Punchline
Pangalatok no more!
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
I didn’t make it to the ASNA Awards…or to any celebration of Agew na Pangasinan. Somehow I feel I missed truly something very important.
The staging of that affair made me feel nostalgic about being a Pangasinense…the pride of being one.
For too long, nothing really grand about our roots as a people has been bandied here and elsewhere. In fact, for too long, Pangasinan was known as the place leading to Baguio from Manila, or to Manila from Ilocos region. For too long, the word “Pangasinan” was associated with nothing else but the word “pangalatok”, a derisive word, a slur that suggests something deranged about our people and our dialect. May katok?
It was not, and is still not, unusual, therefore, to hear the Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Cebuanos, etc. slightly giggle when they say the word “pangalatok” when referring to someone who’s an unabashed native of Pangasinan. That’s me!
How many times have you heard the following reactions?
“Ah…pangalatok ka…hehe…that’s what they call you di ba?”
“Di ba salita nyo “pangalato? Hehe”
I was always embarrassed on getting that common response each time I introduced myself proudly as someone who was born, grew up and now work in Pangasinan. I hated it that they knew nothing to be proud about as a native of Pangasinan except having a language that other Filipinos have difficulty learning to understand and speak.
The “pangalatok” tag had been around for too long that sadly, many Pangasinenses themselves today don’t know any better. They accept the label though sheepishly when referred as such to by their friends. Little do they know that the Pangasinense has long arrived and should not be called derisively by any other name.
The first ASNA awardees are great choices, they who have their roots in Pangasinan and have truly distinguished themselves in their chosen fields. Their accomplishments tell the world that natives of Pangasinan are among the best you can find in every field. But there are more…hundreds if not thousands more out there, here and abroad, who, too, suffered humiliation at one time or another being called “pangalatok” but proved themselves a cut about the rest, the Tagalogs, Ilocanos, Cebuanos, Capampangans, etc.
To them and the millions who were once known to be “pangalatok”, you have long arrived. You are a proud “Pangasinense”… your great home province is Pangasinan, and your unique language is Pangasinan! Nothing about you is “pangalatok”!
Yes, I doff my hat to Guv Spines for giving us another reason to tell the world that the Pangasinense has long arrived.
Yes, watch out world!
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