Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
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(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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Earthquake of 1990
By JOHN BOLINAS
Fellow Dagupenos,
Where were you on July 16, 1990? That was the day when a huge earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 shook and rattled Dagupan City, Baguio City and nearby places. For those who were not there and did not witness the scary earthquake, I have captured many scenes with my trusted and old camera which I would like to share with you.
I am a living witness to that event and saw what happened on that day. The pictures that I took a day after the earthquake and weeks thereafter are testaments to the intensity and destructive force of the tremor. Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
_________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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Separation of State and Religion
By Yoli Tucay
In writing this piece, I almost feel like I’m burning my ticket to heaven for sure. This trepidation is plain parochial school training at its best. Pictures of nuns banging their fists against blackboards, priests behind veiled windows commiserating with the powers of thee on how many Our Fathers and Hail Marys will it take to absolve my weekly sins, and lest I forget that rapid fire of Peace Be With Yous I belted out last week are hanging over my head. I also want to preface this response to last week’s Viewpoints article with a disclaimer that I am NOT an expert on the subject of religion, just an average Jane muddling through life … with the following opinions.
Separation of church and state: To what extent is it justifiable to use religion as a basis for political decisions on public policy? Many believe that such use results in violation of the constitution, yet many also believe that to exclude religion is another way of discriminating against the believers. Who is right? An easy way out would be to say that both perspectives are right… however, I will have to side with the former. Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
_________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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Growing up Filipino in America
By Yoli Tucay
Alma just arrived four months ago from Binalonan. Her English teacher gives up trying to pronounce her last name and calls out Alma. She raises her hand and mumbles “present mam”. Kids around her giggle defying the teacher’s glare. She is later introduced to the rest of the Filipinos sitting around a table in the cafeteria. Ilocano, Pangasinan, and Tagalog expletives are sometimes heard unbeknownst to those around them. Alma is a picture of simplicity, innocence, and pure bravery in the face of a culture so foreign to anything she’s ever known. Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
__________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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Pangasinan – a dying language?
By Erwin S. Fernandez
I beg to disagree with F. Sionil Jose, the National Artist for Literature who hails from Rosales, a town away from my birthplace, Urdaneta. Pangasinan, he foretells, like the rest of Philippine languages except Tagalog, Iloko and Cebuano, shall die in the near future because it is now on the verge of disuse and eventually extinction. He raises a valid point, however, that Pangasinan speakers must now address.
Unlike the three cited languages, Pangasinan don’t have Liwayway, Bisaya and Bannawag, popular vernacular magazines where one ordinarily finds short stories, essays, poems and other occasional pieces. Thus, there is no proper venue for would-be writers and authors. Or if there had been one, will there be a critical audience or more importantly, will there be writers for readers?
At present, less than one and a half million people speak the language. So who says there is no market for writers? What is lacking is a grouping like the GUMIL (Gunglo dagiti Mannurat nga Ilocano) that will unite writers who, I’m confident, are more than willing to cooperate for the sake of preserving the language. I am pretty sure they are still around in the villages or in towns or cities with dormant energies waiting to be reawakened. Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
__________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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My Mother
By Yoli Tucay
Mother’s Day is very different from any other holiday, at least for me. It’s the day where my daughter and I have our brunch and reminisce for a couple of hours about things we “majorly messed up” on as a mother/daughter. The jovial knit picking of our roles is, to say the least, entertaining. Until my own mother makes it to the picture, then it becomes a somber realization, guilt trip, and pangs of nostalgia all over again.
In the Philippines, her skills were limited to being a housewife and a mother. It wasn’t an easy task. I have pictures in my head of her balancing batya on her head, walking along the river’s side until she spots that ideal location where she sits under the sun for the next hour or two doing laundry. She wanders the treacherous land of pugaro looking for dried sticks so she can cook the following week. The sight of her balancing bundles of this fuel on her head while maneuvering a teetering bamboo bridge sends up shivers. She’s famous around town for her bartering skills as well. For next to nothing she’s able to feed and clothe her family. The balancing acts she performed raising nine children, oftentimes on her own, is unfathomable. Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
__________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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The Way of the Cross
By Nida Alumbro Rofe
It is a good thing to get out into the fresh air, to walk in about our neighborhood and display publicly, even if in a small enough way, and once a year at that, our belief in, and love for, Christ our Redeemer.
