 - 1951      - the era of a bucketful of tears

          1951 - 1963      - the 2^nd basi revolt

          1963 - 1972      - sharpening and forging ahead

          1973 - 1985      - overtures of academe

          1986 - present   - nice and truly Ilokano

          Duque and Pascual set the year 1627 as historically the year of the full development of Ilokano literature.  On this date, Father Francisco Lopez published Arte de la lengua Iloko or Gramatikang Ilocano, a dictionary that set the standard and canon for Ilokano writing.  The subsequent period starts with the founding of the magazine, Bannawag (counterpart of Liwayway in Tagalog) which published for two decades, sentimental stories that resulted in the audience shedding loads and loads of tears because of their perceived mawkish plots.  Then from 1951, in line with the upsurge of the nationalist movement, the Ilokanos started producing works of protest and then from 1963 onwards, there would be a move to hone and refine Ilokano writing through the founding of GUMIL Filipinas (Gunglo Dagiti Mannurat nga Ilokano iti Filipinas or Association of Ilokano Writers of the Philippines), by far the largest association of writers today, both in the Philippines and abroad.  From 1973, Ilokano writing would invade academia and Ilokano studies as well would be established in major learning institutions of the country, including the University of the Philippines.

          But NPLs, I should say, defies any kind of periodization. There should really be strict dates in so far as the development of these literatures is concerned.  The literatures in this region are as old as the respective ethnolinguistic groups remember and these kinds of literatures defy canonical standards of classification. How does one grapple with a poignant laji of the Ivatans for instance, these same folk lyric poems that propel the imagination to unbelievable depths? We take one laji to illustrate this point. 

          Whose face do I behold mirrored

          Upon the water I have boiled to drink?

          I do not dare drink as your vision is there.

          When I die, bury me not

          At the Cross of San Felix, bury me instead

          Under your fingernails so that I may

          Be eaten along with every food you take

          And I may be drunk with each cup

          Of water you drink.

                   (Hornedo, 1997, Laji #87)

          The laji is as old as Ivatan civilization and persists to this day.  It is memory inscribed in everyday life, as these are songs chanted when the people gather in small groups after a whole day’s work.

 Can it even be said that these literatures, because of the aspects of their production, serve as counter-cultures to the much-touted political entity that is the “Solid North?”

          What is this political entity that is the “Solid North”? 

          The answer is this: It is the rhetorical space carved out by the Marcos dictatorship.  The so-called “Solid North” is a perceived voting bloc that had cast its lot with Marcos.  During the dictatorship, it became the icon and symbol of a regime that staunchly stood by militaristic values and tolerated human rights violations not only among its citizens from the North but all over the country. This is the haven for the loyalists of the Marcos regime and because of its “solidity” Marcos won elections again and again for over twenty years. 

          Why do I insist that PA/LTA/PNLs, as a committed and socially conscious body of literatures from the north, are forms of a counter culture and not of the mainstream Solid North?  It is because these literatures that I speak of are conceived within an entirely different framework and subjectivity.  In these literatures are expressed the desires of suppressed genders, ethnicities, and classes in Northern Philippines for thousands of years.

          These northern literatures therefore contain a separate symbolic world other than what is usually represented. This is evident in the poem “Amianan”—“North”—by Fernando B. Sanchez that speaks of a concept of a North that is both tragic and heroic. 

The poem refers to an event in 1971—the burning of Ora Este in Bantay, Ilocos Sur.  There is a double meaning in the word “Bantay” of course, because even as it refers to a place, it also means mountain and at the same time, guard.  The multiple meanings of the term then enrich our reading of the poem.

Nobly you bred

great Ilocano leaders.

who became the strength and brains

of the Filipino nation

yet you also gave birth

to Judades

who became traitors to your name

Now wailing reigns

There is confusion and bloodbath

Your picture has been razed

As the gods burned

Bantay

Once more, they have plundered

Justice

The hope of the downtrodden

When will this end,

This hell in Ilocos?

