Reflections on a Year of Reading Filipino Literature

Books: "Monsoon Mansion" by Cinelle Barnes, "Dauntless" by Elisa A. Bonnin, and "In the Country:Stories" by Mia Alvar.

I’ve learned alot from “Dauntless” by Elisa A. Bonnin, mostly about geography in the Philippines. In the book, most of the location was in the rainforests, greenery and beautiful mountains. The Philippines is surrounded by nature, from rainforests to open land. In Dauntless, Elisa narrates a lot of greenery filling the scenes. When Seri was practicing using her bow and arrow, she had to look past all the huge leaves and bushes in the forest to hit the target. And in the book everyone used platforms in the trees to get a better view of the beasts roaming around on land. The enormous trees were helpful when locating, hiding, and creating platforms from the beasts. During the battle with Sarayan and Seri, they were in open land, and open land is popular in the Philippines. Alongside with little villages being in these forests or open land, most of them were close to a water source in the book. The Philippines seems to be the heart of nature, and life in the book and so is for the land. 

“In the Country:Stories'' by Mia Alvar, I gained knowledge about the history of the Philippines. In each story she narrates, there are mentions of a large gap between the social classes. Some stories she mentioned were of the past, like poverty being a huge issue among Filipinos then and now. From the book, it seems in the past everyone lived in towns, or rural areas. Everyone seemed to get an education and jobs despite gender. But most of the mothers mentioned in tales were of a stay at home role, and the father working. Nursing was more of a women dominated field, and small jobs that don’t get large pay. There were lots of protests and rebellion against the government and how corrupted they are. Another aspect of jobs were working for richer families as servants, rather than pay they are housed and fed. Like in the story with Mrs. Mansour, her servants were protesting because of the pay and how they were treated unfairly. 

“Monsoon Mansion” by Cinelle Barnes, taught me all about Filipino cultures, traditions, religion, and food. Being family oriented is one of the values in tradition, alongside respecting elders. In the book Cinelle deeply hated her step-father who mistreated her mother, but still had to respect him because he is an adult and she is a child. For religion, Cinelle and her family were Catholic, but never attended church. In specific parts of the book, Cinelle would ask God for guidance for herself and family. Also to the Saint Mary statue in her backyard, where her brother was buried under. She would pray to her, and ask for guidance from her dysfunctional family. Breakfast and dinner were mostly talked about through the book, because it’s where the family sat together even if they weren’t on good terms. It would be soup, eggs, rice, chicken, and more, served by the servants. And in the middle of the book, soon the family would break apart and leave Cinelle alone eating at the dinner table. Colorism also exists in Filipino culture, since they were conquered by the Spaniards, the whole beauty standard was to be light skinned, with a broader nose, and thin lips. In order to be accepted by society, Cinelle was the complete opposite of her brother, and she knew in her heart that her mother would choose him over her because of her features. 

From “Monsoon Mansion” by Cinelle Barnes, I learned that, in life, it’s unfair.  There are such things in life, like human beauty, some features humans have are considered “better” than others. Another book, “Dauntless” by Elisa A. Bonnin, I learned in life that we are imperfect, and we can’t ignore the poor aspects of us, or else we wouldn’t be who we are. Lastly, “In the Country: Stories” by Mia Alvar, I learned that inside of us there’s little pieces we grasp from everybody in our lives. We are all on Earth at the same time, learning and trying to understand each other. 

I learned a lot about social and economic issues. Learned a lot about trauma, and how it can be in different forms, like physical, verbal, indirect and direct. Seeing things from different perspectives really opened my eyes to  things that go unnoticed, or not talked about enough. I really liked diving into different stories and getting immersed into the whole world. I learned about my reading habits, for “Monsoon Mansion” and “Dauntless” I was really absorbed into the text. But for “In the Country:Stories,” it took me more time to be interested in it, because to me it felt repetitive and boring. I think it’s important to see things from a different view, cause we are all different and experience things differently. 

Word Count: 804 Words

Week 20 Blog

This week I read pages 290-330 of the book, “In the Country:Stories” by Mia Alvar. 

The most important sentence of this week can be found on page 323: “You can’t just slap a sign on hell and call it paradise.” Here’s why, we start with a dysfunctional family. Milagros is a native nurse in City Hospital, and lives with her mother, brothers who have wives and children. Milagro works as a nurse to pay rent and other household items. From there she decided to grow her knowledge by gossiping about protests, unions, and other things. She meets a young fresh out of college reporter who was on TV. Jim took her heart away, everything she wanted in a man. Educated, known, kind. Even the nurses who work with Milagros knew him, and it came to no surprise that he also was falling head over heels for her. Politics, business, news all stream on the TV, catching a glimpse of things going on. Of course it bored and entertained Milagros, she was constantly jubiliating about the things she knows about those people on the screen. Soon enough Jim and Milagro move in together, and find stability within both of their jobs. Her mother is thrilled how she found a man who is financially stable. From there Milagros slowly swayed interest in the media, and everyone who was on TV. 

