A book on Philippine icons

Visitacio "Chit" R. de la Torre has done it again! A 15th book. This time, it’s Cultural Icons of the Philippines. It’s about popular images or icons that the Philippines or the Filipino, is associated with. For example, such images as the Banaue rice terraces, the sampaguita, the jeepney, sarimanok, tinikling, vinta, green and ripe mango, the barong tagalog, lechon, carabao, nipa hut, balut, sinigang, parol, San Miguel Beer, Baguio, patis, bagoong, the Manila Bay sunset, and halo-halo.

Chit is good at research. She works hard. She always has ideas about the next book, even I guess when she is sleeping. She writes: "What’s revealing and quite interesting is the fact that with the disclosure of the meaning/origins/history behind these cultural icons, the indigenous, the authentic, the plebian Filipino emerges. Like his land of birth, the Filipino on the street is manifold in his personhood and this captures his core, his essence. Around him exciting layers of significances, whether deliberate or not, embrace him, making his crown or identity sterling and unique, amazing and fluid. He is a Filipino, contemporary and identifiable, but also rooted in his very own traditions and mores that the eternal for him is now, and his past, a future, or vice versa."

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The icons are divided into five categories: material object or objects from nature, food and beverage/drinks; tourist destinations, and cultural practices or traditions, and personalities. The last section features prominent individual Filipinos who offer their own choices for the cultural icons they believe best represent the average, typical Filipino.

Under material objects, one finds the torogan, the ancestral home of the highest titleholder in a Maranaw village which symbolized power, prestige and wealth, the Muslim mosque (though the mosques is not really associated with the Philippines, in as much as it is found in Arab countries or where Muslims are found), the brass bands, the nipa hut, the Philippine eagle, the bakya, and oh, yes, the Balikbayan box (which is of recent vintage). Malacañang is associated with the Philippines, as is the Manila Hotel. The bayong, too, the sungka, the kapeng barako.

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The adobo is Filipino. I’m reminded of the time I was a student in Chicago. I was looking for Filipinos to write about, and my guide was, "Follow our nose". Because in a big apartment building, the smell of adobo being cooked permeates the corridors, down to the front door.

Filipinos are notorious for their balut, liked for their kinilaw/kilawin/kilawen. The drinkers will thrill to the taste of tuba (coconut wine), the lambanog (hard liquor). The patis is a table icon, so are the bagoong and halo-halo and lechon.

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Among Chit’s tourist-attraction icons are Boracay, the chocolate hills of Bohol, Cebu (for its Santo Niño and guitars). Vigan is a beautiful place all Filipinos should visit. Mayon Volcano is an icon, of course.

Very interesting is Chit’s list of cultural rituals and traditions, topped by fiestas, mano po (kissing the hand of elders), harana (a vanishing serenade), the pamanhikan, cockfighting, Bayanihan, pabasa, Flores de Mayo – and now malling (a popular pastime of Filipinos, especially the younger ones who like to go see, not necessarily buy at, the shopping malls).

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Chit lists her heroes with Jose P. Rizal as tops, Pancho Villa (or Francisco Guilledo), a tiny, gritty Ilongo who stripped Jimmy Wilde of the world flyweight boxing championship at the Polo Grounds in New York, Ninoy Aquino, Honorata "Atang" de la Rama, Lucrecia "King" Kasilag, Dolphy, Fernando Poe Jr., Nora Aunor and bowler Paeng Nepomuceno, Lea Salonga and Efren "Bata" Reyes and Sharon Cuneta.

Chit has asked people about who their perceived Filipino irons are: Jaime L. Cardinal Sin’s is the cross. Tourism Secretary Richard "Dick" Gordon is the Philippine eagle. The connoisseur Glenda Rosales Barretto lists adobo, lechon, lumpia, paksiw and pancit. Topnotch educator Genevieve Ledesma-Tan likes bangus, and a cultural tradition that is associated with the Philippines, she says, is visiting the dead on November 1st.

I could go on and on and rob you of the desire to get a copy of Chit’s book. It’s available at the bookstores, or you may call Tower Book House, tel. (632) 815-4938 or (632) 815-6952. I haven’t forgotten, but I tell you only now that the book’s fine photographs are by Ronald C. Roldan, and the book design by Bernard LH Fernando.

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An interesting mix of topics will be presented at today’s Bulong-Pulungan sa Philippine Plaza. Dr. Hermaneli M. Torrevillas, MD., FAMAC, of Australia will speak on the wonders of Far-Infrared Technology, Magnetic Field Therapy and Pi Mag ("Living Water"). Dr. Michael Alexius A. Sarte, MD., will speak on snoring and sleeping disorders . Eminent specialists will be talking about the latest developments in the International Rice Research Institute. These are Duncan Macintosh, Dr. Edwin L. Javier, Dr. Nollie Vera Cruz, Alvaro Pamplona, Dr. Glenn Gregorio, Dr. Thelma Paris, and Rody Toledo.

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E-mail: [email protected]