A town of long ago

Memories of Infanta in Quezon, the place where he grew up and probably spent the best years of his life, must keep coming back and forth to former Ambassador Rodolfo A. Arizala from Santiago, Chile, where he is currently based. This is the way with most Filipinos – sentimental and closely attached to kin, friends and places thousands of miles away from their land of birth. And all over the world, countless myriads of memories of the folks and events back home must always be haunting the Filipinos working abroad.

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As he recollects it, Infanta, Arizala’s hometown, is a small community nestled at the foothills of the Sierra Madre Mountains on the Eastern Seaboard of Quezon Province, facing the blue waters of the Pacific. While walking through its narrow pathways and streets, sometimes dusty during summer and muddy during monsoon, one could experience or see the growth and changes of the town. The changes are not only physical but spiritual as well. Thus, the Infanta which Arizala knew when he was a kid is no longer the Infanta of today.

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A balikbayan like him walking through the pathways and streets of Infanta today could not help but feel that it has lost its old charm, rustic color and magic. Why? In bygone days, he could easily identify the different owners of houses along the streets and pathways of Infanta through the architectural designs of the roof tops, the fences, gates and gardens.

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Now, the houses are no longer identifiable through their peculiar characteristics. The old familar landmarks such as the public market, school houses, municipal building, public plaza and church have changed also in their physical aspects. The sarisari stores which once lined its dusty streets are practically all gone, replaced by "mini-supermaket" style of stores, eateries and restaurants. Even in barrios or barangays, Arizala seldom sees anymore houses made of bamboo walls and nipa roofings. They have been replaced by concrete structures and galvanized iron roofings. Most yards of houses are now bereft of bamboo trees and banana plants.

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And nobody walks anymore in the streets and pathways of the town. People prefer to ride on tricycles and other means of fast transport. Everybody seems to be in a hurry, busy earning a living or doing their chores. No more time for conversations or neighborly idle talks. And during moonlight night, the townsfolk do not notice the full moon anymore due to the bright electric lights at street lamp posts. Children no longer play in yards or streets, and their shouts of joy and laughters are no longer audible because they are indoors watching silently their favorite TV programs or cartoons.

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In this age of globalization, no one can expect that the place of our birth or where we grew up would be the same as when we left it. Modern technology, information and communications. such as the radio, TV, fax, internet and cellphones. have demolished natural walls or barriers, boundaries, valleys, rivers, seas and territorial limits. Consequently, globalization even threatens now our privacy, self-identity, culture and sense of belonging to a particular community like Infanta.

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The bamboo tree which is a common sight in rural Philippines represents that sense of privacy, self-identity, culture and tradition. It also symbolizes our sustenance and struggle for growth and prosperity.

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It is true that a town like Infanta could not remain a "Shangri-La" forever in this modern age. However, we have to find means of preserving our sense of identity, of who we are. In other words, in our self-confidence to reach out into the world for human survival and progress, we have to preserve our sense of home and belonging to a family as symbolized by the bamboo tree to which we are bound by common language, geography, and history.

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It is relevant in this connection to recall what the Colombian-Mexican writer and 1982 Nobel Peace Prize Awardee in Literature Gabriel Garcia Marquez wrote in his classic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude. In that novel, he spoke of a village called "Macondo" where the people seemed to have suffered from general amnesia, forgetting not only their history and identity but also names of common objects. Garcia was trying to convey to his readers that if we forget our self-identity or where we came from as well as the existence of God, we shall lose our sense of humanity.

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Most expatriate Filipinos in the course of their "diaspora" were able to survive and became successful because they learned to preserve their respective "bamboo trees" as well as able to adapt themselves in their new modern surroundings. In the face of modernity and progress, they did not forget their self-identity. Consequently, they were also able to preserve their sense of humanity.

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PULSEBEAT: Retired Ambassador Hermenegildo C. Cruz has his own ideas on the presence of American soldiers in Philippine soil. He feels that once local law-enforcers are unable to cope with local terrorists, then, by all means, solicit foreign assistance. "This is what nationalism really means, getting rid of the terrorists who have been destroying our country, with the assistance of foreign soldiers," he said . . . Jay Entruda, a Filipino residing in Iowa, US, would like to invite MMDA chairman Benjamin Abalos to visit the US and see for himself the following: loading and unloading of passengers are done only in specific designated places; there are no illegally parked vehicles in the sidewalks; discipline in the roads is very much evident almost everywhere in the US; and traffic citation tickets are issued to all violators . . . Ronald Magtoto of Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa, USA, says that after reading my column almost everyday, he never misses the Thoughts for the Day at the end of the column. "They always give me new insights and perception of life, its beauty and the way we should live it," he said.

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Thoughts For Today:

Happiness always looks small
if you hold it in your hands.
But when you learn to share it,
you’ll realize how big and precious it is.

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In the palm of His hand,
God has written your name.
For you are loved not for what
you are to others,
but for what you are to Him.

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My e-mail addresses: [email protected] and [email protected]