Memory keepers

This week was truly an apt ending to the National Heritage month of May.  I had two encounters with memory keepers, a member of the family who  helped promote puso making which has become a cultural icon  of Cebu, and a close encounter with a historic building for the Gabii sa Kabilin ( Night of Heritage).

I got interested in the cultural context of the puso when I chanced upon the monograph on puso prepared by the Cebu Normal University museum two decades ago. Then I met the researcher, Dr. Reynaldo Inocian,  curator of the CNU Museum, whom I invited twice to my Philippine History Classes in 2004 to 2005 to lecture and do a demonstration on puso weaving.  It was not the six original designs of puso (there are now eight) that I was curious about but the use of puso as a ritual object. I had the chance to interview the mother of Dr. Inocian about the puso as part of a ritual. Paterna Bontuyan-Inocian is 77 years old. Her family is deeply rooted in Taptap, one of the mountain barangays in Cebu City where the ritual is still going strong. Taptap is also known for its thick fog even at daytime that the name Taptap has come to mean “pangtaptap sa panganod” (to cover the clouds). According to Mrs. Inocian, the ritual is called buhat silong, an activity done in the tugkaran (the yard) led by the manangpit or the invoker who is always a male and a direct descendant of a line of manangpits.  It is a community activity  performed every day except on Tuesdays and Fridays. An array of food is displayed in the tugkaran: puso, budbod, bibingka, pan, sikwate, bino (mallorca), tuba, tilad, tabako, baboy linat-an and dinuguan, which are eaten only after display in the tugkaran. Mrs. Inocian recalls how they used to weave puso designs like kinasing (the popular heart shape), binaki, mimosa and manan-aw. But the pamuso is a means of livelihood, too. During weekdays they work on their farm of cut flowers, sweet corn, vegetables, poultry raising, and keseyo making (white cheese). Mrs. Inocian had 16 cows, which helped her with the education of her two children. She trained her children to do farming and selling and of course puso making. On Friday evenings, she and her family would pack their week’s harvest and sell the produce  in Carbon market early the next day. At her age, Mrs. Inocian has no illness, still continues farming and selling but does not weave puso anymore. Those who have discontinued the ritual have not lived a peaceful life. Observance of the buhat silong does not clash with the Catholic practice which the Inocians also embrace. The continuity of puso making as a part of a ritual and as a means of livelihood with the example of the Inocian family earned them a slot among the families of distinction of Cebu City.

For its 6th year, Gabii sa Kabilin involved more heritage sites, buildings, parks, museums both private and public. In the past, I always attended the Gabii sa Kabilin but stayed  in the Parian area. For the first time last Friday, I held the fort at the University of the Philippines Cebu since the point person we are training was not feeling well. The whole evening, I was posted in front of the building welcoming visitors, overseeing the ushers, checking on the meals of those on duty. I had a chance to reflect on the building whose strong and beautiful structure remains  intact since it was occupied in 1929. The structure today is  enhanced by the play of lights. I recalled how UP  had to be housed first in the vacated Barracks in Ermita in 1918, then in a building in Colon and Jakosalem Streets where Gaisano Main now stands in 1922, and then in  Fort San Pedro from 1924 to 1928 before settling majestically in the Lahug grounds. I remember how it enjoyed good facilities before World War II and was occupied by the Japanese Imperial troops. Condemned prisoners were detained here. Reconstruction work was fast but the only structure left after the war was the administration building which was leased to the Jesuits from 1950 to 1960 when it was ordered closed due to political reasons in 1950. It was reopened as UP Cebu in 1963. From the 1960s to the early 1980s the building’s second floor was occupied by the high school (with 12 sections named after UP presidents), the undergraduate and the graduate students while the library, the high school faculty room and all other offices including the dean’s office occupied the ground floor. Imagine how the corridor was alive every after each period where everyone moved to another classroom for the next subject. We had no audiovisual room or  conference hall but a multipurpose hall (built in 1975) which housed all our co-curricular activities. It was demolished in 1993 together with 10 Bagong Lipunan classrooms to give way to the Sugbo Cultural Center, which lay dormant for almost 20 years. I marvel at its resilience despite the minimal maintenance and calamities.  The building reminds everyone of its past but it poses a challenge of coping with the global phenomenon. For this is what a heritage structure is all about. It is a memory keeper in itself and it is the people connected to the structure  who  define its future.