Tag Archives: Philippines

Lanzones

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

I also remember a story my mother had told me about a fruit that she and I used to pick on the air base called Lanzones.  As we picked and ate the fruit, she taught be to pinch the fruit by the stem to open and peel the fruit.  She told me the story of how this began and why it continues as the process of eating this particular fruit.

A village in the Philippines not believed this fruit to be poisonous, but the beauty of the fruit often caused doubt to its poisonous nature.   The temptation would cause villagers to venture and try it despite the risks.  An old woman visited this village.  She needed food, water and shelter.  This village was helpful and let her stay as long as she needed and provided food and water.  The villagers had told her about the poisonous fruit.  She asked to see it, and when they showed it to her, she taught them how to pinch the fruit at the stem to render the fruit harmless and edible.  She proved it by eating one after another.  Ever since, the method of pinching and peeling this fruit has continued, and the story passed on along with it.

Tinikling

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

 

Somewhere in the middle of the earthquake and the eruption, I had the opportunity to discover more about our culture.  One popular activity is a dance called the Tinikling.  It generally involves two people partnering and dancing between two bamboo poles while another pair slap the sticks on the ground and then slide together.

The origin of this dance isn’t as festive.  It is believed to come from a time when in the 1500s the Spaniards conquered and surpressed the Filipino people, who spent most of their time in the rice paddies.  The Spaniards would punish those who did not work well by making the worker stand between two bamboo poles while they beat the poles against their legs.  After a while, in an attempt to avoid getting hurt, the workers would jump to escape the punishment.  The dance is now named after a local bird as it describes its leg movements, and the dance continues as a maneuver to avoid the sliding bamboo.

Aeta’s Revenge

Nationality: Filipino
Age: 35
Occupation: Retail Branch Manager
Residence: Yucaipa, CA
Primary Language: English
Language: Tagalog

Steven “Ricky” Phillips was the son of a military family.  They moved around from base to base quite a bit.  He lived in the Philippines for a number of years before moving to The United States of America.  His father was in the Air Force and met his mother in the Philippines while stationed at the Clark Air Base.  Ricky currently resides in Yucaipa, CA with his wife and two daughters.  He is a Branch Manager for JP Morgan Chase Bank, N.A.

My mother is from the Philippines, but it wasn’t until I was 9 years old when I first lived there.  My father was in the US Air Force and was assigned to Clark Air Base.  I wasn’t a stranger to natural disasters at this point.  I’ve already experience earthquakes, tornadoes, and typhoons.  So I didn’t think twice about the 7.7 earthquake that changed not only my life, but the lives of many others and the world in general.

For the months following, I heard of a local tribe living around Mt Pinatubo claiming that their diety, Namalyadi, was angry.  At the time, I was too young to understand their story.  It wasn’t until later in life when I researched this story and discovered corporations had been logging and oil diggings in and around the then dormant volcano.

Fast forward a year later.  I could walk outside my front door, walk just a few steps and turn to my left.  Clouds of sulfur began filling the air.  The amplified smell of a sewer was an inescapable aroma.  Add constant ash falling on the ground, your car, and home.  The tribe known as the Aeta was right.  Namalyadi had demonstrated his anger and power as his control of the 500 year dormant Mt Pinatubo causes it to erupt, causing an almost degree Fahrenheit drop in temperature globally and increase in ozone depletion.  It became the second largest eruption in its century.  The spirit of the Aeta tribe literally blew its top.  Combined with a typhoon, it caused many deaths, injuries, illnesses, and rendered many more homeless.  Not too bad for a diety.

Banoonooed

Nationality: Philippeano
Age: 21
Occupation: Student, Part time facilities attendant at on campus gym
Residence: Los Angeles
Performance Date: 4/13/13
Primary Language: English
Language: Spanish

The informant provided the following as a tale his father would tell him before bed,for the purpose of making sure he didn’t eat too much before going to sleep.

Alright, so, when I was a kid my Dad, (first of all my dad’s family is Philippeano. my dad is full Philippeano.) So he would tell me that, uh, if I ate right before bed I’d, what would happen was, it was called “banoonooed.” [ban-noon-noon-ed] and what that means is that if you eat before bed when you go to sleep you’ll have a bad dream and your entire hair will go, just like… white. So yeah, anyway, if you eat before dinner and if you eat too much, er, sorry, if you eat too much before you go to sleep it will give you nightmares, and those nightmares will be so scary that your hair will just go completely white and I think that’s, like my dad didn’t make it up, but I think it’s to stop people eating before going to bed and… yeah. 

As the informer notes, this tale is not specific to his family, but it does seem to be a Philippeano tale in general as opposed to one which has spread across cultures. As the informer noted to me, large meals are a significant part of Philippeano culture, and a tale warning against their consumption before bed is likely more relevant to their culture than others. Furthermore, the scare-tactics and over the top consequences for eating too much before bed, make it a good children’s story, and that gives its moral a context.

Those who persevere get food.

Nationality: Filipina
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Philippines
Performance Date: April 2012
Primary Language: English
Language: Filipino, Spanish

My informant is an international student from the Philippines. She says that in the 1920s, the national language of the Philippines was Tagalog. However, in 1935, the Commission of the National Language decided to change some words of Tagalog to make the language more accessible to people who spoke different dialects. They called this new language Filipino, and made it, along with English and Spanish, one of the official languages of the Philippines. Filipino  is now taught though culture classes, in which students memorize and are tested on Filipino folklore.

 

The following is a Filipino proverb that my informant learned and has heard used, as well as used herself.

 

“Ang may tiyaga may nilaga.”

 

Those who persevere get food.

 

 

This proverb is about the importance of dedication and hard work. It is similar to the English proverb of the early bird catching the worm, in that it implies that an amount of commitment is necessary for success. My informant says that this proverb was often used as a reminder to those perceived to be lazy, and to those who conceded defeat easily.