TRULY VISAYAN

By Fiona Patricia S. Escandor

Monday, March 5, 2012

IT IS a modest exhibit set in one of the rooms of the Casa Gorordo Museum. Its simplicity however is easily surpassed by the stories and legacies of the artists involved. Titled ”Visayan Verve”, it commemorates those who have enriched Visayan art in various fields: 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.

Abellana bears the titles “Amorsolo of the South” as well as “Dean of Cebuano Painters,” for having mentored some of today’s notable artists such as Romulo Galicano and Kimsoy Yap. Abueva is recognized as National Artist, whose works are characterized by the inclusion of Philippine hardwood like Molave, Narra and Kamagong. Diola, fondly called “Nang Titang,” is known for her contribution to the Sinulog choreography. In 2010, she was hailed by the Sinulog Foundation as “Pillar of the Sinulog Festival”.

Leyte-born Fernando Buyser is not as well-known as literary figure Vicente Sotto or poet Vicente Ranudo, but his literary creations are likewise exemplary. His works are in the Sugbuanong Binisaya language. Buyser was a prolific writer in the golden age of Cebuano literature, which was the earlier half of the 20th century. He had published more than 20 works; and had even invented his own poetic format, the sonanoy.

Vicente Rubi has a tale similar to Mozart’s as he had died a pauper despite having several popular compositions. Rubi’s most well-known work is the Yuletide carol “Kasadya Ning Taknaa,” which he wrote for a 1933 Christmas musical. Rubi died in 1980, impoverished from fighting for royalties for his compositions.

Pio Cabajar completes the list for his involvement in the birth of Cebuano cinema. He earned the title “Father of Cebuano Cinema” after having written and directed the first Cebuano talking movie, Bertoldo-Balodoy, in 1938. He was among the directors who played a part in the golden age of Cebuano cinema in the 1950s.

Visayan Verve will run until March 15. According to the museum’s curator, Florencio Moreño, the exhibit is the first of a series that will pay tribute to Visayan art. The next Visayan Verve will give emphasis to Visayan cinema and will be held in February next year.

More than an act of appreciation, Visayan Verve is an avenue for the present generation to recognize the individuals who had kept the Visayan culture alive through their creativity.

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on March 06, 2012.

SOURCE:

Escandor, Fiona Patricia S. (2012, March 5). Truly Visayan. Sun.Star Cebu. Retrieved from http://www.sunstar.com.ph/cebu/lifestyle/2012/03/05/truly-visayan-209597

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