Isinay Country a Century Ago (Prologue)

QUITE OFTEN, in my search for references on the history, culture and language of the Isinays, I find myself acting like a miner. A small-scale miner, that is. Similar to (but not as fearless and hardy as) the ones on “isang kahig, isang tuka” mode that you find in ore-rich mountains of Benguet and Davao.

I’m not complaining, but this mining for Isinay “treasures” is not easy. To paraphrase the country singer John Denver: Some days are diamonds, most days are stones.

But, ah, like a real miner, when I do sniff a clue here and there on where I could possibly find something, I follow that trail or wriggle into the bosom of the hill, until I hit a vein if not a mother lode of gold ore.

This series on how Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax looked like a century ago is a sample of such search.

There is a little sutsur (story) on how I thought of coming out with this series. You see, one topic I lined up for this blogsite is the now almost forgotten fact that Isinay land used to be headhunting country. Yes, as in.

As if on cue, my fellow Irupaj and now Middle East-based Nelson Angat posted two photos of beheading on Facebook.

The photos are gory. But I thought it would be nice to include them in a post on headhunting one day soon. Besides, their captions intrigued me:  

Igorot execute chop Filipino criminal head off circa before World War 2” and “Victim of a Headhunter – He is going to be eaten – Philippine Cannibalism.”

So I fired Nelson this FB message in Isinay: “Wow! Sararatut an-anapo^ an letrato, Nelson. Nangeyam sitye?” His reply: “Uwa Charlz na-google ute lohom. Mari^ matandalan nu ande niloovaar.” 

And that was it. Before I knew it, I was already bent on my laptop excitedly reading the headhunting-related items that I Googled in the internet.

I have yet to find the said horrific photos, but still I was lucky to hit The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon From Ifugao to Kalinga by Cornelis De Witt Willcox.

Printed by the Franklin Hudson Publishing Company in 1912, the travelogue of sort was all of 99 pages that include a lot of photos and, fortunately, beautiful vignettes on Aritao, Dupax, and Bambang (including the other Nueva Vizcaya towns of Santa Fe, Bayombong, Solano and Bagabag).

It is fortunate that the re-publisher, The Project Gutenberg, has this kind note: "This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net"

The author Willcox was a Lieutenant-Colonel of the U.S. Army and a Professor and Officier d’ Academie of the United States Military Academy in Kansas City, Mo., U.S.A. How he became able to write the report is described in Chapter 1 of the book as follows:

Every year [Secretary of the Interior Mr. Dean] Worcester makes a formal tour of inspection through the Mountain Province to note the progress of the trails and roads, to listen to complaints, to hear reports, devise ways and means of betterment and in general to see how the hillmen are getting on. This tour is a very great affair to the highlanders, who are assembled in as great numbers as possible at the various points where stops are made; during the stay of the “Commission” (as Mr. Worcester is universally called by the highlanders) at the points of assemblage, the wild people are subsisted by the Government. 

The trip is long and hard, nor is it altogether free from danger. Preparations have to be made two months ahead to have forage for animals, and food for human beings, at the expected halts, while everything eaten by man or beast on the way must be carried by the cargadores (bearers) who accompany the column, since living off the country is in general impossible. Under these circumstances but very few guests can be invited. I was so fortunate as to be one of these in 1910; how fortunate, I did not realize until the trip was over. For although an American may ride alone unmolested through the country we visited, still he would see only what might fall under his eye as he made his way; whereas, on this official trip, thousands of people are brought together at designated points, and one can thus do and see in a month what it would take a much longer time to do and see under one’s own efforts.

This year (1910) the party was made up of Mr. Cameron Forbes, the Governor-General of the Philippine Islands; Mr. Worcester, Secretary of the Interior; Dr. Heiser, Director of Health; Dr. Strong, Chief of the Biological Laboratory; Mr. Pack, Governor of the Mountain Province; and of two officers besides myself, Captain Cootes, 13th Cavalry, Aide de Camp to the Governor-General, and Captain Van Schaick, 16th Infantry, Governor of Mindoro. General Sir Harry Broadwood, commanding His Majesty’s forces at Hong Kong, had been invited, but at the last moment cabled that his duties would prevent his coming. Unless he reads this book he will never know what he missed! As we passed through the various sub-provinces their respective governors and one or two officials would join us and ride to the boundary.

On account of the difficulties of supply and transportation, we were requested to bring no muchachos (boys – i.e., servants), so we had to shift for ourselves. Our baggage was very strictly limited; each man being allowed two parcels, one of bedding, and the other of clothes, neither to be more than could be easily carried on the back of a single cargador. Mr. Worcester took along for the whole party an ingenious apparatus of his own contrivance for boiling drinking-water, as all streams in the Philippines at a level lower than 6,000 feet have been found to contain amoebae, the parasitic presence of which in the intestines produces that frightful disease, amoebic dysentery. We were especially desired to leave our revolvers at home, and had no escort. 

