FEDERICO AND MARIANO by Mario L. Cuezon Federico and Mariano were born as neighbors and kins in the barangay now known as Taraka which in the olden days included the river and the wooded hills across and the areas up to the cliffs leading to the valley of tears. They were baptized together when they were just a few days old as was the custom of the time as protection against evil winds which seemed to abound in those times and claim babies lives in dozens or hundreds in the most unfortunate circumstances. Federico was named Federico Gimeno and the nicknames closest to his name was Pidong ang Ekong but since someone was already named Pidong, a drunkard who drinks tuba like water and becomes easily drunk with even a ball of tuba and sleep everywhere when already drunk, his parents thought of another nickname especially that there was already an Ekong who was fond of a small thefts like tuba up in coconut palms and was a cuckold with a wife that had been known to sit in several mens laps such that she had practically slept with almost all of the men in the village. Thinking of a better future for their child, Federico was given another nickname, Picoy, because his childish warbling resembled that of the green lorry locally called picoy which people usually keep as pets placed in the verandas of their nipa huts. This Picoy however evolved to Icoy for which he was known to his closest friends. Perhaps the evolution was made intentional by his parents who later realized that pikoy is one of the many euphemism for the male organ. Mariano, on the other hand, could have the nicknames Anyong, Anoy, Anog, Mayog, but his parents and grandparents and uncles, aunties and innumerable kins found people who already sport the same nicknames, some of whom had unsavory reputation in the village or town. Mariano was named for a kind relative who had showered the couple with gifts on their wedding and afterwards when they were beginning to settle on their own. A certain Anyong lives in another barangay and while he is known to be a kind person, he is dark as an Agta and is fond only of coming out at night or early evening because he climbs coconuts for tuba which he delivers to the market . A neighbor is known by the nickname Anoy and he is a good barber but when he gets drunk, he looks for trouble, calling for anyone to fight him and sometimes he even brandish a barong left by his father during the time of the Maranao raids, taken from a slain invader. When he is sober, he is kinder than an angel, with hardly a word spoken as he goes on with his farmwork or in domestic chores or in his tasks as a barber mostly on weekends in the shadows of their veranda. Anog is the name of Anoys child who died at one year old of high fever so the name is not suitable for Mariano. A certain Mayog lived in the barrio near the market, across the bridge and he was known to be very industrious, such that he had bought several parcels of land in so short a time but he is known to be a miser that he reportedly died of hunger because he refused to spend his savings on food or on good food because in his own warped reasoning, chicken and fish whether broiled, fried or salted makes up the same fullness of stomach. So the whole clan thought and thought of a nickname and each suggestion was met with opposition because of this and that reason until his year-old classmate Icoy called Yayo which later metamorphosed to Yano and later Ano or No. Icoy and Ano grew up in an ambience of extended relatives who had intermarried among themselves such that the whole barrio had become a barrio of relatives whose kinship even extends years back long before migration from the Visayas. They had to kiss the hands of everyone who visits them or whom they visit that at times in their private conversations, they complained that their foreheads had grown corns like their palms and feet because of holding the back of palms to it as sign of reverence for the elders. As children, they played alligator-alligator where they would climb up not so tall trees and the alligator stays in the ground or sometimes-even climbs up depending on their agreed rules. They also played lag-ong, a kind of hide-and-seek where a can of milk or sardines is the home, which had to be kicked before a players name is said while it is tagged at the same time. They also played catch me if you can and syato, which demand skill in the use of a long stick and a short stick placed on a hole and made to fly which opponents had to catch, if not hit the longer stick on the ground. They also played water-water (patintero) on moonlit nights or in late afternoons using water to mark out the lines in the dusty road. They played also in their backyards. But their biggest playground is the river. A chore like making the carabao wallow at noontime or bathing the horse in the morning, pasturing the animals by the river bank or helping with the women in their laundry, became mere play to the bubbly Icoy and Yano who would always bring along other friends. They