Whenever I tell people that I’m from Antique, the next question I usually get is “Where is that?”
I have developed a standard answer to that: It’s in Western Visayas, one of the four provinces that comprise the island of Panay : Aklan, Antique, Capiz Iloilo.
I do that in order that I would be spared the next question which usually is, “Is that, in Aklan? Or In Iloilo?”
Then I get asked, what’s the dialect there, Ilonggo? I say, Kinaray-a.
Kinaray-a is the language spoken mostly in West Visayas. It is spoken in Antique, where I come from.
Writer Alex de los Santos , author of the book, “The Rise of Kinaray-a”, said Kinaray-a is also spoken in some parts of Aklan and Capiz, most of Iloilo and even in Negros Occidental where the biggest number of sakadas, seasonal workers in haciendas, is Karay-a from Antique.
There’s a group of Antiqueños, who has taken up the advocacy of keeping Kinaray-a alive because language gives a person identity and reveals the richness of his culture. They maintain a website, “Dungug Kinaray-a Inc.”
U.S. based Ritchie D. Pagunsan, one of the primemovers of Dungug Kinaray-a alerted me to this year’s Kinaray-a writing contest .
“The Impossible Dream” was Evelio’s favorite song.
The song is from the musical “Man from La Mancha”, which was adapted from Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece “Don Quixote.”
Precious’ moving tribute to Evelio at the end of the latter’s funeral mass in February 1986 (Evelio’s assassination sparked the first People Power that ended the 20-year Marcos dictatorship), had references to the dreamer Don Quixote character.
Precious Lotilla-Javier, the widow of slain Marcos-era opposition leader and former Antique Governor Evelio Javier, died in Los Angeles on Thursday (Friday in the Philippines) after years of battling cancer. She was 67.
Precious died in her sleep, according to former Antique Gov. Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez, a friend of hers.
Former Energy Secretary Raphael “Popo” Lotilla, a nephew of Precious, also confirmed his aunt’s death.
Perez said the elder son of Precious, Francis Gideon, will be going to the United States to fetch his mother’s remains for burial in Antique beside the grave of her husband. Gideon’s younger brother David is based in the US.
The youngest of six siblings, Precious is a member of the prominent Lotilla clan of Sibalom town in Antique.
A former teacher, she worked at an organization in Los Angeles which researches on deafness and ear ailments.
Balay ni Datu Lubay (House of Datu Lubay) in San Jose, Antique houses Alex de los Santos’ collection of more than 1,000 dolls and figurines, some of them made by potters in the province.
The toy museum is run by the Datu Lubay Center, chaired by de los Santos who also serves as artistic director. Organized in 2008, the Center aims to promote culture and arts education among Antiqueños as a tool for empowerment and social change.
Kahapon, nagkaroon ng landslide sa mountain highway ng Antique papuntang Iloilo kaya nag-detour ang mga sasakyan sa daan ng Anini-iy.
Naging apat na oras ang biyaheng karaniwan ay tatlong oras lang.Mabuti na lang maaga ako umalis sa aming barrio (4:00 n.u), hindi ako nahuli sa aking 10:25 ng umaga na flight papuntang Manila.
Maraming ilog na nadadaan sa pagitan ng Antique at Iloilo. Sa aming dinaadan kahapon maraming tulay ang inaayos. Mabuti naman sana dahil ginagawa kaya lang ang nakakainis ay nag naglalakihang billboard na may mukha ni Gloria Arroyo at Public Works Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane.
It never ceases to amaze me that I’m able to access internet from my remote corner in Antique, even if the connection is so slow and intermittent.
I have always dreamed of being able to file my stories from our place in Guisijan while listening to the chirping the birds surrounded by orchids, bromeliads, heleconias, lirios and milflores. It gives me so much pleasure that it has become a reality.
Our barrio has come a long way from my elementary school days when the only telephone in the barrio was a public phone, in a black box – double the size of a shoe box- installed in the balcony of a community official.
May Gaisano Mall na sa Antique. Wow, kahit paano, palatandaan ng asenso yan.
Natuwa naman ako ng makita ko ang Gaisano sa San Jose nang dumaan ako doon noong Miyerkoles galing Iloilo. Wala na kasing eroplano na nagse-service ng Antique kaya via Iloilo ako kung umuwi sa aming baryo sa Guisijan, sa bayan ng Lau-an.
Ang Guisijan ay banding gitna ng Antique, na napagitan sa Iloilo at Aklan sa isla ng Panay Mula Manila, 55 na minuto papuntang Iloilo sa eroplano at tatlong oras pa sa bus bago makarating sa aming lugar.