As the book’s title The Head Hunters of Northern Luzon From Ifugao to Kalinga implies, Nueva Vizcaya might not have been specifically included in Cornelis De Witt Willcox’s target study sites for Head Hunters. In fact, from Baguio down to Tayug, Pangasinan via Benguet Road (renamed Kennon Road) he and his team mainly passed by Nueva Vizcaya on the way to Ifugao, Mountain Province, and Kalinga. But Willcox’s quite lengthy description of an Ilongot village in Dupax called Campote might indicate that the province, particularly the southern part where Isinays – and, yes, including headhunters – lived, was part of the itinerary after all.

[NEXT PART: ARITAO]

What's Earthquake in Isinay?

The Isinay Word for Earthquake

A FEW STEPS away from the door of the St. Vincent Ferrer Catholic church of Dupax del Sur, until recently there used to be a small structure with a cross on top.

The thing was not there before. By “before” is meant not so long ago, starting when I was a church-going boy in the 1960s up to when my wife and I got married there in 1979.

The first time I noticed it, it looked to me like a tombstone. Yet I didn’t bother to inquire whether it was intended to commemorate a VIP connected with the almost two-and-a-half centuries old church.

And one time I attended a burial or a wedding, I saw kids playing hide-and-seek on it. Thus, I got the impression that it was meant to cater to the playful nature of angels while their elders are attending mass, memorizing the faces of new in-laws witnessing a church wedding, or listening to kilometric eulogies for a dead relative, or something.

It was only when I went to take photos of the St. Vincent patronal procession and town fiesta last April that I came to know the whys and wherefores of the monument.

It was built to commemorate a big event that literally shook not only the church but also the entire towns of Dupax, Bambang and Aritao -- and killed hundreds of people in the cities of Baguio, Cabanatuan and Dagupan, and forced thousands of survivors to once again walk and carry loads as roads and bridges were erased in many parts of Luzon.

That big event was the intensity 7.7 killer earthquake of July 16, 1990.

This 2-meter monument in front of the St. Vincent Church of Dupax features the cross that fell during the  earthquake that hit Northern Philippines on July 16, 1990. The cross served as pinnacle of the front wall of the church.

IF YOU GO to that monument in Dupax nowadays and pretend to ask someone around what is it for, most probably you’ll hear in their statements the Ilocano word ginggined or the Tagalog lindol.

It would be fun, indeed, if one Sunday morning I’ll visit that Spanish-era church and do a little experiment of asking 100 or so church-goers. I bet, even if they know that I am an Isinay, I’d be lucky to get 10 who would utter the Isinay word YOJYOJ while the majority will most likely say "saru ngay ertkweykkar."

Alternatively and phonetically spelled yohyoh, the Isinay term for earthquake is a good example of words in the southern Nueva Vizcaya language that are now seldom used in Dupax del Sur, said to be the base as well as the last bastion of the Isinay tongue.

A number of Isinay words associated with the effects of earthquakes have also been replaced by Ilocano or Tagalog or even English terms.

Examples: NAJBA (narba in Ilocano, nagiba in Tagalog); NAJDAY or NAJURAY (nagidday in Ilocano, nagiray in Tagalog); NAJPING (nasping in Ilocano); NATABU-AN (nagaburan in Ilocano; natabunan in Tagalog; buried in English); NABANTU-AN or NAT-ONAN (napandagan in Ilocano; nadaganan in Tagalog); NITAPUSAN (napabutngan in Ilocano; kinilabutan in Tagalog; scared to death in English).

AS PART OF Isinay country’s collective memory, a story went around that a day or so after the earthquake, a DZRH correspondent went to Dupax to report the incident.

I have yet to verify the story but I know the Isinay fellow interviewed by the field reporter. Anyway, he was said to have uttered on nationwide radio: “Nuung nag-lindul, ang simbahan ay napunit!”
It’s obviously a funny Tagalog, purists among us might say.

But that just goes to show how we people of the Isinay world go all out to accommodate strangers and to voice out what we feel. On the side, the interviewee might be right in using “napunit” – because, after all, the church part torn away by the yojyoj was the same cross used as crowning glory of the earthquake monument now gracing the front of the church.

WHAT IS NO longer part of the collective memory of Dupax is the earthquake that happened in 1882 or thereabouts. You see, I happened to have a copy of a yellowing 11-page typewritten document titled History and Cultural Life of Dupax (handed down to me by my Ilocana mother who found it while arranging the files of my Isinay father a few months after he died).

In the section on Important Facts, Incidents or Events, the document carries this:

1882 – There was an earthquake which lasted for about a month. Daily masses were said outside the church. It was said that at times water from jars spilled out because of the violent shakes caused by the earthquakes. 

I checked the internet for major temblors that occurred in 1882 and, except for a report that said earthquakes occurred that year in Oregon, USA, nothing was mentioned about the Philippines.

