Stories are extraordinary. A writer would spend a lifetime crafting the perfect one, and an anthropologist would spend a lifetime unravelling them. Stories are potent. They can move people to weep and to fight and to believe things they might not have thought possible.
From now, until the end of the year, I shall write in English about articles originally written in Filipino, share thoughts regarding their respective contexts, and discuss related themes . Part translation, part summary, part review, I hope these previews pique the curiosity of the readers about the essays and their ongoing conversations with other texts that challenge national narratives and preconceived notions on Philippine literature, art and culture.
At the outskirts of Davao going down South of Mindanao, lie my humble beginnings my hometown in Balut Island of the Municipality of Sarangani. You could reach this faraway land through General Santos City, the Tuna capital of Mindanao, if not the whole of the Philippines.
Seeking to Settle: Creating a Mindanao Settler Identity Because the Settler is always dismissed as Bhabhan Hybrids of State or Regional identity, she must begin by defining herself against these…
The owner of the house along Bara-as Street in Iligan City might have envisioned her or his house as a beautiful structure built from the sweat from long hours of work in a foreign land and several years of being away from family and homeland. She or he could have thought of that house as the ultimate reward for the sacrifices made abroad.