Doon po sa Amin

List of Stories by Author

John Reyes

Rachel Mendoza

Bert Guiang

In this section of the ZambalesForum (ZF) sari-sari store, you will find articles, short stories, and anecdotes about the cultural traditions of the Filipinos irrespective of region. While the distinctiveness of the cultures that make up the larger Christian and the minority non-Christian Philippine society is apparent, many similarities do exist as to group them together as belonging to one single tradition. Many of today's Filipino cultural practices are a product of a blending of Malay and European traits- a reflection of its roots and the people's subsequent experiences, both the good and the bad, through hundreds of years of foreign colonization. However, despite the prominence of European institutional precepts in popular social life- the celebration of the "barrio fiesta" that honors local patron saints or observing "Angelus" at the strike of six o'clock in the evening, for instance- local interpretations, beliefs and rituals have allowed pre-Christian practices to flourish. In barrio Salaza (Palauig, Zambales), a housewife is well-advised to utter the phrase, "bari-bari", before throwing the evening's dish wash out of the kitchen window in deference to the roaming creatures that go bump in the night.

Musical traditions are also an important part of the Filipino cultural life. A number of Filipino folk songs will be presented and examined in these pages. The Spanish colonizers would discover that the indigenous Malays already had a thriving musical culture of their own. The simple peasant mother would lull her child to sleep in her arms singing a lullaby. One such lullaby is the Sambali folk song called, "Hay Kailangan", reputedly of Botolan, Zambales origin. Its lyrics is a depiction of the classical "Bahay Kubo" at the end of the day when father comes home from the field. Not unlike the "Blue Danube" and other classical works that celebrate a particular topography, folk songs like the "Hay Kailangan" possess a requirement for immortality not only because of their peculiarity to a certain region or class of people, but also because of their eloquent description of the essence and simplicity of Philippine rural life that Filipinos can easily identify with.

Hay Kailangan's lyrical depiction of the dynamics of family life in the barrio is a reminder of another idyllic rural scene farther up north from Botolan, Zambales. If you like to come along, let's take the Victory Liner north to Mangusmana, Pangasinan, and wander in the fields redolent with the scent of fresh upturned earth. Amid the golden hues of corn stalks softly swaying in the wind, we will come upon a poignant scene as described by a fifteen-year old farm boy upon returning home to his family's remaining strip of land, having left home earlier at the age of thirteen to escape the bitter memories of an impoverished childhood.

"Then I saw my mother's familiar back. She was following the plow, her skirt tucked between her legs. Suddenly I knew what Leon had felt that day he came home, running suddenly to take the plow from my father. I started running across the fields and leaping over ditches, shouting and calling frantically: "Mother! Mother! Mother!"

My mother stopped the carabao and looked toward me. The sun was falling directly upon her face, and she raised her hand to protect her eyes from the strong morning light. When she recognized me, she tied the rope to the handle of the plow, as my father used to do, and waited for me.

"Have you come home, son?" she said. And that was all she could say. Her mouth began to tremble with joy and sorrow were always one and the same. Suddenly, she grabbed me affectionately and wept, murmuring: "We are poor people, son. We are poor people, son."

I brushed back the tears from my eyes. I tried to laugh in order not to cry. Gently I pushed my mother out of the way and took the rope from her.

"Go home, Mother," I said. "I will finish this piece for you." "Don't work the animal too hard," she said.

"I won't," I said. I watched her go away, a little peasant woman who carried the world on her shoulders. Then I flipped the rope gently across the carabao's back and the animal moved obediently and expertly along the deep furrows." - Carlos Bulosan, "America is in the Heart", ©1943.

John Reyes
Salaza, Palauig, Zambales
ZambalesForum (ZF) owner-moderator