But I did discover the closest information about a cataclysmic event that could possibly have affected Dupax “for about a month.” This was the eruption of Indonesia’s most famous volcano -- Mount Krakatoa.

According to Wikipedia:

“Krakatoa was a volcanic island made of lava in the Sunda Strait between the islands of Java and Sumatra in Indonesia.The volcano exploded in 1883, killing 36,417 people. The explosion is considered to be the loudest sound ever heard in modern history, with reports of it being heard nearly 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from its point of origin. The shock wave from the explosion was recorded on barographs around the globe…. The recordings show that the shock wave from the final explosion reverberated around the globe seven times. Ash was propelled to a height of 80 km (50 mi). The sound of the eruption was so loud it was said that if anyone was within ten miles (16 km), he would go deaf.” [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa]

“The 1883 eruption of Krakatoa began in May 1883 and culminated with the destruction of Krakatoa on 27 August 1883…. In the years before the 1883 eruption, seismic activity around the volcano was intense, with some earthquakes felt as far as Australia…. On 27 August four enormous explosions took place at 05:30, 06:44, 10:02, and 10:41 local time. The explosions were so violent that they were heard 3,500 km (2,200 mi) away inPerth, Western Australia and the Indian Ocean island of Rodrigues near Mauritius, 4,800 km (3,000 mi) away, where they were thought to be cannonfire from a nearby ship.” [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1883_eruption_of_Krakatoa]

If you ask me, the month-long earthquakes felt in Dupax (that caused daily masses to be held outside the church) and the eruption of Mt. Krakatoa (that started in 1882 and continued May-August 1883 and whose explosions were heard thousands of kilometers away) were most probably related. In other words, the earthquakes felt in Isinay country were repercussions of the volcanic movements of Krakatoa (Karakatau to some).

But why the discrepancy between 1882 and 1883 in the recorded history of Dupax? Well, I guess there might have been a clerical error committed by one who recorded the year and another who transcribed the same data many years later.

On second thought, it could have been due to extremely challenged recall on the part of an informant who, according to a naughty whisperer in my mind, must have said in an aging voice:

“Yojyoj? E… attu ye, idong… dongngem si mavves. Nave^leng on namummutoja^ tay an unga siriye… ot mansajsajov ami tay siri Avannatan… i-us-usa mi ya andu-oy an bayombong toy neyir tay timba… ot pingsanyen napnu mot si danum di sajban on mawaga si batalan miar, otoy mot ta dajas an dimmatong ri naansananar podda an yojyoj… ot wara, najday ri baiyurar siri Avuwew… natabu-an ri wayilar Pitang… nan-ajpa^ on nan-avalin di sajban on mawaga miar dari… ot, e, aytu, omoy nin sinbuwenan an om-omoy amid di simbaanar an nandu^duuj on nanpajo^go^gos y Apu San Vicente Ferrer toy, wara, opong si ejaw ya mitapusan amit atdiyar an masden poddan yojyoj!”

Isinay Land Was Formerly Called Ituy

NOTE: When your Isinay Bird could not log in new posts because he forgot the password that served as key (tumbuj in Isinay) to this blog, what did he do? Well, among other things, I didn't consider my memory lapse as "the end of the world" (gunaw). I also did not "just sit in the corner like a sick bird" (mantuttutung). Instead, I continued reading Isinay documents, visiting Isinay country, meeting elderly (darauway) Isinays, taking photos of people/places/things in Isinay land, and jotting down some of my fleeting thoughts. In case you have not seen them yet, I posted some of my outputs in http://isinayworld.blogspot.com -- my other blog which I wish newcomers could visit one of these days. To sort of make up for my half-year silence in this blog, I thought it would interest Isinay Bird friends if I "migrated" some of my posts in Isinay World to this blog site. Here's one of them.

Isinay Land Was Formerly Called Ituy  

AS IF TO REMIND the writer in me that the world of Isinays is indeed a wonderful one, a half-forgotten topic pertaining to Isinay country and its people pops up now and then and, like a long-unseen bird that from out of nowhere perches by my window, it gets my undivided attention.


One such “did you know” topic is the fact that the part of Nueva Vizcaya that has been and still is known to be Isinay territory used to be called Ituy.

I don't know why, but I suddenly posted it as sort of a tajtaje (just for fun, not serious) question in the Isinay Friends and Isinay Global Association groups in Facebook.

Unfortunately, there were no takers. Or probably the challenge was not interesting enough.

Anyway, it was my fellow forester Romy Acosta (of Vista Hills, Bayombong) who first mentioned to me this historical tidbit on Ituy. I think it was a couple of years back during a break in a senior foresters’ meeting at the conference room of the DENR Bureau of Forest Development in which he was Director.

Perhaps I had deadlines to meet. Or that I was doing something very urgent. For it developed that I didn’t pursue Director Acosta's lead on Ituy and just took the discovery as an object of curiosity to add to my coconut’s collection of sundry trivia.

