Three Books on Baguio

For decades, it seemed like the only nonfiction books on Cordillera worthy to be called a publishing event would have to be authored by the late William Henry Scott. There were notable titles but some were hindered by poor research, production or marketing.

But these past years, we have three nonfiction books of Cordillera that not only follows the tradition of the great Scotty but also traversed other scholarship paths that the Sagada-based historian would have love to thread.

Of the three, Gerard Finin's "The Making of The Igorot: Contours of Cordillera Consciousness" is more on Scott's field. Similar to the late historian's 1993 book, "Igorots and Independence," Finin's book gives us a story of how the young Igorots students were able to fashion a "distinctive pan-Cordillera Igorot ethnoregional consciousness."

It is filled with anecdotes on Hilary "Pitapit" Clapp, Trinidad Agricultural School, Atty. Alfredo Lamen, Benguet cowboys, Cellophil Resource Corporation, Baguio : The Movie, BIBKA, Macliing Dulag, Conrado Balweg, KKK and many others.

I had the privilege of reading Finin's thesis almost ten years ago which the mega-germ of the book became. It was almost 600 pages and a joy to read. That he was able to compress it into a 345-page book published by Ateneo Press gives any Cordillera scholar no excuse in getting hold of this book.

Finin was a Peace Corps volunteer in Abra from 1978 to 1980 and his meeting with Scott and other Cordillera scholars launched his life-long fascination with the Igorots.

Now deputy director of the East West center's Pacific Islands Development Program, Finin gave us a compelling history of the education of the Igorots from both sides of the political spectrum.

It has a powerhouse cast from the early American explorers to the young Igorot students in the late 1960s who formed the Kilusang Kabataan ng Kordilyera to the people behind the fight for Cordillera autonomy, genuine or watered-down.

"The Making of the Igorot" is comprehensive and scholarly (with more than 100 pages of footnotes) but exciting enough to be known as the "Lonely Planet Guide to Igorot Consciousness"

Another outstanding book is "Kapwa: The Self in the Other" by Katrin Muller De Guia Ph. D. It is the story of eight Filipino artists and how they represent the values of Sikolohiyang Pilipino. But first, they should be culture bearers, a new concept which De Guia had been fascinated with since going into her doctorate.

Like Scott, De Guia is one of the few foreigners who truly understand the Filipino soul. Katrin de Guia might be recognized by most of you as the wife of Kidlat Tahimik, the father of Filipino indie films; but as the book would soon convince you, she is her own guiding star.

I am one of the editors of the book so I would sound subjective if I say that this book is essential reading if you want to know about the inner workings of Filipino creativity but believe, this is the only book that delves on the matter of creativity and Sikolohiyang Pilipino.

This is a Cordilleran book not only because De Guia spent half of her life here but because three of the artists featured here are Cordillerans: Tahimik, Roberto Villanueva and Rene Aquitania. Angel Shaw and Aureaus Solito are also frequent visitors to our mountains.

To De Guia, these people represent the S.P. values of pakiramdam (tacit understanding) , bahala na (taking one's chances), pakikibaka (shared struggle), katuwirang daan (road to righteousness), and pakikisama (getting along), among others.

Given enough creative momentum, this book should propel Philippine arts into a revolutionary renaissance.

"Japanese Pioneers In The Northern Philippine Highlands: A Centennial Tribute 1903 - 2003" edited by Patricia Okubo Afable and published by the Filipino - Japanese Foundation of Northern Luzon, Inc in 2004 is a labor of love and it is apparent in every page of this imposing book.

Afable, an anthropologist with the Smithsonian Institute, gathered her team of women writers including her mother Cecile Afable and cousin Kathleen T. Okubo to come out with the lives of the Japanese migrant laborers during the early years of the 20th Century until the start of World War II.

Patricia was very thorough in her research of the archival and photo research but she made it a point that the book would be stories of people and not statistics.

Most moving of the chapters is Cecile Afable's "You Husband Me and I Wife You..." about how the Japanese workers courted the Ibaloy lasses. Mostly, it was how her father Teruji Okubo, a carpenter from Hiroshima, got to meet Josefa Carino, an Ibaloy woman already heartbroken with the death of her Japanese husband, Reukitse Hamada, in a sawmill accident in 1912. Okubo courted Carino and they got married in 1914. Their progenitors are among the outstanding residents of Baguio City .

Another touching story was that of Charles Muneo Teraoka, the father of present Filipino consul to Japan Carlos Teraoka. Charles left Japan for Manila when he was 16 and studied and worked to be a general contractor. The buildings and bridges he built included the St. Louis High School building, Notre Dame Hospital and the Banaoang Bridge, that four-span bridge to Vigan. He died in 1941, a man loved by the people of Baguio. He would have been enraged that his children would have to be brought to Japan as stateless persons at the end of World War II.

The writers including Ann Loreto Tamayo and Geraldine Fiagoy wrote about all aspects of life of the Japanese migrants and their families including their transplanted culture. They had sumo societies and even a haiku club even then.

Although the first Japanese laborers came to work for Kennon Road in 1903, others, from farmers, carpenters and other artisans followed and settled in the region.

Although this book is a tribute of sorts to this gritty community, there is a certain melancholy that pervades throughout the book. The photos, for example, were stories in themselves. Elementary schoolgirls running on the track of the Japanese school or posing at Shonosuge Furuya's photo studio.

The Furuya photographs collection, brought by his son Rodolfo, were taken from Pine's Studio, which is a fixture in our Baguio memory. The younger Furuya recently retired as a photographer in Yokohama and came back here to recapture the Baguio he used to know.

I remembered going out with him and two other Japanese playmates in Baguio . We tried to retrace the cave where many of their friends died at Engineers Hill. Then we went to the Justice cottages which was their original homes.

Rudy Furuya looked at their house and muttered that this is how it was. He was trying to be brave while I, the photographer this time, was already weeping.