TRIBUTE EXHIBIT FOR BISAYA ARTISTS

IN celebration of the Arts Month in February, the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc. (RAFI) launched an exhibit titled “Visayan Verve: A Tribute to Bisaya Artists,” which will run from Feb. 17 to March 15 at the Casa Gorordo Museum.

The exhibit is in partnership with the University of San Carlos-Cebuano Studies Center, Halad Museum, Alternative Contemporary Arts Studio and assisted by Cebuano artist Marvin Natural and the family of the late Martino Abellana.


It pays homage to Bisaya artists in the various fields of art, such as Martino Abellana for painting, Napoleon Abueva for sculpture, Fernando Buyser for poetry, Pio Cabajar for cinema, Estelita Diola for dance and Vicente Rubi for music.

“These artists represent innovation and faithfulness to tradition in the art forms they engaged in. Some of them were selected by virtue of their statuses as masters of their crafts while the rest, for their substantial achievements that remain largely unrecognized. All of them have contributed not only to Bisaya but Filipino arts in general,” Dr. Jocelyn Gerra, executive director of the Culture and Heritage unit of RAFI, said.

The aim of the exhibit is to present the accomplishments of Bisaya artists.

Florencio Moreño, curator of Casa Gorordo Museum, pointed out that it is one way of giving the public an opportunity to reexamine and appreciate the roots of their creativity, thereby, widening their perspectives on the potentials of contemporary Visayan-Filipino arts.

Visayan Verve signals the start of a series of exhibits on Bisaya arts that will be held every February in the next seven years. Each of the following exhibits will focus on one of the seven fields of art—architecture, cinema, dance, music, painting, literature and sculpture.

For more information, contact Florencio Moreño II at 418-7234 local 703 or visit websites www.rafi.org.ph or www.facebook.com/rafi.org.ph.

SOURCE:

Tribute Exhibit For Bisaya Artists. INQUIRER.net. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/149075/tribute-exhibit-for-bisaya-artists

THE LITERATURE OF EASTERN VISAYAS

Victor N. Sugbo

Eastern Visayas is composed of the islands of Samar, Leyte, Biliran and the smaller outlying islands. In terms of political divisions, it is made up of six provinces, namely Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Samar, Biliran, Leyte, and Southern Leyte. As of Census 1995, the region's total population stood at 3.5 million with Leyte having the highest population concentration at 1.5 million, and Biliran, the smallest population at 132 thousand.

The region is humid, and has no definite wet and dry seasons. It is generally agricultural and its main crops include coconut, banana, potatoes, cassava, abaca, and sugarcane. Its other source of income is fishing. Frequent occurrences of typhoons have perennially disturbed the economy of the region but people seem to have adapted well enough.

The City of Tacloban is the major center of trade and commerce and education in the region.

THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC SITUATION

The mountain ranges that traverse the islands of Samar, Leyte, and Biliran have influenced the development of dialectal varieties of Waray and distinct speech communities. In Leyte, the Central Cordillera that bisects the island has provided the condition for the establishment of two distinct speech communities, the Waray and the Cebuano, and the growth of dialectal varieties of Waray. In Biliran, a similar speech situation exists. The hilly and mountainous terrain of Samar has contributed to the rise of Waray dialects, and likewise has nurtured a small number of Cebuano speech communities.

The 1995 Census Report reveals that there were more than 2 M speakers of Waray and 1.2 M speakers of Cebuano in the region. About 80 per cent of the total population in the region were registered functionally literate - that is, being able to read, write, and count.

THE LITERATURE

The literature of Eastern Visayas refers to the literature written in Waray and Cebuano by writers from the region. Of the two, it is Waray literature that has been collected, recorded, and documented by scholars and researchers, a movement largely spurred by the interest of German priests, managing a university in Tacloban City, who saw the necessity of gathering and preserving the literary heritage of the region. It is in this light that whenever East Visayan literature is written about, it is usually Waray literature that is being described.