would stage contests as to who could swim fastest, hold his breath underwater for the longest time, swim under the carabao to hold its balls, dive from the back of animals, drive while the animals swim in the deeper parts, find a tin can wit a stone as sinker in the deeper parts. They also played catch me if you can and stage kingdom raids where one group holds a certain place as their kingdom. Another group would attack and try to dislodge them from their kingdom by throwing or pushing them away. They would also catch small shrimps with bare hands and later with nets (sarap), pana and lines. They would climb the mangoes by the riverbanks to get green fruits which they eat with salt which they would bring with them or asked from houses near the river. Sundays meant serious hours for them as the two accompanied their parents with stones to bring to church to help finish it. As children, they would bring stones the size of their fists while their parents brought bigger stones placed in baskets or bayongs. On other days, the men would quarry for big stones or corrals in the seashore which were shaped into cubes and fitted carefully as walls of the church designed in the Romanesque tradition. In the church, they were quiet as mouse before cats as they were earlier forewarned of slaps when they become unruly. The basics of education started in their families when they were taught how to count in Cebuano and in Spanish. Then when the time for their caton came, their mothers brought them to the convents where a layman taught them the rudiments of reading and writing using green banana leaves as paper and coconut sticks as pens. Soon the two were practicing their skills writing their names on trunks of bananas, carving them on tree trunks and with porous chalky white or red stones writing their names on the rocks of the rivers, on the carabaos, on the horses they pasture and for weeks on end those going to the river would read Federico and Mariano in every stone jutting out of the river that they cautioned them because the fairies of Kamel might get angry for they consider everything in the river as theirs. As they grew, they would be more often seen in the church, not only for their repetitive catons which improves by the years, but also because they serve as sacristans during masses and help with whatever odd jobs in the church or the convent like cleaning, ringing the bells, doing errands, going with the priests in his visitas to the barrios, which was a new experience to the boys who were delighted with seeing more people and in being able to help aside from being served good food available only on special occasions in their own homes. It is also in the convent that they get to see the list of records for births, deaths, and weddings, important people like the principalias and the Spaniards and above all, to read books or booklets not present in their own homes. Here in the church and convent, they get to meet Ibo, a brilliant native Filipino who had a high learning as he had gone to Cebu and Manila to study. He is the one who records the births, deaths, and marriages and schedules the masses. A kind short man, Ibo, had wanted to enter the priesthood but natives cannot enter the vocation, it being limited to the Spaniards. In his studies in Manila, he had come in contact with progressive ideas and he had brought home some books which he showed Icoy and Yano, some of which had to be exlained in Cebuano because they were written in Spanish, of which the two are not so familiar with yet. And thus the two young boys learned of propagandists in Spain agitating for representation in the Royal Audiencia, of the brilliant Filipino speakers and painters who were adjudged equal, even better than the colonizers and the writings of Graciano Lopez Jaena, Marcelo del Pilar and Jose Rizal. And to the two boys and others who had become close to Ibo, the autocratic demands of the Spanish priests, the caning of those who didnt pay taxes, the flogging or 25 cavanes, the punishment of kneeling on salt or mongoes for failure to bring stones to the church, the closure of seminaries for natives who want to become priests, the absence of schools for learning and all the other abuses of the Spanish colonists became all too real. Life in the church-convent comes between or after work in the farm. They helped their fathers in plowing the field, combing it for planting, preparing the seedlings, harvesting them, and planting which is backbreaking especially in their muddy fields. They also had upland rice farms and this is not hard as rice grains are thrown on the ground, which had to be fenced or guarded from stray animals. They also planted abaca whose stalks are harvested, turned into fiber white as hair, woven into ropes or into textiles by the women. Across the river, they have farms planted with corn or vegetables. Others have farms in the valley some five or six kilometers away. Much of the hard work is lessened because of cooperatives. There is the honglos where members ranging