Roots
Living art
By Marifi Jara
I wonder how many of the almost two million Pangasinenses – including those living here in the province, elsewhere in the country, and in other countries – know Francisco Sionil Jose?
And of those who do recognize his name, how many know that he is a child of Pangasinan, Rosales town in particular?
I bet not too many.
F. Sionil Jose, dearly called Manong Frankie, is one of our very few living National Artists for Literature.
He is also one of the few Filipinos who have received the Ramon Magsaysay Award (the most illustrious of its kind in Asia) for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts. In his citation during the awarding ceremonies in 1980, it was mentioned how his “wit and formative experience” have been key to who he is and come to be: “Born into a poor family in the Philippine province of Pangasinan in 1924, he learned as a boy the hard life of a farmer, following a water buffalo to plow the rice field…”
His literary masterpiece, a series of five novels written in English and has been translated in several other languages, is in fact known as the Rosales saga.
In 2004, he was once again recognized in the international scene when he received the distinguished Pablo Nerruda Centennial Award.
Not only is he a brilliant writer both in literature and journalism, he is also a patron of the written art. His Solidaridad Publishing Company and Solidaridad bookshop in Manila are a Mecca for Asia’s talented and promising writers.
My thoughts turn to this great man now because the College of Arts and Communication of the University of the Philippines Baguio, where I teach part-time, is reviving this year its traditional Summer Arts Festival, albeit now under the moniker Summer Extension Program. And this week, as part of that event, the first UP Baguio-NCAA Cordillera Creative Writing Workshop will be conducted to be participated in by a carefully-selected group of young and budding writers from all over the Cordillera region.
UP’s summer program also includes seminars on music, dance, theater, visual arts and crafts, photography, film and language.
How I wish one of the major educational institutions here in Pangasinan, perhaps in cooperation with the local government, can initiate a similar tradition for the province and eventually even become a regional center for the arts and cover the entire Ilocos region.
There is so much in Philippine art to cultivate and nurture. In dance for example, surely there is something deeper, more graceful in the Filipino soul than “I-taktak mo” and “boom tarat tarat”.
The arts, just like sports, is also an excellent means of helping our youth direct their time and energy into productive pursuits.
A summer arts program can tap talents and foster greater appreciation of our culture.
And who knows, there just might be another Manong Frankie in our midst waiting to be discovered.
(For past columns, click http://sundaypunch.prepys.com/archives/category/opinion/roots/)
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