About two weeks ago, however, the rainy weather made our internet as well as cable TV connections in the house erratic. So what better thing to do than curl up in bed and catch up on my readings.

Thank the rains. It was because of them that I was able to leaf through a book that had been gathering dust in my "junk files" for many years now but which I didn't know had Ituy on its pages.

The book is William Henry Scott's 370-page The Discovery of the Igorots: Spanish Contacts with the Pagans of Northern Luzon (published in 1974 by New Day Publishers, Quezon City).

Dr. Scott has served as Principal of St. Mary's Sagada, has published extensively on the Igorots, and is considered by many as the foremost scholar on the Cordillera region.

I may be putting my researcher's head on the chopping board here, but I believe his book may be used as major reference on Ituy. In fact, its Index lists some 23 pages where Ituy is mentioned or discussed.

It was from the book that I got enlightened on the "Paniqui" being referred to in other literature on Nueva Vizcaya and the Cordillera.

Before this, I was wondering how the combined forces of Spanish soldiers and Isinay volunteers mentioned in the August 1810-August 1811 Isinay diaries of Juan Mallo (included in Ernesto Constantino's 561-page Isinay Texts and Translations) were able to walk from Dupax and Aritao to "Paniqui" overnight when the Paniqui that I know is more than a hundred kilometers away in Tarlac.

Anyway, Scott's footnote on Page 85 of his book says: Paniqui was the name given the Gaddang-speaking Mission centered on Bagabag downstream from the Isinay-speaking Mission of Ituy.

In case one is interested in going to the book's original sources, among Dr. Scott's references were:

• Manuel del Rio, Relacion de los Sucesos de la Mision de Ituy (Mexico, 1739)
• Bernardo Ustariz, "Relacion impresa de los Sucesos y Progresos de la Mision de Santa Cruz de Paniqui y Ituy," AUST Libro de Becerros, No. 37, fol. 222 (1745)
• Vicente de Salazar, "Relacion de la Conquista de Pituy por la Tropa de Cagayanes Año de 1748 (APSR, MS, Filipinas, Vol. 113, fol. 195).

Here are excerpts from the Introduction of Dr. Scott's book:

If the Spaniards had drawn a map of their new colony in the 16th century, (the) Cordillera territory would have appeared as part of the provinces of Cagayan, Pangasinan and Ilocos... and an unconquered area called Ituy in the upper Magat valley around the present municipality of Aritao. Mountaineers trading gold in Pangasinan and Ituy were called Ygolotes -- later to be spelled Igorrotes -- but mountaineers farther north on the Ilocos coast were called by the ordinary term applied to mountain dwellers all over the archipelago -- tingues or tinguianes (from the Malay word tingi for 'high, elevated'), except in Pampanga where they were called Zambales....

In the Cagayan valley the need for such a term did not arise because the more gentle eastern slope of the Cordillera presented no sudden mountain wall, so the Spaniards simply called the Kalingas and Apayaos infieles (pagans) as they called the Ibanags and Gaddangs of the Cagayan valley itself. But when they went up the Apayao River, they called the mountaineers there by another native name, Mandayas (literally, 'those up above'). Then when they made expeditions into the Baguio gold mines in 1620 and Kayan in 1668, they called the people there Igorots, too, and when they built a fort at Bagabag in 1752 against Ifugao attack from the west, they called them Igorots or, occasionally, Tinguians. (pages 1-2)

In Chapter 1 (The Search for Igorot Gold: 1575-1625), Dr. Scott again mentioned of a place named Ituy and insinuated that it was a gold-rich area:

Reports of wealthy communities in the headwaters of the Pampanga and Cagayan Rivers inspired further Spanish exploration in that direction, and about 1585 Governor Santiago de Vera sent out a prestigious local chieftain from Candaba, Dionisio Capolo, at the head of 100 native troops. Capolo reached the Caraballo, consulted his allies there, decided to proceed no farther into hostile territory, and returned to join a secret conspiracy against the Spaniards led by the Lakandula family of Tondo.

When the plot failed, he was sentenced to eight years' exile from the Manila jurisdiction, but successfully appealed to a higher court for a reduction of the sentence to four years, and then devoted the rest of his life to loyal service to the Spanish government. Don Dionisio was especially useful to the Spaniards in a series of expeditions across the Caraballo and down the entire Cagayan River Valley sent out by the energetic Governors Gomez and Luis Perez Dasmariñas, father and son, in the 1590s.