from five to ten or more work on each members fields for a day. One can sell his assigned day to another farmer for an amount and in the end of the year or on fiesta time, the money is used to buy pigs or carabaos to butcher and distribute to members equally. While waiting for the rice and corn to mature, they have no work so they go to convent. It is while they were in the convent that they learned of vacancies in the house of Don Ignacio Tomarong who had gone blind and needs boys to guide him in his daily chores, going to the comfort room to defecate or to take a bath, to bed or going down to see guests, his garden or to the church or to the parties. Ikoy and Yano applied and being strong of build which was a prerequisite to be able to lift the man, they were taken in. Life or work at the dons mansion was structured according to the old mans routines but it was easier than being out in the ricefields because the two focused on the old man, and cleaning the house, caring for the garden and helping out in the kitchen and taking care of the caruaje and horses were left to other servants. Since the Dons clock stops at siesta time and early evenings the two were free to flirt with the female servants, and even the daughters of neighboring principalias who never failed to note the small brown faces and muscled bodies of the muchachos de don Ignacio. In their free times, they would go to Ibo to talk about the developments in the Propaganda Movement and they learned of the La Liga Filipina and the deportation of Rizal to Dapitan several leagues away to the north. With the exile of Rizal, the two asked Ibo what would happen next and he answered that he doesnt know because he still had to wait for the next mail from Cebu. One day, the two were overjoyed to learn they were going to Dapitan with Don Ignacio so he could have his eyes checked up. Now, they were going to see el doctor el nobelista. When Ibo learned of it, he feigned illness and begged to go with Don Ignacio to have his eyes checked up because sometimes he becomes cross-eyed. Since the travel by road is perilous and tiresome, they set sail for Dapitan, stopping by Layawan and Plaridel to see some of Don Ignacios friends. They were housed in one of the many huts in Yalisay, the doctors retreat across the wide river at the foot of a stony hill, lapped b y the calm seawaters that yielded so much fish. After checking up Don Ignacio, Rizal pronounced his eyes is still curable but cure would come little by little so the old man should be taken cared of. At night, when the don had retired with his wife, Ibo and the two adolescents talked to Rizal at a big rock promontory. Ibo can speak Tagalog and Spanish, having studied in Manila but Rizal insisted on speaking in Cebuano, which he was already practicing. He was indeed a fast learner and in the Cebuano sentences he spoke, he sounded like a native speaker. Ikoy, kasabot ko. Di na ko nimo mabaligya, Bay.(Ikoy, I can understand. You cannot sell me anymore.) And they laughed. Ikoy asked if he can understand Cebuano so well. Gamay lang. (A little.) Ikoy and Yano smiled at the doctors winning ways, this man whom they have heard of so much before, this great native whose name they had read on the cover of books. Yano, hilom ka man lagi. Gimingaw ka sa imong uyab? (Yano, you are so quiet. Did you miss your girl friend?) They all laughed and the two Palilanons began heckling Yano. Doktor, wa man koy uyab. (Doctor, I have no girlfriend.) Ikoy heckled that Yano likes somebody but there is lead in his tongue or he has cold lips. Rizal asked what the expression means and Ibo answered it means tongue tied. Rizal smiled and nodded. Harana diay o sulat? Rizal strummed his hands then motioned writing a letter. Ikoy ribbed Yano who became pale. Datu man siya, Doktor. (She is rich, Doctor.) Yano was referring to a principalias daughter. Sa gugma, walay datu ug pobre. (In love, there is no rich or poor.) And he broke into Spanish which Ibo translated for the two. Rizal said, Love bridges the gap between the great rivers of wealth and want. Love will conquer all the obstacles that hinder and soar to the skies for its consummation. Because love is. The two knew a little Spanish and they were awed at how beautifully Rizal had said what they had thought but which they could not word out because words are not their forte. Rizal and Ibo later left them as the two walked along the beach for several meters up to the point of the island and they returned. They asked Ibo what they talked about but he said he will tell them later. They returned to Palilan where Ibo, in the quiet of the campanario told them of a secret revolutionary society founded to fight for freedom from Spain. As Ibo told this, his tears fell and he explained that the future will be bloody and Filipinos will die for freedom because Spain will never, never give it peacefully. They would return to Dapitan several times for Don Ignacios eyes which was to be operated on. Since it would be delicate to move Don Ignacio