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Wednesday, September 24, 2003
Santos: Speak Chabacano, see the world
By Lino Santos
CITY Mayor Maria Clara L. Lobregat should be praised for pursuing her policy of encouraging local residents to speak in the local dialect, which is Chabacano.
People in Metro Manila speak in Tagalog while those in Cebu there speak in Cebuano, ergo, Zamboangueños must also speak in Chabacano, she said.
Thus it was with trepidation that the sponsors of the organizers of "Little Mr. And Miss Zamboanga 03" contest found themselves the target of the mayor's ire when the candidates visited the mayor.
The mayor raised her voice when she found out that candidates for the "Little Mr. and Ms. Zamboanga '03" contests cannot even speak in the local language. While in her office, the mayor interviewed the candidates and found out that the children could hardly speak in the local dialect and answered her in Tagalog.
The candidates could not also sing the "Zamboanga Hermosa" although they could sing a Tagalog song, "Spageting Pababa," which is considered sexually suggestive and immodest.
The propagation of Chabacano has been the subject of concern of some concerned residents years ago. The other Sunday, a few Chabacano enthusiasts met at a local hotel.
It was only there that we realized that the Chabacano would not die. Unlike other dialects in the country, Chabacano is a language that is alive. It started as a language of necessity during the Spanish regime and has since grown, adding and assimilating new words.
There were arguments about the entry of new words such as "ka" or "ikaw" which some purists insist should not be.
What we have to accept is the fact that the Chavacano of a hundred years ago is not the Chavacano of today. Neither will the Chabacano of today be like what it is half a century hence.
What few of us do not know is that linguists from all over the world are interested in the Chabacano we have in Zamboanga.
We have come across comments on the internet on the growing awareness in Chabacano worldwide.
One such writer from Madrid insisted that what we have in Zamboanga is "Español in Zamboanga", in the same manner that we have "Español desde Cuba", de Chile, Uruguay, Brazil and all the other countries in Central and South America.
So-called Castillian linguist says that there actually is no pure Castillian tongue because what we have in the Spanish-speaking world are variations of the romantic language of Castille.
I have received e-mails from Barcelona, the United States, Mexico and other Spanish speaking countries in the world who said that we in Zamboanga must preserve the speaking of the native tongue.
Selfish Tagalog purists in Manila managed to exclude Spanish from the college curriculum because they wanted to impose their Tagalog conquest of other parts of the Philippines.
The world is shrinking today and we realize that Spanish is also one of the major tongues of the world, following close behind English.
We do not have to spend much effort to keep the language alive. We only have to speak it at home and wherever we happen to be.
There is no need to be ashamed of Chabacano. Tune in to any of the Spanish-speaking television stations in the world and realize why we in Zamboanga have an advantage over the non-Chabacano speaking tribes in the country today.
Settlers in Zamboanga, or those who have made Zamboanga their home, should learn to speak the language.
Who knows they might end in Spain, in Europe, or the United States one day.
(September 24, 2003 issue)
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