Final Exam Questions

Mark Barba
IP 411: Final Examination
Coverage: Modules 5-8
December 7, 2007

“To ‘remember’ in Ilokano literature is always to become a ‘member again’ (re+member) and such a remembering is a resistance to forgetting as is evident in the many stories on returning to one’s birthplace.”

I firmly believe that this statement holds a lot of meaning to it because there has been so much history and assets lost that belonged to the people in the Ilocos. There have been quite a few readings this semester that exhibit characters that go back to their birthplace and try to “remember” what they have detached themselves with. I feel that most of these stories are about personal losses of their own culture, family, and values. This might be the result of becoming Americanized or being colonized. These stories particularly are resolved by assessing ones own awareness of their birthplace and what it means to them. Many of these characters who are looking to be a “member again” and find reestablishment are inspirational in that they realize the things that never should be forgotten.

One story that frequently comes to mind is “Sing, Cicada Sing!”. This piece is precise when explaining how much a person can forget about his home but once exposed to it again, can re-associate themselves and retain their new insight. In this story, the main character Pete is married man who comes from the Iloccos but finds his success in America. He is living the American dream by attaining wealth and status but when he comes home to the Philippines, he finds himself feeling unadjusted to where he had come from, his homeland. Pete might have appeared to be living the ideal life but underneath the wealth and success is the unfulfilled relationship he had with this wife. In the Philippines, you will hear over and over again that wealth is not measured by your income but the number of kids you have. In this story, the relationship between Pete and Erling was full of business that it appeared that he two had no intimate connections while being in America. In this story, there is a noticeable transition of the two from the beginning of the story. The connection between them grew deeper as they connected more with the land. As the couple began to hang out with one another, they began to share their stories growing up in the Philippines. A newly obvious connection seemed to arise because of this.
This story was great because it goes to show how much one’s home can bring out the best of them. It blossomed the relationship of Pete and Erling and made them truly wealthy in their hearts. His experience of seeing the happiness that his family had for him provided great development for him. But the unawareness that the “American dream” can shadow on a person is quite easy to occur but there exist an everlasting attachment when one goes back to the homeland. For Pete’s case he had undergone the lows of disconnecting himself with his past. He says, “Perhaps what we see in life like the imaginary arrow are our dreams and where they fall because we hurl them far off into the future…we can’t even find them sometimes…and we come back to find them. But the truth is, we haven’t gone far enough.” The context of this quote might have been different within the story but it does hold a lot of truth. When we put too much ahead of ourselves we forget what is right in front of us. For Pete, he dealt with readjusting his values and associated himself to what he loves: his people and land.


While the colonial experience brought a lot of ‘damage’ to the indigenous cultural expressions of the Ilokanos, there remains the palimpsest on a culture—as is the case of the epic ‘Lam-ang’—through which we can trace the ‘indigenous’ by removing the layers and layers of colonial experience.

The colonial damage that exists in the Philippines is like the graffiti on the walls of a building. Though the two were never meant to be put together it was inevitable that the two will meet. In the context of Ilokano Literature, many pieces are written on the damage or layers of different historical changes that colonization has done to the Philippines. Most of these stories are personal, citing the impact that colonization has done to their loss of identity and land. If you read text of Ilokos Literature many pieces seem to have the ambiance of pain and suffering that colonization has had. I do believe that there remains a thick layer palimpsest on the Philippine culture. There are so many things that the Ilokos are trying to be claim as their own. The effects of colonization are very extensive in the Philippines and it is an obvious problem for those who want to claim what is indigenous.
So much of what this thesis statement explains can be specifically made an example of with the “Story of Lam-ang” but there are many more pieces of Iluko writing that can make a point. One piece that speaks of the cultural damage done by colonization is called the 13th Disciple. This short piece was about the declaration of reclaiming ones identity after being molded into something that wasn’t meant to be. The piece specifically talks about the uncertainties about not knowing who you are and the connection you have to your land. One line that I enjoyed was, “ah, bloody was the way to self-discovery and the blue devils of the keeper stained the kidskins and the scrolls.” I feel that this piece of writing is an obvious way of trying to rid the many layers of the colonial experience. The search for ones self-identity is an experience everyone must go through.
A second piece that comes to mind about this thesis is the piece called the “Clearing”. This piece is for people who are trying to overcome the unjust. It is a movement that is about to erupt and change the circumstances that the Philippines is going through with colonization. In the second stanza it quotes, “We have come as second learners. The breeze sends an easy chill to my blood. Below us a rice field expertly engineered.” This quote portrays a sense of great influence that is on the rise. I feel like that is an important attitude that Ilokos writers must establish themselves by in order to induce change from colonization. The “Clearing” has this urge of excitement built around it that you can feel. The lines such as “climbing over hills” transitioning into “already to this mountain” have made it creatively written with an dramatic appeal.
Lastly, “The Flickering Stars of Escopa” is quite the different type of writing that a reader might not understand the first time around. I personally had a difficult time reading it and had to read sentences over and over again. This story is about a family who consists of Kosep, Dalen, and Djona who are in the world of Escopa. This story is very magical and mystical in every way possible. There is this feeling where you are in another atmosphere. In this story, I feel that there were a lot of subtle references to the issues going on in the Ilokos region of the Philippines. I feel that this was represented well in the loss of their daughter Djona. She was someone who represented the preciousness in the world and she had been supposedly taken away. Another representation that was made was the fiery of the burning lands. This represented the anger, sadness, and distraught that Kosep had with his loss. The representations of this story were quite difficult to interpret but I feel that the descriptions and the magical world that this story was based on can derive a lot of emotions that victims of colonization feel as well.