Earliest accounts of East Visayan literature date back to 1668 when a Spanish Jesuit by the name of Fr. Ignatio Francisco Alzina documented the poetic forms such as the candu, haya, ambahan, canogon, bical, balac, siday and awit. He also described the susumaton and posong, early forms of narratives. Theater tradition was very much in place - in the performance of poetry, rituals, and mimetic dances. Dances mimed the joys and activities of the ancient Waray.

With three centuries of Spanish colonization and another period of American occupation, old rituals, poetic forms and narratives had undergone reinvention. A case in point is the balac, a poetic love joust between a man and a woman. According to Cabardo, the balac retained its form even as it took new names and borrowed aspects of the languages of the colonizers. During the Spanish period, the balac was called the amoral; during the American occupation, it was renamed ismayling, a term derived from the English word "smile." According to a literary investigator, in certain areas of Samar, the same balac form or ismayling has been reinvented to express anti-imperialist sentiments where the woman represents the motherland and the man, the patriot who professes his love of country.

Modern East Visayan literature, particularly Waray, revolves around poetry and drama produced between the 1900s and the present. The flourishing economy of the region and the appearance of local publications starting in 1901 with the publication of An Kaadlawon, the first Waray newspaper, saw the flourishing of poetry in Waray.

In Samar, Eco de Samar y Leyte, a long running magazine in the 1900s, published articles and literary works in Spanish, Waray and English. A noteworthy feature of this publication was its poetry section, An Tadtaran, which presented a series of satirical poems that attacked the changing values of the people at the time. Eco likewise published occasional and religious poems.

In Leyte, An Lantawan, which has extant copies from 1931 to 1932, printed religious and occasional poetry. It also published satirical poems of Bagong Katipunero, Luro, Datoy Anilod, Marpahol, Vatchoo (Vicente I. de Veyra), Julio Carter (Iluminado Lucente), Ben Tamaka (Eduardo Makabenta), and Kalantas (Casiano Trinchera). Under these pseudonyms, poets criticized corrupt government officials, made fun of people’s vices, and attacked local women for adopting modern ways of social behavior..

With the organization of the Sanghiran San Binisaya in 1909, writers as well as the illustrados in the community banded together for the purpose of cultivating the Waray language. Under the leadership of Norberto Romualdez Sr, Sanghiran's members had literary luminaries that included Iluminado Lucente, Casiano Trinchera, Eduardo Makabenta, Francisco Alvarado, Juan Ricacho, Francisco Infectana, Espiridion Brillo, and statesman Jaime C. de Veyra. For a time, Sanghiran was responsible for the impetus it gave to new writing in the language.

The period 1900 to the late fifties witnessed the finest Waray poems of Casiano Trinchera, Iluminado Lucente, Eduardo Makabenta, and the emergence of the poetry of Agustin El O'Mora, Pablo Rebadulla, Tomas Gomez Jr., Filomeno Quimbo Singzon, Pedro Separa, Francisco Aurillo, and Eleuterio Ramoo. Trinchera, Lucente, and Makabenta were particularly at their best when they wrote satirical poetry.

The growing acceptance of English as official language in the country strengthened these writers’ loyalty to the ethnic mother tongue as their medium for their art. The publication of Leyte News and The Leader in the twenties, the first local papers in English, brought about the increasing legitimization of English as a medium of communication, the gradual displacement of Waray and eventual disappearance of its poetry from the pages of local publications.

Where local newspapers no longer served as vehicles for written poetry in Waray, the role was assumed by MBC's DYVL and local radio stations in the seventies. Up to the present time, poetry sent to these stations are written mostly by local folk - farmers, housewives, lawyers, government clerks, teachers, and students. A common quality of their poetry is that they tend to be occasional, didactic, and traditional in form. The schooled writers in the region, unlike the local folk poets, do not write in Waray nor Filipino. Most of them write in English although lately there has been an romantic return to their ethnic mother tongue as the medium for their poetry.

