The primitives Larry Francia and Alex Hufana

Last June 5, my brother-in-law, Armando phoned me, "Brod, namatay na si Larry. Nabawasan na naman ang mga Ravens."

As I put down the phone, I thought of how we, too, the Primitives, are getting fewer. There were originally only five of us in the ‘50s: Leo Benesa, Andy Cristobal Cruz, Larry Francia, Alex Hufana and me.

Then last Saturday, another phone call, this time from Raul Ingles.

"Amel, si Alex, asthma and stroke daw. They’re flying him home on Aug. 6."

I said, "OK, he was the second director of the Creative Writing Center, I’ll tell them to make arrangements."

God help us, I thought, it’s not even two months since the first phone call.

All five of us love to write and paint. So, we got together painting out on the hills of Diliman during weekends. We brought our easels and paint boxes and lunch bags, too. And after so many paintings, we decided to put up an exhibit, calling ourselves the Primitives.

Our first exhibition was at the lobby of the University of the Philippines Palma Hall in Diliman. That exhibition gave us a lot of mileage. We were probably the only exhibit in the country that travelled to many major university campuses. That alone was enough to get us into the AAP commemorative book. Its success was due to the help we got from friends, especially the Raven Rony V. Diaz who looked after the setup of the exhibit and printed program.

Critic-painter Leo passed away many years ago. Andy is now a recluse, unable to shake off a double tragedy of losing his beloved wife Patricia and son, Jose Elias. Before that he was busy painting one expansive landscape after another and affected by the people power rallies, he turned to painting masses of people and flags, people and flags.

Alex, who used to reside in California, was the only Primitive who turned to painting murals. When I started work on converting an old house into a children’s theater, he used to come to our yard and paint a mural of me seated on a high backed chair surrounded by animals. This mural was ruined during the construction of TACT, our Children’s Theater-Puppet Museum. I had hoped he would be able to do some retouching on it when he comes home.

Nearing my birthday and knowing that I was born in the Year of the Horse, he painted another mural for me, the Horse Festival of Ilocos.

The third mural which I bought he re-titled "Amihan as Maria Makiling." I told him I was buying it because it looked like a portrait of my daughter.

The problem with the paintings of Alex is one must have walls, because one Hufana mural requires one entire wall.

I used to paint flowers, flowers, flowers. Then in 1977, when I founded Mulat, aside from writing stories and plays for children, I started painting for children. Turning playful like Kandinsky, I started using the sky as my background. One has to if one must paint a cow jumping over the moon, you see. Now I am into painting the faces of puppets for my puppet plays.

With 100 performances a year for children who are bused from the Metro Manila areas and from Bulacan, Pampanga, Rizal, Laguna, etc., and sometimes from as far as Tuguegarao, Ilocos, puppets need a lot of attention – costumes that get torn, detached arms and legs, faces whose features get erased from so many poundings, etc.

Larry is the intellectual painter and the only one of us whose works have travelled and have been exhibited internationally. He is the only one whose paintings have been woven into tapestry. In one of his last exhibits, this one in honor of the late National Artist Francisco Arcellana, he exhibited around 30 canvases, several line sketches of friends, including Franz and two or three tapestries.

He was quite pleased when I commented on how his palette had turned lighter, more pastel and more colorful. We shared a love for designing books, programs and posters, experimenting on the mirror design that will do if printed right side up or upside down. You can be sure if the Primitives or the Ravens has an exhibition. It would be Larry who would design the poster.

I phoned him sometime ago to thank him for the Hilario Francia Professorial Chair in the Humanities, because my daughter Amihan is the current holder of that chair. He laughed heartily, surprised that a daughter of a friend and fellow-Primitive now enjoys his largess.

"But Amel," he said, "I was not responsible for that chair, one of my nephews had made the donation to the UP in my name."

Anyway, I said, giving the phone to my daughter, "Here’s Ami who wants to thank you and invite you to the Hilario Francia Professorial Chair Lecture, the only requirement of the award."

Ami thanked him and invited him to the lecture scheduled at the end of the award. But of course, he could no longer come.

So when I spoke briefly during the necrological rites in Larry’s honor, I thought it was proper to mention the award and introduce Ami, too.

Now, I know I will speak during the necrological rites for Alex, too. I must mention how the three of us, the late National Artist Franz Arcellana, Alex Hufana and I first got together and planned the establishment of the UP Creative Writing Center, now UP Institute of Creative Writing.

Hilario Francia and Alejandrino Hufana, poets and painters both, 2003.

We will surely miss them.