“Margosatubig” sold out at book launch

DOCTOR Cecilia Locsin Nava’s English translation of “Margosatubig” was warmly received and was sold out during its launch at the Negros Museum last Friday.

Margosatubig is a Hiligaynon novel written by Ramon L. Muzones and was serialized in the popular weekly magazine Yuhum in 1946. The novel was credited for the leap in the magazine’s circulation from 2,500 to 37,000 when the novel came out in 30 installments in Yuhum.

“This is our story… the story of Philippine legend,” said Nava who has been at the forefront of fighting for marginalized regional literature.

“It is an epico-historical novel, which tells about the legend of Maria Cristina Falls and the story of the relationships between Ilonggos and Muslims.”

Nava lauded Muzones, who had written more than 30 Hiligaynon novels in his lifetime, as worthy of being recognized as a national artist. Muzones uses only indigenous Hiligaynon terms stripped of Spanish influence in all his writings, Nava added.

“Margosatubig is a rare Hiligaynon novel which is a very important contribution to Western Visayas literature,” said Jean Lee C. Patindol, a two-time grand prize winner of the Alfonso Salanga Prize for Children’s Literature and member of the Philippine Board on Books for Young People, who introduced Dr. Nava and her work.

“The novel signified the shift from the expository or the ‘telling’ style to the dramatic technique or the ‘showing’. Many other novelists soon followed his style. Moreover, Dr. Nava’s work was positively reviewed by at least two national artists,” Patindol added.

Negros Museum executive director Tanya Lopez read an excerpt of the novel from its original Hiligaynon while Rene Hinojales delivered Dr. Nava’s English translation, which more than did justice to the original.