Waray drama was once a fixture of town fiestas. Its writing and presentation were usually commissioned by the hermano mayor as part of festivities to entertain the constituents of the town. Town fiestas in a way sustained the work of the playwright. In recent years, this is no longer the case. If ever a play gets staged nowadays, it is essentially drawn from the pool of plays written earlier in the tradition of the hadi-hadi and the zarzuela.

According to Filipinas, an authority on the Waray zarzuela, the earliest zarzuela production involved that of Norberto Romualdez' An Pagtabang ni San Miguel, which was staged in Tolosa, Leyte in 1899. The zarzuela as a dramatic form enthralled audiences for its musicality and dramatic action. Among the noteworthy playwrights of this genre were Norberto Romualdez Sr., Alfonso Cinco, Iluminado Lucente, Emilio Andrada Jr., Francisco Alvarado, Jesus Ignacio, Margarita Nonato, Pedro Acerden, Pedro Separa, Educardo Hilbano, Moning Fuentes, Virgilio Fuentes, and Agustin El O'Mora.

Of these playwrights, Iluminado Lucente stands out in terms of literary accomplishment. He wrote about thirty plays and most of these dealt with domestic conflicts and the changing mores of Waray society during his time. Although a number of his longer works tend to be melodramatic, it was his satirical plays that are memorable for their irony and humor, the tightness of their plot structure, and the specious use of language.

The hadi-hadi antedates the zarzuela in development. It used to be written and staged in many communities of Leyte as part of town fiesta festivities held in honor of a Patron Saint. It generally dealt with Christian and Muslim kingdoms at war. Today one hardly hears about hadi-hadi being staged even in the Cebuano speech communities of the region.

Fiction in Waray has not flourished because it lacks a venue for publication.

Cebuano literature produced in Eastern Visayas is still undocumented terrain. To the writers from the Cebuano speech communities in the region, Cebu City is their center. It is thus not surprising if much of the literature from these communities, particularly fiction and poetry, have found their way into Cebu City’s publications. Known Cebuano writers of Leyte like Eugenio Viacrusis, Angel Enemecio, Enemecio Fornarina, and Fernando Buyser first published their fiction and poetry in Cebu publications, and their works have afterward formed part of the literary anthologies in the Cebuano language.

About the Author:

Victor N. Sugbo has edited two books: "Tinipigan: An Anthology of Waray Literature" (1995) and "Illumined Terrain: The Sites and Dimensions of Philippine Literature" (1998), both published by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. He also writes poetry in English and Waray, a number of which have been published in anthologies, literary journals, and national magazines. He teaches courses in English and Communication at the UP Visayas and Tacloban College.



SOURCE:

Sugbo, Victor N. (n.d.). The Literature of Eastern Visayas. National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?igm=1&i=142

CEBUANO LITERATURE IN THE PHILIPPINES

Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo

Cebuano literature refers to the body of oral and written literature of speakers of Cebuano, the mother tongue of a quarter of the country’s population who live in Cebu, Bohol, Siquijor, Negros Oriental, and parts of Leyte and Mindanao. As such, it is an important part of Philippine literature.

Cebuanos have a rich oral tradition, including legends associated with specific locales, like the Maria Cacao legends of southern Cebu and those of Lapulapu and his father Datu Manggal of Mactan; and folktales like the fable "Haring Gangis ug Haring Leon", which warn of abusive behavior by the dominant group. Many of the tales carry lessons, but just as many suggest the value of humor, keeping of one’s wit and resourcefulness, as in the Juan Pusong trickster tales.

Among the early poetic forms are garay (verses), harito (shaman’s prayers), tigmo (riddles) and panultihon (proverbs), as described by the Jesuit Francisco Alzina (1668). The generic form for poetry is balak, characterized by the presence of enigma or metaphor called balaybay or sambingay. Most of the poems are sung, like the occupational songs and lullabies. The balitaw is an extemporaneous poetic debate between man and woman that is sung and danced simultaneously. Spontaneous versifying is highly valued, also illustrated in a dramatic form called kulilising hari, a variant of the Tagalog duplo, that is usually performed at funeral wakes.