The north hungers

For peace and love

Understanding and goodwill

That should dwell in the heart

And soul

Of every Ilocano 

(Sanchez, 1971)

          In the poem, there is a re-affirmation of the value of the mountains and their empowering effect in the lives of the mountaineers.  The mountains can be both places of liberation or incarceration.  When the mountains disappear, life too is endangered.  The mountains must be benevolent, they must also be nurturing.

          This is one reason why the Igorots built the rice terraces for these to bestow blessings to the mountains for all times.  Through the carved terraces, the indigenous Igorots have displayed a unique blending of the arts and the sciences. Rice was grown and the mountains skillfully carved showing—and this last one show the beginnings of land architecture that gives a wholesome view of an entirely different civilization.

          The epics of these mountains, in particular, the Hudhud of the Ifugaos, speak of the art of warfare and of peacemaking (bodong, vochong).  In the end, the intermarriage between the warring factions brings about lasting peace among the mountain dwellers.

Patriotic and Nationalist Literatures

          For Northerners, there is a place that is called the “pagilian” or country.  That country can be the small town or the big country that is the Philippine archipelago itself.  Ilocanos are known to harbor a deep nostalgia for their land of birth and home country.  This is expressed very succinctly by many poets notably Luz Flores Bello, Isabelo de los Reyes and Dr. Godofredo Reyes.  In the poem, “Filipinas” by Godofredo Reyes for instance, there is that feeling of ease and health after a long battle, the battle referring to the second World War. 

          Many patriotic poems come from the Northern region but these poems remain unread by the majority of the populace because these have to be translated into a language more accessible to Filipinos. 

Gender Sensitivity and Questions of Sexuality

          Like the literatures written in Tagalog and other indigenous Philippine languages, Northern literatures are wanting in gender-sensitivity. Many writers fail to tackle questions of gender.  This is because Filipino writers hardly distinguish between masculine and feminine qualities of a hero.  However, in many instances, there is the stereotypical portrayal of the woman as a representation of the mother country—the mother country who is a martyr, who is raped and abused by colonizers and outsiders who have no interest in her welfare.

          This kind of representation is what is criticized by Prof. Roderick Galam in his thesis, “Engendering A Nation:  Gender and Nationalism in Iloko Literature.”  For Galam, it is apparent that writers who are mostly male manipulate their women characters so that these appear to be representations of despair and lamentation.  These women ceaselessly wail and cry for justice for the motherland and this is what women writers often disdain.  Why is it, they ask, the suffering, despair, lamentation and grief, especially of the motherland, always takes the face and form and gender of a woman?  The image could also be reversed.  The Fatherland too, is subject of desperation and cruelty but why is he not the dominant image?

          This manipulation of the woman-victim-martyr-motherland, for many women writers also inflicts a kind of violence against woman in that she is forced to don the habits of suffering martyrdom unwillingly and unwittingly in the imagination of the writer.    

Didactic Literatures

          All literatures are didactic in the sense that all literatures embody a certain school of persuasion about morality and notions of right and wrong.  However, not all literatures have the didacticism that is deeply embedded in many forms of literatures from the North.  And because these are created and formed from the mountains, these appear like “sermons” from the mount. 

          Pre-occupation with norms of morality and righteousness have pervaded Northern literatures from earliest times to the present.  This is even more pronounced in the language of the northerners.  In Tagalog, the usual greeting for good day is “magandang araw” or good morning is “magandang umaga.”  When literally translated, “maganda” means “beautiful”—beautiful day or beautiful morning. The translation is a bit off tangent because the word for “good” in Tagalog is “mabuti.” However, in Ilokano, the greeting is “naimbag nga aldaw” for  “good day” or “naimbag nga agsapa” for  “good morning” and the word “naimbag” literally means “good.” In Ilokano, the word for “beautiful” is “napintas.”  “Thank you in Iloko” is expressed as “Dios ti agngina” which actually means “the Lord God will repay you for the good you’ve done.” 