after the operation, Rizal chose to operate it in Palilan. The only problem was the permission of the military governor. Since Don Ignacio was influential and because of his bribes of local gobernadorcillos and military officials who requested the Dapitan officials who requested the Dapitan officials, it was approved: Rizal would come to Palilan and Misamis to operate on the doctor and see people and places. But the military governor forbid Rizal to write about his visits or he might be punished if Manila officials read of his liberty to go outside Dapitan. And thus was Rizal able to visit Palilan and operate on Don Ignacio. Even then he was already known as el doctor el novelista, the filibuster, the hero, and people from the town and nearby areas came to see him and for the check-ups. They followed him around as he went to hear mass at the Saint John, the Baptist church, at the convent and some houses of the principalia. They thronged around him as he walked one early morning to the river and wondered at the tall tree guarding its riverbanks. At the time of the operation, people milled around the plaza, as if it was one big tabo less the cockfighting and after it, others with eye problems came to see him and they were also checked up and cured. Wherever Rizal went, the people followed from Palilan to Misamis where he visited the Bernads, and checked some patients and visited its church, its Cotta with its miraculous Our Lady and climbed up the Bukagan Hill shaped like an upturned kawa. Don Ignacio, in great recognition of Rizals treatment of his eyesight lent Ikoy and Yano as guides and servants on the doctors visit. They acted as his guide and toured him around the place, letting him meet the parish priest, climb up the campanario, see the Kamel tree in the river, ride a boat to the Madre and Cocos reefs, two white sandbars from which they beheld the summits of Mount Malindang. They also accompanied him to Misamis and they were with him, bringing his bag, washing, and ironing his clothes, shining his shoes, holding his umbrella or hat, swiping the mud or dust off his shoes, testing his foods to see that there is no poison, preparing his bed, providing him with paper and ink. They even helped provide him with specimens of animals he was collecting for the great museums of Europe. But they were sorry not to have provided him what he jokingly asked for ----sigbin for pet, the mythical animal of their folklore, who navigates by jumping meters up in the air, eats charcoal and squash at night, and who could harm the enemies of its owners. After several visits, Dr. Ignacios eyes were fully treated and thus he had no need for the services of Icoy and Yano anymore. The two went home with their pay, which was of considerable amount. They used the money to buy lands for planting rice and other crops. They were diligent because they had hoped to establish themselves in preparation for marriage. But whom to marry? Yano was in love with Esperanza Hynson, a niece of Don Ignacio, of marriageable age and the proprietor of their store, the biggest in the town which sold everything needed by homemakers, farmers, fishermen or professionals. But Esperanza was beyond reach. They cannot even serenade her because the father is known to be a strict Spanish official who had thrown countless natives to jail, even those who did not look nicely at him, because they had sore eyes or they were cross-eyed or even caned those who cant bow because of arthritis. Natives are no-nos to the Spanish official who wanted her daughter married off to Spaniards to maintain the purity of their race. Icoy, having known of the sorrows of his friend, devised ways to let Yano get the message across. With his instigations, a giant kite was made with the initials of the woman and Te Amo, a serenade was held with them facing Don Ignacios house but with the words meant for the woman whose room was nearby, flowers were sent through a connibing servant everyday and finally a love letter was sent where Yano wrote the words of Rizal on love in Spanish. Elin, a neighbor of Icoy and Yano, who spoke to Esperanza, in Timore, so they would not be understood by her family. The two met in the tabos with the woman coming in the pretext of collecting payments of debts and all people seemed to owe them for one thing or another. They would meet in the dances of the principalias where he would come as one of the cooks or the servers and they would meet secretly in the empty rooms. They had planned on eloping to go to Cebu or Bohol to one of his relatives and coming only when their children are grown. Icoy meanwhile started his relationship with Inday Elin, an unfortunate woman who had to work as servant to pay off their debts when his mother died of tuberculosis. With income from the produce of his farm and work in the big house, they were able to repay their debts little by little. One day, Esperanzas brother-in-law attempted to rape Inday Elin. The muscular and strong woman, used to hard work at home and in