The Governor himself attributed the pacific results of the expeditions -- the first extracted tribute in the form of gold jewelry from dozens of villages without the loss of a single life on either side -- to the presence of missionary chaplains, but Dionisio Capolo's presence is the more likely explanation. He already had contacts with these people, more than once entertained recalcitrant captive chieftains in his house in Manila, often travelled into the same regions almost alone, and in the early 17th century was the favored go-between when leaders from this area sought Spanish intervention in their local conflicts. He almost lost his own life in one of these expeditions when he guided a detachment up from the Aritao area into what is now the municipality of Kayapa in 1595, searching for Igorot mines. (pages 11-12)

As for internet sources on Ituy, my Google-search led me to one http://www.cbcponline.net/jurisdictions/bayombong.html which carries the following:

The first Christian mission established in Nueva Vizcaya was that of Ituy in 1609. This sitio or barrio could have been anywhere between what is now the province of Cagayan in the north, and the mountains bordering Nueva Ecija in the south, because as the Spaniards colonized the Philippines, the entire Cagayan Valley, now Region II, was simply one province called Cagayan.

The faith spread over the region through the efforts of the Augustinian and Dominican missionaries who came from areas now called Cagayan and Pangasinan. By 1717, Father Alejandro Cacho went on mission trips to Ituy, and slowly picked up once again whatever threads of Christianity had been left by the earlier missionaries. Within twenty years, with the help of the Augustinians, Father Cacho was able to baptize many Isinays and Ilongots, original inhabitants of the place, and build cogon chapels in some eight settlements in the Marag Valley.

Over the years the settlements grew in number. Bujay, now the town of Aritao, and Dupax already had their resident priests. In 1739, Holy Mass was celebrated in Bayombong for the first time. The parishes of Bayombong, Bagabag and Dupax were established in 1741, and that of Solano soon after.
In April of 1841 the province of Nueva Vizcaya was born, created as a politico-military province by royal decree from Spain. The original line dividing the valley into two – Cagayan and Nueva Vizcaya provinces – ran between Tumauini and Ilagan (now the capital of Isabela). The name Nueva Vizcaya came from that of a province in Spain called Vizcaya. The capital was the town of Camarag (now Echague in Isabela).

In 1856, the province of Isabela was created, deriving half of its land from Cagayan, and half from Nueva Vizcaya. With this new partition, Bayombong became the new capital of Nueva Vizcaya.

EH, IIVA on abeveyoyan an Isinay, if these bits and pieces are not interesting parts of Isinay history for you, uria^ amta mu anden sutsur ri ajayjayan yuwar.

Your Isinay Bird Is Back

First things first:
HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL LOYAL ISINAY BIRD FOLLOWERS!

Even as I have learned I do have silent readers (like my kailians at the NCIP offices in Nueva Vizcaya),
I'M VERY, VERY SORRY I WAS UNABLE TO POST ITEMS FROM JULY TO DECEMBER LAST YEAR -- 2012.

Believe it or not,
IT MUST HAVE BEEN THE SENIOR CITIZEN IN ME ASSERTING ITSELF -- FOR INSTANCE, TO KEEP A RECORD OF THINGS THAT SHOULD NOT BE FORGOTTEN: LIKE PASSWORDS.

In case you haven't got what I was trying to say,
YES, I TRUSTED MY MEMORY SO MUCH...  BUT WHEN I WAS ABOUT TO ADD SOME MORE ITEMS TO ISINAY-BIRD.BLOGSPOT.COM, I COULD NOT LOG INTO IT. WHY? SIMPLY BECAUSE THE SENIOR CITIZEN IN ME FORGOT MY PASSWORD TO ENTER THIS BLOG AND BE ABLE TO SHARE THE ESSAYS AND PHOTOS I WANTED READERS TO HAVE.

Yes, I was unable to post more items last year
BECAUSE I THOUGHT I WAS NOT YET THAT OLD TO FORGET... THAT MY 61-YEAR-OLD BRAIN CELLS ARE STILL HEALTHY ENOUGH NOT TO FORGET SUCH IMPORTANT THINGS AS PASSWORDS.

Now, if you ask me how it felt, it was like this:
IT WAS LIKE REALITY STOOD UP IN FRONT OF ME AND HIT ME SMACK ON THE FACE LIKE THAT KILLER PUNCH THAT JUAN MARQUEZ USED TO SURPRISE OUR BOXING IDOL MANNY PACQUIAO.

Behind the clouds, however, the sun never said goodbye to Isinay Bird.
A FEW DAYS BACK, WHILE THINKING OF WHAT ESSAYS ON ISINAY TO WRITE FOR THIS NEW YEAR, I FINALLY REMEMBERED I HAD A RECORD SOMEWHERE OF MY ISINAY BIRD PASSWORD. IT WAS FORTUNATELY SAVED AS A TEXT MESSAGE IN MY OLD CELLPHONE!

So now then, what?
I'M JUST HAPPY TO BE BACK! IN FACT, IT FEELS LIKE COMING HOME TO ISINAY COUNTRY AFTER SO MANY YEARS OF NOT SEEING, SMELLING, FEELING, TASTING, DRINKING THE THINGS THAT NURTURED THE ISINAY IN ME.