The written literature became significant only in the late 19th century. Tomas de San Geronimo’s "Soneto sa Pagdayeg can Santa Maria Gihapon Virgen" (1751) is the first of many piety-laden compositions that show a loss of the enigmatic symbol and metaphor of pre-colonial verse. The longest poetic form is the pasyon, a verse rendering of the life and suffering of Jesus Christ that is read during Lent. Secular narratives or corridos were composed in Cebuano, but only the prose versions survive, like "Doce Pares sa Pransiya" and "Sa Pagmando ni Hari Arturo." Another important influence of the Spanish period is found in the plays called linambay (known also as moromoro because of its anti-Muslim theme), a regular fare at town fiestas that involved participation of the whole rural community and attracted audiences from the neighboring towns.

The prose narratives developed into the sugilanon or short story, the first example of which is "Maming" (1901) by Vicente Sotto, the "father of Cebuano letters"; and later into the sugilambong or novel. The press contributed much to the development of literature by regularly publishing works of local writers, especially in the three decades before World War II. The Cebuano writer’s craft was honed in early translations of European fiction and imitations of American models, as shown in the works of Juan Villagonzalo, Uldarico Alviola, Angel Enemecio, Flaviano Boquecosa, Sulpicio Osorio, Nicolas Rafols and others. Pre-Commonwealth fiction was mostly nationalistic and didactic in spirit, to be replaced later by more escapist fare like stories of love, detection and adventure. A similar shift was seen in drama, but the more popular plays were a combination of social criticism and entertainment, as in the works of Buenaventura Rodriguez, Piux Kabahar and Florentino Borromeo.

With the proliferation of publications, e.g., Bag-ong Kusog, Nasud, and Babaye, more and more poets emerged, producing around 13,000 poems before the war. Vicente Ranudo’s "Hikalimtan?" (1906) and "Pag-usara" (1922) became models of metrical precision and balanced structure as found in traditional Cebuano poetry. Its discourse of courtly love and its elevated tone would be replicated in the poems of Amando Osorio, Escolastic Morre, Tomas Bagyo, Pantaleon Kardenas, Vicente Padriga and others.

Popular were light folksy pieces of political satires like Andres Bello’s fable "Piniliay sa mga Isda" (1916) and of social criticism like Piux Kabahar’s "Kinabuhing Sugboanon" (1929). Of another type are the mostly occasional and non-sentimental works of poets Emiliano Batiancila, Canuto Lim, Felipe de Leon, Vicente Kyamko, Marciano Camacho, Saturnino Abecia, Marciano Peñaranda; and Gardeopatra Quijano, a CCP Gawad recipient for Regional Literature (1993). At the center of this group was the prolific Aglipayan bishop Fernando Buyser, who invented the sonnet form called sonanoy. Another invention was the siniloy of Diosdado Alesna, which is made up of one or two amphibrach lines.

Of the many publications before the war, only Bisaya has survived as literary outlet of Cebuano. Because of the rise in prestige of English and later Tagalog, postwar Cebuano literature was relegated to third class although Cebuano was still the language of home and street. A new vigor in poetry was contributed by bilingual writers Leonardo Dioko, Junne Cañizares, Ric Patalinjug and others, whose exposure to Western modes and styles helped strengthen the poetic utterance with irregular rhythms, precise and concrete diction and practical attitudes.

It is in drama that Cebuano literature is probably weakest, although a few writers like Claude Al Evangelio and Allan Jayme Rabaya have sustained their writing. Beset by considerations peculiar to writing for theater, like rarity in publication and answering to the demands of the stage, Cebuano playwrights have slowly turned to radio- and TV-scriptwriting. Most of the plays are written and produced on campus, for a limited audience. There is a renewed interest in the play, however, with the support of the Arts Council of Cebu, that has launched a program to encourage Cebuano playwrights with a contest and the production of the prize-winners.

