By Rex Catubig

 

NOTE: In February 2020, the Pangasinan collective artist groups, the UL cultural group, the DCNHS Arts program department, and the Jayceeken, combined forces, partnered with the Dagupan City Tourism bureau, and mounted a mammoth art competition and exhibit billed as Darapilan to celebrate National Arts Month.

The week long exhibit that included student tours and lectures was made possible by the generous support of Cong. Toff de Venecia.

Here was my opening remarks for the occasion:

“There’s a poem by Langston Hughes that’s inscribed on a flexiglass divider at the I-105/ Aviation Green Line Station in Los Angeles, where I would wait for my bus home every weekday afternoon. It is titled

DREAM DEFERRED and it reads:

” What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore–and then run?
Does it stink like a rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over–like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.
Or does it explode?”

The vivid imagery struck me and spoke to the dream I keep so that at that very moment I was moved to translate it in the vernacular, thus:

INSINOP YA KOGKOGIP
“Anto kasi pangmaliway kogkogip ya insinop ey?
Namagaan ta yan singa inkaling ya sira?
Odino onsiltong yan aliling toy pelsa–insan ed satan man-nena?
Ombanget kasi yan singa pinmangson karne?
O onggaer yan singa pakasyat–insan onlipuan singa politipot?
Siguro, onkesneg yan singa ambelat ya balkot.
O no andi bilang, ag kasi ya onpaltog?”

Like many of kindred spirits among the Dagupeños, the one dream that has lain dormant over the years, is for the community to have a repository of its arts and culture–the collective expressions of its quintessential identity and ideals–beyond the bias of partisanship.

This long neglected building that was once planned as the city’s civic center may yet be the matrix and crucible that would nurture and awaken the dormant dream.

And should the opportunity to create and transform it turns into a viable vision, it would subsequently become a proud monument of the great Dagupan spirit.

Commerce and industry has defined our city’s progress; but ultimately, it is arts and culture that would exemplify the quality of that progress.

This afternoon, we welcome you to our Darapilan–a creative cauldron that would serve to transform our raw dreams and aspirations into meaningful, memorable testament of our proud being.

We enjoin you to dream with us, kindle the spirit of that dream, and share the task of converting the dream into something real and tangible.

There is only one Dagupan, we are Dagupan, and together we shall strive to mill and preserve a legacy of greatness.

“The battle cry of our forefathers who dreamed and founded our city, reverberates throughout the years. It comes on loud and strong so that we may hear and remember: Sigue Dagupan! Aliguas Dagupan! Say kogip mo et sian kogip ko! Saksakey so kogip tin sinansakey.

We are one Dagupan and we have but one dream.”

Share your Comments or Reactions

comments

Powered by Facebook Comments