Constantino's ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS (Last Part)

LET'S FORGET for a moment that Dr. Constantino is not a Novo Vizcayino and probably had not been to Aritao-Bambang-Dupax before doing the book (and, I guess, must not have gone back to do a possible sequel or even merely to distribute copies of the book after coming back from Japan).

But what he has done for Vizcaya, particularly the Isinays, should more than qualify him to be an adopted son of the province, particularly Isinay country.

The Book's Illustrious Co-Authors

Equally monumental as the contents of the book, is the way Prof. Constantino was able to bring into its making a synergy of Isinays from Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax del Sur. Indeed, he could not have assembled a more formidable powerhouse of informants as well as gatekeepers to produce his book. 

Consider, for example, the following  authorities on Isinay he was able to harness from Dupax alone:

ERMELINDA C. MAGALAD

CARLINA LIQUIGAN FELIX

AMBROSIO PATING

ESTELA G. FERNANDEZ

CONCEPCION C. FELIX

ALFONSO CASTAÑEDA

JUAN FELIX

GENOVEVA LAZAM

VICTORIA S. ARROYO

GENARO GUZMAN

PIO DAGGAO

MARY AMADOR

JUANA S. BASTERO

EUFRACIO TOJE

ANASTACIO ACOSTA

Except for Carlina Liquigan Felix, Genoveva Lazam, Genaro Guzman, Mary Amador, Eufracio Toje, annd Anastacio Acosta, I'm quite familiar with most of the venerable people in the list above -- now all gone to the Isinay world up there! 

Madam Magalad, for instance, was my favorite teacher at St. Mary's High School (see "Farewell to a Great Isinay Teacher" in this blogsite). I heard the grand old man Osio Pating was married to a Maxima Castro, an aunt of my father. 

I used to call Estela Fernandez and Concepcion Felix, respectively, Auntie Tating and Auntie Concing. And I hasten to add that Auntie Tating was my teacher in Grade 6 where I got the highest grades ever of 96 then 98 for "original" and "rewritten" theme (not to forget my being Valedictorian under her care when I finished going to the Dupax Central Elementary School).

Don Alfonso Castañeda was, of course, the first and only Isinay so far who rose to become Governor of Nueva Vizcaya. Ama Juan Felix was the eng-eng (violin) player in the St. Vincent Church during his time. 

Ina Ane^ Bastero was one of our catechism teachers during my pre-Holy Communion days and was one of the golden voiced cantores (church singers) when I was growing up, along with Ina Vito^ Arroyo.

As for Ama Pio Daggao, well, I remember that morning in 1967 when it was my turn to guard the road by the Dampol Bridge for "violators" while the flag ceremony was going on at the St. Mary's High School. I think I blew the whistle when Ama Pio was still on that part of the road that used to have teak and mahogany trees on one side, and the old man got off his carabao, stood at attention, then got back to his farm animal later when the singing of the national anthem was over, and when he passed by me I heard him say: "Naveyandaj tiyen nuwang, nayyi gineje nan adal!" (This pest of a carabao, he has no manners.)

Seeing their names in the book (and reading or singing what they have contributed to its pages) is thus, for me, not only a journey back to that particular time siren poto^ (in the olden days) when I could see them or hear their gentle voices somewhere and even get to talk to them and kiss their hands during the Angelus!

Tapes Were Used but No Photos

Apart from the nap-em porat nabalitu-an an laman (packed with golden contents) main pages of the book, the author's preliminary pages are also a joy to read. 

I was particularly attracted to two parts of the Acknowledgements. Here's one:  

"The collection of the texts included in this book was begun in 1963 in a research project on Philippine languages and dialects which received financial assistance from the University of the Philippines for more than ten years.... During my one-year stay as Visiting Professor in the Institute for the Study of the Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, I was able to transcribe phonemically and translate all the texts in this book.

The items I underlined have made my imagination go on turbo mode. Since 1963 onwards to when Dr. Constantino flew to Japan, could it be possible that he took photographs not only of the Isinays he interviewed but also of certain spots in the towns of Aritao, Bambang, and Dupax del Sur? 

I guess the book would have been doubly more appealing and historical now had it included photos that were at least representative of the topics and the people, places, customs, and practices mentioned in the book. For example, a good picture of the anino^ singers or perhaps even the newly wed couples they were singing to would have been a jackpot for the children of those involved.

If he transcribed the interviews/recitations/singing, where are the tapes now? Could he have left the tapes in Japan? Or are they getting eaten by silverfish and fungi now somewhere in UP Diliman or in the Constantino household's filing boxes? If they still exist and are still usable, is it possible to borrow them so that at least we the living and caring Isinays could possibly listen to the voices of our pinavlen darauway an Isinay (beloved elderly Isinays)?