Writers’ groups certainly contributed to literary growth, notably the Lubas sa Dagang Bisaya (LUDABI) and Bathalan-ong Halad sa Dagang (BATHALAD), which have chapters in Mindanao. The latter is an offshoot of the former, which was at one time headed by Marcel Navarra, the "father of the modern short story in Cebuano." By sponsoring regular workshops and contests and publishing their outputs and entries, these groups have encouraged younger writers to start writing, and older writers to shift in style and attitude. Some of the most-anthologized members of BATHALAD are Gremer Chan Reyes, Ernesto Lariosa, Temistokles Adlawan, Pantaleon Auman and Rene Amper. Amper, who used to write in English, is joined by Simeon Dumdum Jr., Vicente Bandillo, Melito Baclay, Ester Tapia and others who now write also in Cebuano. Like this second set of bilingual writers, many other Cebuanos started out in the campus papers, like the poets Robert Pableo Lim, Don Pagusara, Leo Bob Flores and Rex Fernandez in the 70s and 80s; as well as the recent crop consisting of Mike Obenieta, Adonis Durado and Januar Yap who are members of the Tarantula group. A noteworthy addition is the Women in Literary Arts (WILA), founded in 1991 by seven women writers. Perhaps the only organized women writers’ group in the Philippines today, WILA has twenty-five writers, half of whom write mainly in Cebuano, like Ester Tapia, Ruby Enario, Leticia Suarez, Linda Alburo, Jocelyn Pinzon, Cora Almerino, Delora Sales and Marvi Gil.

Most if not all of these writers have attended the annual Cornelio Faigao Memorial Writers Workshop conducted since 1984 by the Cebuano Studies Center of the University of San Carlos. These workshops, which the Cebuano writers may attend as fellows a few times and as observers any number of times, provide a venue for the old and young, male and female to share works and discuss problems. For lack of regular outlet, they hold formal and informal poetry readings with varied audiences. BATHALAD, WILA and Tarantula conduct workshops both for their own members and for much younger writers in high schools and colleges.
















About the Author:

Erlinda Kintanar-Alburo is the director of the Cebuano Studies Center of the University of San Carlos, where she also teaches language and literature courses. She chairs the Literature Section, Humanities Division, of the National Research Council of the Philippines, and is regional coordinator for Central Visayas of the Literary Arts Committee, NCCA. A poet and fiction writer in Cebuano, she is immediate past president of the Women in Literary Arts.

SOURCE:

Alburo, Erlinda Kintanar (n.d.). Cebuano Literature in the Philippines. National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Retrieved from http://www.ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/articles-on-c-n-a/article.php?igm=1&i=134

MGA BUGTONG

Ang bugtong ay may pandaigdigang kasaysayan. Kabilang ito sa mga pasalitang literatura sa Egypt at Greece. Layunin ng bugtong na makapagpasaya sa mga pagtitipong panlipunan at makapagpatalas sa mga isipan ng mga mamamayan.

Isa sa pinakamatandang bugtong ng matandang kapanahunan ang Bugtong ng Espinghe o "Riddle of the Sphinx" na binigyang pagpapahalaga ni Sophocles sa mitolohiyang "Oedipus Rex." Sa nasabing mito ay may isang Espinghe. Ito ay isang dambuhalang hayop na may ulong tao. Nakaupo ito sa isang mataas na batuhan na natitingala ng mga taong nangagdadaan sa siyudad ng Thebes. Sa tuwing may nagdadaan ay malakas nitong pinahuhulaan ang bugtong na, "Aling hayop ang may apat na paa kinaumagahan; dalawa kinahapunan at tatlo kinagabihan?"

Ang sinumang mapadaan na walang maibigay na kasagutan ay binababa ng Espinghe upang bigyan ng kalagim-lagim na kamatayan.