Our little dried palm leaves, or sprigs of fresh green stuff, remind us of the fleeting nature of the welcome that Jesus got on that first Palm Sunday, so many years ago in the hot Palestine sun. Just so, the enthusiasm of the crown on Palm Sunday as they surrounded and cheered the Lord, seated meekly on a donkey, the sign of peace not war, changed and faded. On Good Friday he was crucified, and many of the same people were anthem crowds that mocked and insulted him.
So many similar rising, always brutally crushed, had happened in the past. Was it not simple political sense that one man should die for one people? Public opinion was turned round by propaganda, by smears, by judicious threats and bribes also, no doubt. But would that have been enough? No, there must have been a genuine popular revulsion to make such violent alteration in so short a time. What happened? Read more
Filed under Opinion, A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
__________________________________________________
(This space will be reserved for literary contributions from readers. The PUNCH encourages readers to write and email to us their thoughts about their impressions and ideas about life in and outside of Pangasinan, whether social or economic or cultural. No politics, please. Thank you. - Publisher).
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Anto so Kakanaan na Sakey ya Umaanlong a Pangasinan?
nen Santiago B. Villafania
“Our literatures in Tagalog, Cebuano and Ilokano will continue developing as the writers in these languages become more facile with craft. Tagalog has truly become a national language. But the minor languages like Pampango, Zambal and Pangasinan will be poorer – there are no novels written in these languages now, and even their poetry is disappearing.” — F. Sionil Jose
Para angan ko ed saray oala ni ed kalangoeran ya naubol so ulo ra ed aoiran no iner say uusaren a salita et Filipino tan English, nayarin anggapo. Ompano ag da labat la naparlasan na linggis ira’y sulsulat da’ra’y pigpigaran umaanlong ed luyag. Say makasengeg, anggapo’y pililikna la na tobunbalo ed abangonan ya salita. Sakey ni, ag da aaralen, panaaralan tan inaral so salitan Pangasinan ed impapaletneg iran aoiran tan unibersidad.
Naandi ira’y umaanlong tayo a singa no kaoayan ed datin Caboloan. Anggaman ontan, nampanaon so salita tan litiraturan Pangasinan ed lima da’ra’y zarzuelista a manlapu ed si Pablo Mejia angga ed say nobilistan si Maria Magsano. Limamplon taon so apalabas insan lamet binmaltaw ira’y pluma da’ra’y sumusulat ed taoir a salita. Bangbalet asagmak ira natan ed mairap a kipapasen ta aliing tan abangon ira ed panaon da’ra’y kailalakan ya oala’y siping a dila.
Anggapo la’y dengel na sakey ya umaanlong natan ta pilatek ni na karaklan ira’y sumusulat ed bayes a dila. Ipikto iya na impakurang a polisiya ed edukasion ya usaren so Filipino, say salitan onkana ed lapag a bansa tan say salitan Inglis.
Anto sirin so kakanaan na sakey ya umaanlong a Pangasinan natan? Oala kasi? Balbaleg, ta oala’d lima da’ra’y umaanlong so bilay na salita tayo. Sikara so samput a manangiyagel ed kaandi tan katiguay na salita o lingguahi tayo. Oala’d lima da’ra’y umaanlong so ibolusion na salita tan litiraturan Pangasinan.
Saray umaanlong et alioan para ed saray kapara da ‘ran umaanlong labat, ingen, sikara so mansisirbin manangioanoan ed saray oala ni ed kalangoeran ta pian nakabatan tan naamtaan da so balor na salitan abangonan.
Dia ed biek taew, laut la ed bansan America, oala ‘ra’y itatalaga ran Poet Laureate ed kada Istado. Simbaoa ira na atagey a kalkalar. Bibirbiren tan ikikinon da met la’ra’y umaanlong natan a mansusulat ed dili ran salita ed nanduruman rihion dia’d apatiran sukong na mundo.
Pigara ed saray nagmaliw a Nobel Prize Winner for Literature et umaanlong - Rudyard Kipling, Rabindranath Tagore, William Butler Yeats, T. S. Eliot, Pablo Neruda tan arum ni’ra.
Kanian sirin kabaleyan tan kaluyagan, no tepeten yo no anto so kakanaan na sakey ya umaanlong a Pangasinan?
Makanakana ira a singa saray bumabangat, abogado, doktor, pastor, politiko, panadiro, basuriro, dumaralos, sumisigay tan managlako’y pandisal ya onliliber-liber ed kaabungan tayo no palbangon.
– Santiago B. Villafania http://www.dalityapi.com/
Filed under A Kabaleyan's Thoughts by Sunday Punch.
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