Think about it
Bulosan: more than a great writer
By Jun Velasco
OF the many great Filipino writers the country has sired since time immemorial, we consider our province-mate, Carlos Sampayan Bulosan, the greatest even in the honored company of Jose Garcia Villa, Nick Joaquin and another Pangasinense, Frank Sionil Jose, who is still alive, from Rosales town.
All eyes on Bulosan and his Binalonan hometown these days because the municipal council presided by Vice Mayor Myrna Bell Uy passed an ordinance authored by Councilor Francis Melvile Tinio last May 29, 2006 declaring Sept. 11, his 50th death anniversary, as Bulosan Day. The event coincides with former President Marcos’ birthday.
We thought the Binalonan officials including Mayor Monching Guico who signed the ordinance and set the motion for the government machinery to mark Bulosan Day would consider moving the date to his birthday on November 2, when he first saw the light of day in rustic Binalonan, than on September 11, the fateful day he died in a foreign land, in Seattle, Washington particularly..
The Carlos D. Bulosan Foundation of which we were the executive director (we still are because we were not yet replaced) with Bulosan’s grandson, Alfredo G. Gabot, as founding chairman, had started a series of meetings since the late 80’s to put up a memorabilia of his works and writings – short stories, essays, journalistic masterpieces, poems, labor treatises (he was a labor leader in the US), mementos and other vignettes about his life.
His short stories are full of local color you could smell carabao dung, the damp earth after a long rain, the greenery, blue skies, the suntanned farmers, the sabungero, and the Binalonan that he saw during his youth.
Former Governor Oscar Orbos visited his tomb in Seattle in the 90’s, and in l977 we joined then Agrarian Reform Minister Conrado Estrella, former Information Minister Greg Cendana and former Gov. Aguedo F. Agbayani to preside with the late former Mayor Ramon Guico over the unveiling of the Carlos Bulosan marker. We had three Bulosan books, “Laughter of My Father,” “America is in the Heart,” and “Letters from America.”
The books have landed in many hands, mostly members of the foundation which Gabot heads, including our treasurer, public relations executive Melandrew Velasco. Fred and us frequently quarreled over our failure to find the books anymore.
At press time, Fred told us the foundation will hold the first Bulosan festival in February next year to also honor other Binalonan greats including President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, her mother Eva Macapagal and Eva’s father, Dr. Juan Macaraeg, and many others.
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Certain quarters consider the ongoing beautification of the Maramba Boulevard in Lingayen town a waste of millions of taxpayers’ money. They say the millions of funds should have been used to erect buildings that would generate revenue.
We said no. The visual delight is taking shape straight from the progressive mind of Governor Victor Agbayani and his team would fire up the imagination and creative genius of Pangasinenses which later give birth to bigger and more meaningful edifices that benefit the province and its people.
We’d be more worried if the present computerized trends would take away our interests and appreciation of the arts. A famous American writer, Archibald Macleish says the artists, poets, writers and journalists are the world’s real architects of growth. Their contributions may not yet be seen now, but our children and grandchildren would surely write that the poems, the articles, short stories and literary pieces we wrote were actually building blocks of the future.
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