Dumating sa pagkakataong hinamon ng isang matapang na estranghero ang tusong Espinghe. Ang humamon ay walang iba kundi si Oedipus na ipinatapong anak ni Haring Thebes. Pinag-isipang mabuti ng binata ang bugtong. Ang sagot niya ay tao na ipinanganak na may dalawang paa at dalawang kamay kinaumagahan; tumitindig sa dalawang paa sa katanghalian at may dalawang paa at tungkod na dala sa katandaan kinagabihan.

Sa pagkapahiya ng Espinghe ay tumalon ito sa kinaroroonang batuhan hanggang sa magkadurug-durog ang katawan. Magmula noon, nagsimula nang masagot ni Oedipus ang marami pang palabugtungan sa kaniyang buhay.

Kung pakasusuriin ang kasaysayan, maisasama sa mga tauhan sa bibliyang nagbigay pahalaga sa bugtong sina Samson, Haring Solomon at Reyna Sheba.

Kung may labanan noong pampalakasan, may tunggalian din namang pangkaisipan. Kasama nga rito ang palabugtungan.

Malungkot mang isipin, isang nakagawian na sa buhay Griyego at Romano ang pagpili sa mga kaangkupan ng tao na laging ibinabatay sa lakas at talino. Ang sinumang malakas at matalino ang inilalaban sa mga digmaan at pinararangalan sa lipunan. Kung talino na ang pinag-uusapan, kailangang masagot ng nakikipag-tunggalian ang sining ng palabugtungan.

Sa pamumuhay Pilipino, ang palabugtungan ay malaganap na. Layunin ng bugtong na magbigay ito ng katuwaan sa kabataan at katandaan. May mga ambag na bugtong na ang walong malakihang wikang panlalawigan na kinabibilangan ng Tagalog, Pampango, Bikolano, Ilokano, Pangasinense, Cebuano, Hiligaynon at Waray. May mga bugtong na rin ang iba't ibang wikang pangminoriya tulad ng Kankanay, Gaddang, Bilaan, T'boli, Tausug at Ibanag.

Sa palimbagan ng bugtong Filipino masasabing nauna rito si Frederick Starr, isang Amerikano, nang ilabas niya ang "A Little Book of Filipino Riddles" noong 1909 at si Fernando Buyser, isang Cebuano, nang ilathala niya ang "Usa Ka Gabiing Pilipinhon" noong 1912.

Kabilang sa mga mananaliksik na nagsipag-aral sa mga bugtong Filipino sa iba't ibang wika at wikain sina: Adelina Estacio sa Tagalog; Alejandrino Perez sa Pampango; Nita P. Buenaobra sa Bicolano; Jose Resureccion Calip sa Ilocano; Pelagia M. Valdez sa Pangasinense; Fe Haba Dignadice sa Hiligaynon at Ma. Luz Vilches sa Waray.

Karaniwan sa mga bugtong ang pagpapahula sa mga bagay-bagay na nakikita natin sa ating bahay, komunidad at kalikasan. Bagama't bihira ang tumatalakay sa mga basal na bagay tulad ng pag-ibig, katuwaan, kalungkutan, karangalan na hindi mahahawakan o makikita ng paningin, minarapat namin na magsama ng ilan upang mapataas din naman ang pandamang pangkalooban ng mga mamamayan.

Inaasahang hindi lamang kalidad ng bugtong ang nakalakip sa koleksiyong ito. Sa dami ng mga bugtong na isinama, naniniwala kaming nakauungos rin ito sa kantidad na pinilit naming pangatawanan.

Alay namin ito sa lahat ng estudyante, guro at magulang sa ating lipunan.

SOURCE:

Mga Bugtong. Pinoy Edition. Retrieved from http://www.pinoyedition.com/mga-bugtong/

FERNANDO BUYSER

Fernando Buyser, also known as Floripinas, was born in Kalunangan, Leyte on the 30th of May, 1879. He died in Mainit, Surigao on the 16th of November, 1946. He was known as a poet, fictionist and playwright. He worked as an elementary school teacher in San Isidro, Leyte, then as an interisland ship officer. In 1905 he was ordained as an Aglipayan priest and consequently served as parish priest in Cebu City. He went on to become bishop of Cebu, Bohol, Leyte, Samar, Masbate, and Surigao, and was president of the Venerable Supreme Council of Bishops of the Philippine Independent Church.