          The quest for goodness and righteousness and for a better world order is actually the spirit in which the epic, Biag Ni Lam-ang, is written.  Lam-ang is not only the archetype of the Iloko hero in search of enlightenment like a knight in shining armor searching for the Holy Grail. He is also the epitome of righteousness and good deeds that is why he is vested and blessed with supernatural powers. His kinship and friendship with other creatures of the earth only proves that he is a man who cares for healthy relationships with other beings in the planet. He makes us realize that it is only through sustainable healthy relationships of this sort can life be prolonged and rendered more meaningful.  Notice for instance that in all his travails, it is the lowly creatures that help him.  He is always with his pet, and it is the fish berkakan that breathes new life to him.  This is more than enough proof of Lam-ang’s indispensability to everything and everyone within his life’s reach.

          In one of the best Ilokano novels written in the last century, Dagiti Mariing iti Parbangon (Those Who Wake at Dawn), the protagonist whose name is Salvador (means saviour) instills a code of ethical standards among his townsfolk by showing what it means to be a person of good breeding and culture even without the benefits of a formal education.  His character is in contrast to the town’s mayor, police officers and other people of power who side with the powerful factory owner and destroys the ecology and environment of the town.  In the end, Salvador shows the townspeople that true education is acquired not through material wealth—the profits, for instance, from the business or factory to be set up in Salvador’s place at the expense of the community and the people—but from a deep sense of spiritual enlightenment and selfless service to others.

          Many Filipino novels bear this theme of self-sacrifice for the good of all but the difference among Northerners is that this comes from an assertion that the world is essentially morally upright and good and that it is the ways of men that create evil. 

A Literature that Migrates

          The Northerners are among the most migratory peoples not only in the Philippines but also in the world.  In the world exposition of Louisiana in 1904, a whole group of Igorots built an Igorot Village and these peoples became known to be one of the first group of migrants from the North.  Carlos Bulosan, the apple pickers of California, the sugarcane and pineapple workers of Hawaii, and the workers in the salmon factories of Alaska also belong to these first waves of migrants to the United States.

          In migrating to all parts of the world now, the Northerners have created a body of literature in the diaspora but what is unique in this instance is that they have retained not only the language in their writings but also the flavor, the nostalgia, and the sensibility of the Northerner. 

          A migratory literature may also be read as a slow and ponderous involvement with the mainstream and with those mainstream desires and dreams for a global society that does not discriminate based on creed, religion, nationality or ethnicity.  This therefore brings us back to the image created by the song “Danum” (Water) which flows from the top of the mountain to the center of the ocean—the navel of life on this planet.

Conclusion 

          How do we then study NPLs? How do we reckon these literatures of our people? How do we proceed to study them, these literatures that are at the same time indicative of some form of a counter-culture to the hype of the “Solid North”?

          There is one basic requisite for a wholesome study of these literatures and that is to shed off all preconceived notions of what makes literature as a grand oeuvre or a masterpiece, a great mantel of words that only the finest and most illustrious of men can enjoy. The only requisite for a good and enlightening study of these kinds of literatures is to welcome all human experience expressed in whatever form, in whatever language with a wide-open heart and mind.  We have to realize that this planet, this earth would not be a wonderful place to live in if there were only few species who inhabit it and if only few of these species are given the right to express themselves, name themselves, form their images, devise their philosophies and world views and carve and select their spaces on earth.  I think that the variety of voices may be cacophony of the many voices we hear and encounter, and the variety of visions and worldviews and perceptions make our world a much livelier place to be in.  

References       

Hornedo, Florentino H. Laji:  An Ivatan Folk Lyric Tradition.  Manila:  University of     Santo Tomas Printing House, 1997.        

Sanchez, Fernando B. “Amianan,” Bannawag, February 1, 1971.  

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