College Educated Pinatubo Aytas: A ‘Struggle of Identification’”

After the eruption of Mt Pinatubo (Philippines) in 1991, most Aytas living at the foot of the volcano were resettled in lowland areas. Breaking with the past entailed a painful struggle particularly among these indigenous people who were uprooted from their source of life. As they tried to adapt to their new environment, they had no choice but to conform in re-establishing their habitat and in attempting to find ways of achieving a better future. Since formal education was a most promising venture, there were Ayta parents who welcomed the scholarships offered by the government or the private sector to their children. This study features interviews with Pinatubo Aytas—who were given the opportunity to finish college—and highlights their struggle as they aspire for socio-economic mobility. The new generation of Aytas has become an emerging breed of acculturation that puts their identity fundamentally at stake: their case demonstrates a “struggle of identification,” to use Bhabha’s term. Their experience of self-consciousness in their psychic identification with the dominant culture or their alacritous acceptance of their assimilated condition remains a critical issue calling for further inquiry

King Sinukwan Mythology and the Kapampangan Psyche

This paper focuses on the metaphorical categories of the Sinukwan legends that could account for the ethnocentric qualities of the Kapampangans (people of Pampanga, a province in the northern part of the Philippines) and their behavioral patterns as a distinct race. According to oral accounts, Sinukwan, supposedly the first inhabitant in Pampanga, was a noble, gigantic being whose countenance reflected beautiful traits such as royalty, wisdom, faithfulness, ability and love. Sinukwan is a product of the Kapampangans’ primordial culture but, in many respects, he serves as a central image in the maintenance of their internal racial affinity as well as in the interaction of their past and present. On one hand, he may be perceived as an instrument of sentimental evocation. But on the other, Sinukwan is an indispensable force in asserting and reasserting the Kapampangan identity. The Kapampangans still believe that their historical beginnings were woven into and their society constructed within the realm of a powerful cultural symbol. In the development of Kapampangan civilization, Sinukwan has become an established archetype in Kapampangan arts and literature, a rallying point in the socio-political transformation of the Kapampangan community, and the paradigmatic model that is constantly invoked in the unfolding events of Kapampangan history. To be mentioned in particular is an aspect of a Sinukwan legend that provides a colorful explanation of one of the worst calamities that struck Pampanga: the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The story is, in a sense, an imaginative articulation of a historical phenomenon that pierced through the very heart of Kapampangan civilization and altered the course of its development

King Sinukwan Mythology and the Kapampangan Psyche

This paper focuses on the metaphorical categories of the Sinukwan legends that could account for the ethnocentric qualities of the Kapampangans (people of Pampanga, a province in the northern part of the Philippines) and their behavioral patterns as a distinct race. According to oral accounts, Sinukwan, supposedly the first inhabitant in Pampanga, was a noble, gigantic being whose countenance reflected beautiful traits such as royalty, wisdom, faithfulness, ability and love. Sinukwan is a product of the Kapampangans’ primordial culture but, in many respects, he serves as a central image in the maintenance of their internal racial affinity as well as in the interaction of their past and present. On one hand, he may be perceived as an instrument of sentimental evocation. But on the other, Sinukwan is an indispensable force in asserting and reasserting the Kapampangan identity. The Kapampangans still believe that their historical beginnings were woven into and their society constructed within the realm of a powerful cultural symbol. In the development of Kapampangan civilization, Sinukwan has become an established archetype in Kapampangan arts and literature, a rallying point in the socio-political transformation of the Kapampangan community, and the paradigmatic model that is constantly invoked in the unfolding events of Kapampangan history. To be mentioned in particular is an aspect of a Sinukwan legend that provides a colorful explanation of one of the worst calamities that struck Pampanga: the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo. The story is, in a sense, an imaginative articulation of a historical phenomenon that pierced through the very heart of Kapampangan civilization and altered the course of its development

Indigenizing the Zarzuela: Kapampangan Ethnocentric Adoption of the Foreign Genre

When the Spanish colonizers reached Pampanga, a province in the northern part of the Philippines, the meeting between the East and the West meant an impact of the grafted civilization over the conquered people. Religious and cultural hybridization (Bhaba 1994) inevitably took place in Pampanga. Kapampangan verbal art modestly welcomed an alien counterpart and a cultural synthesis in a “liminal space” took place. What the Spaniards introduced—religious literature, metrical romances and the zarzuela—to advance their imperialistic cause pressed on the folk and blended naturally with the Kapampangan sensibility. Kapampangan literature took on a hybrid form that came to be an incitement for the movement of the province’s literary history. Mariano Proceso Pabalan Byron, a Kapampangan poet, was the first to domesticate the form and content of the zarzuela, a Spanish literary genre. He, together with other writers such as Crisostomo Soto, established a zarzuela tradition and produced masterpieces. The enthusiasm for the zarzuela lasted for decades even after World War II; poets like Jose Gallardo easily adopted the favorite literary genre of his predecessors. The genre was most welcome because its elements constituted their familiar world. The zarzuelas that were produced reveal the constant appropriation of the native values and beliefs in the foreign literary form

Indigenizing the Zarzuela: Kapampangan Ethnocentric Adoption of the Foreign Genre

When the Spanish colonizers reached Pampanga, a province in the northern part of the Philippines, the meeting between the East and the West meant an impact of the grafted civilization over the conquered people. Religious and cultural hybridization (Bhaba 1994) inevitably took place in Pampanga. Kapampangan verbal art modestly welcomed an alien counterpart and a cultural synthesis in a “liminal space” took place. What the Spaniards introduced—religious literature, metrical romances and the zarzuela—to advance their imperialistic cause pressed on the folk and blended naturally with the Kapampangan sensibility. Kapampangan literature took on a hybrid form that came to be an incitement for the movement of the province’s literary history. Mariano Proceso Pabalan Byron, a Kapampangan poet, was the first to domesticate the form and content of the zarzuela, a Spanish literary genre. He, together with other writers such as Crisostomo Soto, established a zarzuela tradition and produced masterpieces. The enthusiasm for the zarzuela lasted for decades even after World War II; poets like Jose Gallardo easily adopted the favorite literary genre of his predecessors. The genre was most welcome because its elements constituted their familiar world. The zarzuelas that were produced reveal the constant appropriation of the native values and beliefs in the foreign literary form

Political Creeping into the Mauaque Resettlement Center Through Dyadic Relationships

This paper focuses on the characteristically dyadic political culture of Mauaque Resettlement Center, a government organized community of disaster victims (1991 Mt. Pinatubo eruption). It attempts to trace and understand the resettlers' proclivity for dyadic means of cooperation, dependency and even political action.The resettlement site is composed basically of three different barangays which retained their "sub-cultures," including their political ethos. What manifest at present are the comfortable reciprocal schemes developed by the resettlers and their leaders which inevitably create either positive or negative consequences relative to the political life of the whole community.To be considered will be the personal followings and system of alliances of the present barangay leaders within the context of the Filipino kinship system. Moreover, the other socio-cultural values and traits of the resettlers which serve as underpinning for their dyadic relationships will also be discussed.Interviewing the individuals concerned, particularly the barangay captains, has been the method employed in gathering the information needed for this qualitative study