Wenceslao: ‘The Cebu We Know’
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WRITING about the old times – or old places –always brings about the best in writers. And it did to what I consider as among the finest Cebuano wordsmiths gathered in the book “The Cebu We Know” edited by Sun.Star Cebu’s Erma Cuizon. Writer Isagani Cruz calls it a “collection of autobiographical stories.” It’s more than that.
I actually like the choice of the book’s articles and writers.
They offer glimpses not only of life in the island at a particular period of time but also of the writers’ past and their viewpoints. The narratives are clear and the observations deep. And so as you proceed from one article to another, you are pushed to reminisce and to contextualize.
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“It is Cebu I know,” award winning author Cecilia Man-guerra Brainard writes of her childhood years in “Where the Daydreaming Came From.” “The very first breath I took was in Cebu. My first words were those spoken by Cebuanos.” Then she brings us to the family’s World War II struggles, life after liberation and eating food like inun-onan.”
Renato Madrid’s “King of the Road Meets Urban Legend” is about that stage in the city’s history when the parada (tartanilla) enjoyed its heydays. “When the cochero and tartanilla rode off into their made-to-order sunset not long after WWII, they left many clear mental pictures behind, but none so clear I theorize, as that tableau of a demented horse rearing up like a dragon let loose…”
Judge and poet Simeon Dumdum, Jr.’s “He Sings, She Sings” (The Cebuano in Song and Dance)” tackles the “folk art, notably (the) song-and-dance act---the balitaw.” USC professor emeritus Resil Mojares deals with “Visayan Love,” using as template Vicente Ranudo’s poem, “Hikalimtan.” “Reconstructing desire is a tricky thing…(O)ne judges that the early Visayans were less prone to mystify heterosexual love!”
“The Cebu We Know” provides more servings from Lawrence Lacambra-Ypil, Merlie M. Alunan, Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo, Carlos Cortes, Ma. Milagros Teleron—Dumdum, Charmaine Carreon, Jeneen R. Garcia, Hope S. Yu, Charmaine R.S. Fajardo, Annabelle T. Amor, Jovi Juan, Liza Baccay and Sun.Star Cebu’s Mayette Tabada, Januar Yap and Ma`am Erma herself.
It is but rarely that we find books that pay homage to Cebu not in a physical sense but in a spiritual one. As Cruz said, “the writers in this book have weaved words of wonder turning reality into literature and memories into dreams.” “The Cebu We Know” is still available in your favorite book stores. Grab a copy now and you won’t regret it.
(khanwens@yahoo.com/ my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)