Every character in the book is dynamic. Milagros built herself first, being a nurse then finding a man who could provide for her. Is a different thing from all the other chapters I have read. The book did bore me with repetitive themes, dysfunctional families, and tragedy. But I like the way Mia has the chapters being like journal entries that are like ‘written’ by the characters. Everything in the book surprised me, there were so many different scenarios that were interesting, and really captured my attention. 

Word Count: 316

“You can’t just slap a sign on hell and call it paradise.”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 323)

“‘Because I’m happy’, sobbed Milagros and she was. Happy. Overwhelmed.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 311)

“She dreams of forgetting as Billy forgot: by floating, and then sinking.”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 306)

“They can torch your house and rob you blind, went the saying, but they can’t take Education from you.”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 294)

Week 19 Blog

This week I read pages 250-290 of the book, “In the Country: Stories” by Mia Alvar. 

The most important sentence of this week can be found on page 282: “You don’t understand! Come back when you are older, and finally intelligent.” Here’s why, a student goes to a private school and everyone there is rich, except her family. Her family is in poverty, and she is attending an expensive school, working to earn money for food and essential things while her older brother works as a driver, driving residents around. She is very close with her older brother and they have been through the ups and downs together. He is always jumping jobs, and providing for his sister himself, and his soon to be born children with his upper class girlfriend. Her mother does all the home and motherly duties for her two kids, while living in a cramped apartment. Her brother takes a job in Saudi Arabia and becomes busy providing for himself and everyone. His upper class girlfriend moves in with his lower class family. She becomes accustomed to how lower classes live. First semester in college and her grades plummet, she really is trying her best until ‘love’ comes by. At least in her head, she finds a paper forgotten by a boy who sat next to her. She read it, and it was the headlines of a newspaper with a classroom number on it. She was interested, and tried to find the classroom but instead found a group of boys. 

In this story it’s odd because the girl I am reading about doesn’t have a name, her brother has one but she is called the ‘girl’ or ‘she’. I like her older brother, he is really trying to help out the family as the only male in the house. Jumping from job to job reminds me of my older cousin who is trying to keep steady. Which he is now, and I’m happy for him. The girlfriend seems to be that girl that the family doesn’t like. The girlfriend was used to being upper class and having service being brought to her. But in this family she has to do everything herself, but of course her mother-in-law helps out because she is bearing children. 

Word Count: 378

“You don’t understand! Come back when you are older, and finally intelligent.”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 282)

“‘At least don't smell like a sad woman,’ says Vivi.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 275)

“‘The greenest American does better than I, because I am brown.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 263)

“‘Where was the conflict? The danger? Fiction needs trouble, or else it's just description, wrote my professor in the margin of one draft, underlining ‘trouble’ twice.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 253)

Week 18 Blog

This week I read pages 190-250 of the book, “In the Country: Stories” by Mia Alvar.

The most important sentence of this week can be found on page 190: “‘And idea is a generous word for whim or flight of fancy, the kind of ill-considered impulse…’” Here’s why, we are placed in Massachusetts with an Old Girl and her Husband. We learn a lot of things about her past by meeting her husband. Old Girl and Husband met in middle school, and Old Girl was different from the girls. She was a modest and pure girl because she was raised and taught by nuns. But her husband was the complete opposite, he was gifted and was a C+ student but never gave effort in school. In the present, Old Girl and her family live in Boston, and she absolutely loves Boston. The schools, environment, and people have her heart. It’s her husband's ideas that derive her from her own ideas and opinions. She wanted to further her education, but didn’t because her husband had another idea to skip that and stay with him. The Old Girl seems to be the shadow of the husband, she is always left alone. The relationship between Old Girl and her Husband is a toxic one, and arguments happen often.

Their names Old Girl and Husband are very interesting to me. It’s as if their identities were stripped and the name given to them is who they truly are. Old Girl, following her Husband because he’s the “man of the house” or is the “only one who makes the decisions” makes me feel apprehensive. Old Girl should be her own person, with ideas and opinions and not follow a man. But the way she was raised is deep rooted in her and she can’t help but continue to serve him. Husband doesn’t deserve Old Girl, this relationship they have I know was almost every relationship in the past. I hope Old Girl leaves him, or Husband would soon realize what Old Girl has done for him.

Word Count: 341

“‘Faking my way among the Katipuneros also gave me an escape from the barangay.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 246)

“‘I can’t have her and I have to have her,’ he’d said most recently, after falling for the boss’s daughter. I said, ‘You’ve been listening to too many radionovelas with Ma.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 234)

“‘He never takes illness and injury as helpful messages, the body hinting Easy there, you've bitten off more than you can chew.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 219)

“‘…between her full-grown throb and her daughter’s tiny growing pulse: Beat-beat. Beat-beat. Beat-beat.’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the County” (Page 203)

“‘And idea is a generous word for whim or flight of fancy, the kind of ill-considered impulse…’”

—Mia Alvar, “In the Country” (Page 190)