Buyser published his first poem in Ang Suga in 1906. He was primarily a poet and produced six books of poetry, among them, Barasahon sa mgaBalak (Readings of Poems), 1936; Kasingkasing sa Magbabalak (Heart of a Poet), 1938; Kasakit ug Kalipay (Woes and Bliss), 1940; and Balangaw (Rainbow), 1941. His poetry is versatile, moral, and often mystical.

All in all, he authored more than 20 books and booklets in different genres. These include plays Si Christo Gikawat (Christ has been stolen) and Lucia, 1912 and Baile Oficial (Official Dance), 1913; the novellete Panimolus sa Isa Ka Aswang (Exploits of a Vampire), 1923; the short stories Mga Damgo sa Usa Ka Pari (Dreams of a Priest), 1913 and Dungog sa Kamatayon (Honor of Death), 1926.


Buyser was one of the pioneers in compiling and studying Visayan folklore, publishing Awit sa Kabukiran (Song of the Fields), 1912, Mga Sugilanong Karaan (Old Stories), 1913 and other folkloric texts. He owned a publishing house, wrote Aglipayan tracts and edited the Aglipayan periodicals Yutang Natawhan, founded in 1904, and Ang Salampati, 1920-1924.

SOURCE:

Cebuano Studies Center. Fernando Buyser. Retrieved from http://cebuanostudiescenter.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=5&Itemid=1

BUYSER: Man of God, Man of Letters

Although he wrote fiction, drama and religious texts, it was poetry that he was best. In his lifetime, he was able to publish six volumes of poetry, one of which he entitled Kasakit ug Kalipay to commemorate a nephew’s death.

He was the largest single contributor in the history of the pre-war Visayan-language weekly, Bag-ong Kusog, having contributed more than 70 poems in just six years. His poems also dominated the literary pages of Bisaya magazine in its early years.

Unlike most poets of his day, Buyser did not limit his subjects to love and romance. Buyser along with Gardeopatra Quijano and other writers associated with him wrote on topics as diverse as dreams and objects of everyday life. (In his collection, Ang Kasingkasing sa Magbabalak one of the poems was entitled Handumanan sa Akong Iring.) More importantly, Buyser also expressed in poetry a nation’s desire for freedom and the working class’s historic mission in leading the struggle for that freedom.

Wanting to make Rizal’s Mi Ultimo Adios available to Visayans, Buyser translated the poem into Cebuano.

Not content with given poetic forms, Bishop Buyser experimented with the sonnet, creating as a result, a form something like the sonnet yet something different. He calls it Siniloy, a Cebuano version of a sonnet. Many Cebuano writers who followed him, making it Buyser’s own contribution to the development of Cebuano poetry, used the form.

Fernando Buyser was born on May 30,1879 in Kanlungan, Merida, Leyte. He served as secretary of several patriotic Filipino military leaders in both the 1896 Revolution and the subsequent Philippine-American War. After the war, he became a ship official of an inter-island vessel called San Rafael II.

Upon the prodding of Msgr. Jose Evangelista, Aglipayan bishop in Manila, Buyser joined the seminary of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente and was ordained a priest in 1905. He was assigned in Leyte, Samar, and Surigao before being transferred to the Cebu diocese wherein he later became bishop in 1930.

He was one of Gregorio Aglipay’s foremost ally in the religious reform movement and even later became president of the Venerable Consejo Supremo de Obispos de la Iglesia Filipina Independiente. He also edited Aglipayan publications like Yutang Natawhan and Salampati.

Buyser died at the age of 68 in 1946.

Sun*Star Weekend

SOURCE:

Sun Star (n.d.). BUYSER: Man of God, Man of Letters. Retrieved from http://cebuanohalloffame.com/HOF-Inspiration/Fernando%20Buyser.htm