Writing Pangasinan

By Virginia Jasmin Pasalo

DURING the making of the book, Pangasinan Pinablin Dalin: History, Culture and Development, we interviewed several prominent Pangasinan leaders, on how history, culture and development could be woven together to develop a Pangasinan identity and to push for the development of the province. The late Senator Leticia Ramos-Shahani and Jaime T. Licauco mentioned that if there is one defining cutting edge of the province it is the fact that it is home to healers and alternative healing practices. They both agree that most of the tourists come to Manaoag to ask for material blessings and to be healed. They visit far-flung areas of the province to be cured by healers, and to visit places where miraculous events happen to take place.

Taking off from these interviews, the Pangasinan Historical and Cultural Commission (PHCC) was planning to bring Dr. Francisco Datar of the UP Diliman Department of Anthropology, to guide selected students to write Pangasinan’s local history prioritizing areas that link history, culture and development. This effort was designed for selected students to inquire into their heritage in order to find a sense of identity, and also as a way of weaving historical and cultural traditions with development concerns. For example, how do we present Pangasinan so that local communities and its visitors can be encouraged to explore the province as a place of interest and tourism site?

While there is a long history of healing in Pangasinan, most of the accounts were word-of-mouth and there is a very negligible conscious effort to write about it. Part of the planned research was an inventory of medicinal plants and how they are prepared as herbal concoctions, where they are naturally found and how they may be cultivated to be sold as herbal medicines. Also, to explore the possibility of healing institutes where apprentice healers may be taught the practices, traditions and the art of healing.

What is being envisioned is a departure from the “bukayo” identity, which refused to evolve into a more viable vehicle for identity-building and economic development.

Maybe upon prodding from my celestial guides, historian Fe Mangahas invited me to share our thoughts about writing culture and history with the young historians of Bulacan, and also to visit the museums. This is a project under the supervision of Prof. Jaime Veneracion, whose work in Bulacan is very extensive, from engaging the youth to write Bulacan’s history to supervising the establishment of the Hiyas ng Bulacan Museum, which focuses on the history of Bulacan.

I saw the eagerness of Bulacan’s youth, embracing their common heritage, excited to share what they have already begun. I saw in their faces, the energy that propels, ultimately, the writing of a nation.

I am hoping the same for the youth of Pangasinan. I am hoping that the youth in all the provinces and cities can do this for their provinces. I am hoping we can blend all the local histories and evolve a national history that can define our national identity. Let us write the nation.

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