Here's another part that caught my interest:

I am  especially grateful to Mrs. Magdalena Larosa-Aliaga, her son Mr. Edgar L. Daniel and Mrs. Ermelinda C. Magalad for additional help for translating some of the difficult words and phrases. I wish also to thank Mr. Dominador C. Boada, Sr. for giving me the typed copy of the Isinay diaries which are included in this book and for taperecording the entire Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana en la lengua de Isinay & Inmeas (1876), and Mayor William Giron of Dupax del Sur, Nueva Vizcaya who extended to us his hospitality and help when we went to his town in 1976 to undertake fieldwork.

The names I underlined were both my uncles. Mr. Boada was married to my father's only sister Atanacia Mambear Castro while Mayor Giron was married to my father's first cousin Josefa Mambear Guiab. (Except for Auntie Pepang who is now in the U.S., all the names mentioned above, including my father, did not live long enough for me to at least be able to ask what their reactions to the book.)

The following parts of the 9-page Introduction also titillated my senses:

This publication is the first volume of my study of the language and literature of the Isinay people in the Philippines.

The oral compositions were collected from Isinay informants with a taperecorder between 1963 and 1982. A few texts were written down by the informants before they were taperecorded.

All the words in the texts included in this book were compiled in a vocabulary which will be published immediately following this book.

I wonder whether Dr. Constantino was able to come up with that follow-up publication.

The Isinay World Years From Now

Constantino's Isinay Texts and Translations has set the pace or ran a very good lap, were it a relay race, and it’s now up to us concerned Isinays and language activists to pick up from where he left off.

In fact, the book's Introduction carried just such a marching order:

We hope that the publication of these texts will not only result in their preservation and dissemination but will also provide original data for the study of the life and culture of the Isinays.

Continuing the race after Constantino has made a great starting run is, however, a huge challenge now. For one thing -- reincarnation aside -- it would probably take forever to wait until a convergence or at least a semblance of such could be made of the Isinay authorities he has so enviably spent many hours with.

In the interim, I just hope that the Isinay language would not degenerate further, like what happened to Aritao’s part in terms of speakers -- this, even as the Larosa and Daniel elders have done their big, big part with no heir apparent so far coming out to pick up the baton for them. 

Incidentally, I heard that the writer Edgar Daniel of Aritao (of "Mount Malussong" fame) passed away only last April. I remember he was editor-in-chief of the Vizcaya Advocate when I wrote a letter to the editor that started this way: "Ayyu-ayyu beveyoyar Dupaj!" 

In publishing my letter, Apo Daniel even did a translation of my Isinay lines and, as I didn't know he was an iAritao then, I was surprised that there was an Isinay up there in that newspaper's office. 

Anyway, that letter aired the collective grievance of the people of Dupax regarding the results of the elections where Benjamin Perez (brother of then COMELEC boss Leonardo Perez) became Congressman -- and later authored the bill that divided my hometown Dupax into Dupax del Norte and Dupax del Sur.

But so much for that lamentation. 

For now it would help Isinay language activists as well as Isinay world historians to know that Constantino has propitiously did his now-an-indispensable-Isinay-language-and-history reference at the right time and at the right place -- in particular because the unassailable authorities he consulted were still alive at the time.

Had he done it later, say in the late 1980s up to the 1990s, he would probably meet only a sprinkling of Isinays who may not have good sutsur or appoyaw to tell, genuine anino^ songs to chant, and past Isinay events and places to revisit.

In other words, I bet Constantino could not have come out with a gem of a book on the Isinay language and many of the now mostly forgotten customs and stories of the Isinay world the way he did.

Be that as it may, I hope Dr. Ernesto Constantino is still alive and would make himself available -- so that, among other things, I could possibly do a reversal of roles: this time an Isinay videotaping him making sutsur of his experiences with the Isinays and asking him to possibly sing a few strains of the baliwaway and anino^ he very fortunately taped many, many years ago!

 -- charlz castro/isinay bird

Beautiful Piece on Isinay from a Young Isinay

NOTE: We interrupt our regular programming, as it were, to feature an essay by a young lady who, at the time this piece was being written, was studying in Bangladesh. Insofar as your Isinay Bird is concerned, this beautifully crafted piece is most probably the first of its kind to ever come out in defense of the Isinay tongue and of being an Isinay coming straight from the heart of a budding writer and language activist with Isinay blood. We're just too glad to publish it here in ISINAY BIRD for at least two reasons: 1) to show our appreciation for the efforts and aspirations of the author as well as, oh well, for the nurturing guidance of her Isinay mother; and 2) to inspire other youngsters and their parents, be they full-blooded Isinays or half-bloods or "muggles" (to use a term in the Harry Potter movies) like Isinay Bird. We also included selected feedback from those who read the original essay on Facebook, including corrective comments from the author's Catholic nun grandaunt, Sister Concepcion Daran, a pure-blood Isinay working in Africa. The author and her parents and sister are now back in Belgium.

A Small Effort to Save the Isinai Language

by Rica Duchateau

September 23, 2011

MY USUAL INTRODUCTION is that I am half-Belgian and half-Filipino, but many do not know that I have tribal ancestry. 