the farm, fought off even as she was already undressed and smashed a glass vase on his attackers face. Esperanza arrived and helped Inday Elin escape, making his brother-in-law so angry at her. The father and wife sided with the erring man and demanded the payment of Inday Elins familys death. Soldiers were sent to arrest her. She was sent to jail and could have been raped by the constables had it not been for the timely intervention of Don Ignacio who with Federico brought the payment for Inday Elins familys debts. Federico and Inday Elin fled to the hills across the river, leaving no messenger for Yano and Esperanza who then communicated in letters written in Timore. Later, they heard of Rizal going to Manila for Cuba. But the discovery of Katipunan brought about his trial and execution. The discovery of the Katipunan made the officials in the province wary and they began searches in houses of suspected rebels. Esperanzas father led in all of these searches. A Spanish official who was in love with Esperanza suspected he had an affair with someone because she never answered his advances. He told of his suspicions to the father who raided Esperanzas rooms and found Yanos letters written in Timore which they interpreted to be Katipunan codes. Esperanza was made to tell all but she wont so she was imprisoned in her room. Ibo had already heard of the Katipunan and he had already contacted the men in the villages about it. While the official Katipunan representative had not searched them, they had readied for the occasion. Ibo left for Cebu then to Manila to make contact with his classmates about the possibility of chapters in Misamis. By the time, the Katipunan was discovered the first cells were already organized in Palilan and Misamis. But Ibo was slightly of a different bent. He knew they had no rifles, only lances and malakaras longer than their arms. But coming from Lazi, Siquijor he knew of powers available to natives long before the white colonizers came --- the powers of the occult and the powers of charms. He was a descendant of a long line of sorcerers, some of whose lines had converted to Christianity out of necessity, in order not to be killed by the white conquerors. But behind the back of the priests, behind Christianity, they practiced their old religions with the same vigor. Ibos parents were those of the good kind --- those who knew charms and amulets for the good of the people. Soon, they were teaching the new recruits of the inverted Latin prayers, the rituals, the costumes of red cloths with latin markings, the bronze blackened amulets, the bottles of wild roots tied to strong abaca small ropes fastened around the waists, the signs of recognition and the memorized prayers that would render a member invisible to enemy bullets or bolos or lances. In the absence of superior firepower, the knowledge of ancient powers became their most powerful antidote along with a very strong love for country and freedom. Esperanzas father arranged a marriage for her with the Spanish military official and Yano learned of it. He resolved to elope with her love but when he had finally climbed up her room one night, he saw the disorder of her things, the torn dress and the dresses in her aparador gone. He learned later that Esperanza was shipped off to Spain to be married to the Spanish officer whose term of duty was already finished. The rebels attacked the Spanish garrison and convent and annihilated the vestiges of colonialism in the town. They stealthily climbed up the windows using long ladders meant for coconut gatherers and through the nearby acacia trees going down to the verandas by roofs, a feat accomplished by tuba gatherers and honey gatherers of the forest after the official holiday that had left the Spaniards so full and drunk with foods offered by the natives laced with crushed derris roots that left them dizzy like fish in shallow waters. The raid was so concise and so efficient that by dawn the dead enemies were already counted and a crude red flag of the rebellion was already hoisted to replace the Spanish colors. The Spanish civilians and their servants mourned and left in a hurry, leaving the burying to their numerous servants who, flushed with victory, deserted them like carrions. The natives rejoiced in their newfound freedom as they elected their own set of officials and Ibo was named a priest who held masses and even ministered blessings to the dead. They went about in their finest clothes and surveyed the halls of power where for so long they had appeared so minute, so insignificant under the thundering orders of the colonials and the obscure language of their laws so alien to their liberal traditions. But their exultations did not last for long. After weeks, the new enemies came - the Americans. The whole populace fled and while the rebels fled and while the rebels destroyed the bridges and ambushed the enemies, they were simply no match in men and firepower. The Americans occupied a ghost town with a few natives who had nothing to offer because all the warehouses and stores of the principalia were looted and those of Chinese sympathizers were given as provisions to rebels or evacuated to the wooden lands across the river or to the west, to the hills beyond the valley of tears. The Americans stayed, starved until food provisions came with more reinforcements. They patrolled nearby areas where skirmishes happened as rebels ambushed then. They used the church and convent as garrison because of its strong walls and strategic location from where they could see advancing forces. The rebels holed up in Sinara, Malibacsan and Napu met in the highlands of Seti and planned a most ambitious attack fired with the recent propagandas of successes in Samar and beliefs in the supernatural powers of their charms and amulets. Icoy, now an expectant father, cautioned the leader, Ibo, of the superior firepower and training of the new soldiers and their native recruits. But emboldened by the success of earlier attacks, Ibo and the others went on to plan what they term to be the next toast of the revolutionary movement that shall put Palilan in history. An adolescent was dispatched to pour poison in the convent wel,l which led to the death of the horse caretaker and all the horses of their enemies. Dried rice stalks were procured and secretly brought near the poblacion, stocked in the houses near the plaza and these were set on fire, sending the men in the church and converts coughing but they stayed on. Climbers swang from the acacia trees to the roofs of the convent and church but snipers cut them off preventing them from getting inside and opening the massive doors. The cows from Tan Lucass ranch were set free, filled the plaza and the rebels taking refuge in the livestock, were able to get near the doors and pour coconut oil on the windows and doors and for a time, the fire caught on but it did not progress into a conflagration. The men who flocked at the doors or windows were later felled and those who sought refuge in the livestock fled as the cows scampered off for safety, frightened by the fire and the shooting. With the houses burned except that of Don Ignacio and those pro-natives and the braves falling in the roofs, windows and doors, the rebels retreated. But this time, they were pursued by the enemies. Ikoy and Yano were among the last to leave. They rode their horses left a block from the plaza. They took the Spanish road that leads to the river with the Americans in hot pursuit. As Ikoy negotiated the road down to the ricefields, his horse was hit. He fell and hurriedly picked up his gun and fired back at the pursuing Americans then ran to the ricefields. Yano was already near Kamel when he heard the gunfire and saw Ikoys horse fell. He turned back his horse to save him. Ikoy shouted, Go, run, save yourself! Yano did not obey. He had to save Icoy for Inday Elin and their child. He had come to save his friend. Icoy stopped and faced his enemies a hundred meters away and fired. One fell, He crouched but still he was hit. He shot again and stood limping. He shouted at the top of his voice, Go, Yano, go, escape, leave me here. Tell Inday Elin, I love her. Yanos horse came rushing to Icoy who was limping as he walked-run. When he saw that Yano was approaching, he faced the enemies and fired. Just as Yano caught him and held him up in his horse, he was hit again and for a few seconds looked at his friend with bloodshot eyes and tears as he remembered the time they were circumcised at the river banks, near here and he smiled. Yano was fighting off tears as he held Icoy and he felt his hold loosened and his body grew limp and he cried remembering the time they were circumcised and the times they defecated in the branches of the mango overlooking the river and he smiled, determined to escape the enemies now. But as he reached the road near Kamel, he saw enemies from that road some hundred meters away and they gave chase and he whipped his horse harder and it leapt into the waters. He was already almost at the other bank when the horse fell and he fell, still holding Icoy so tightly. He dragged Icoy to the riverbank but he suddenly felt he could not walk anymore. He was hit too. He knelt and embraced Icoy remembering the time they talked to Ibo and Rizal and Rizal said, there is no poor or rich in love and we have no other country to love but this and of his tryst with the beautiful Esperanza. More shots rang and he fell, holding his closest friend, brother and comrade through the years. POSTCRIPT: (Federico Gimeno and Mariano Bati were honored by the people of Jimenez (Palilan before), Misamis Occidental by dedicating to them two short bridges near the areas where they fell. The house of Don Ignacio Tomarong later become the town hall. In a photography contest, the towns church (Saint John the Baptist ) was considered the most beautiful of the old churches in Mindanao.)
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 18:17:13 +0000
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