My Filipino grandmother is a genuine member of the Isinai indigenous people’s group that inhabits southern Nueva Vizcaya in Luzon. Hence I am one-fourth Isinai, and proud to be so. 

Unfortunately, the traditional costumes and dances (which we often associate with ethnic groups) in the Isinai culture have been pushed aside by globalization in the form of jeans, television and mobile phones. 

Nevertheless, there are still certain customs that survive, and the generation of the elderly is still able to fluently speak the Isinai language (to point out, the language is considered as a tribal one and not a dialect). This language is in a vulnerable position, though, as only Tagalog and English are being taught at local schools. 

Apparently current students with Isinai origins can understand the language, but are abandoning it as it is considered old fashioned.

My lola (grandmother) and her siblings are part of the last generation of fluent speakers of Isinai. My mother has a working knowledge of the language and uses it with her mother, but she claims she does not speak it in its pure form. 

I just know a couple of expressions and words, mainly (not very severe) swear words I picked up from the elderly cursing at naughty youngsters hanging around in Dupax del Sur, Nueva Vizcaya. In fact, I hardly spend much time in the Philippines so there are not many chances for me to use and practice this language on a daily basis. 

But then again, my cousins who have lived there all their lives aren’t particularly fluent in it. 

Observing this dramatic decrease in its usage, the Isinai language might just disappear in a couple of generations. In addition, according to the Facebook group “Isinai Global Association”, formal Isinai is based on the Dupax del Sur version of the language, but now another IP group, the Gaddangs, are attempting to push it aside and name it “just” a dialect. 

Below is a small effort to document and save the Isinai language. The following are Isinai words and expressions I know off the top of my head, and their English meanings. A special acknowledgement goes to Sr. Ching Daran, my lola's sister and a member of the last generation of fluent Isinai speakers, who helped correct the notation and meaning of words. 

Now, I wish I could add Isinai as a language on Facebook, but sadly there is no page for it and I cannot create one.

 NOTES ON PHONETICS

• "i" is pronounced as an English "ee"
• "j" signifies a firm Spanish "g", or a Germanic "ch"
• "u" is pronounced as an English "oo"
• An apostrophe signifies a suspension on the consonant when followed by the same consonant; when followed by another consonant, it signifies an abrupt ending.
• "^" signifies an abrupt ending to the previous letter.
• A dash means the syllables are connected, but pronounced separately.
• Underlined letters signify a stress.

VOCABULARY

1. am'mai = large
2. ana = children
3. ba-ak = old maid
4. baket = old woman
5. ba-u-u = turtle
6. beya = charcoal
7. beyoy = house
8. bojas = rice
9. bongas = cuts at the heel
10. butongero = alcoholic
11. dalaj = fish
12. e-eng = clothing
13. gulir = butt
14. isiraj' = viand
15. itungu = firewood
16. lajay = old man
17. lujit = chicken poo
18. ma-al'ali = good in despising
19. ma-e-as = lazy
20. mahuv = smelly
21. man-dam'ot = to be pregnant
22. man-lutu = to cook
23. man-os'oseya = to be united
24. man-taro^ = to dance
25. marot'lot = voracious
26. maserot = pretty, beautiful
27. mata-aw = gossiper
28. matava = fat
29. matung = hot
30. maveveha = noisy
31. mulagat = big eyes
32. muwar = your
33. nay-yir = nothing
34. navutong = drunk (effect of drinking too much alcohol)
35. paltat = catfish
36. perensa = iron
37. pod'da = really, extremely
38. sang'gup = soup
39. sa-urong = squat
40. tatahu = people
41. umat'tay = to poo
42. u-u = nails

EXPRESSIONS:

1. aboleyam = never mind
2. adday mayat pod'da sa-urong muwar = "What a nice squat!" Expressed when people in a group are talking, especially referring to those talking on the street, maintaining the traditional squat position
3. addu payla = expression directed at someone who is being over-dramatic
4. amoy tau mot = "Come, let's go."
5. ande niye? = "What is that?"
6. ande tiye? = "What is this?"
7. ay apu! = expressed when you are pleasantly amused at someone's silliness
8. ayan yu? = "Where are you going?"
9. bakbaketan = expression directed at a person who does something he/she is too old for
10. mara^da^waw!= "Liar!"
11. dahom a = a swear-word directed at someone who is trying to be funny by doing crazy things
12. daraten tatahu/ana! = "These people!" Expressed when irritated at the naughty or reproachable acts of people/children.
13. eytu = an expression similar to "umm..."
14. ilam de! = "Look at that!"
15. Hesus Mariya Kusep! = Literally means "Jesus, Mary, Joseph!". It has a meaning similar to "Oh dear!"
16. luj'dit = a swear-word directed at an unpleasant person
17. mahuv gulir muar = "Your butt smells"
18. man-amos amot = "Go and take a bath"
19. man- ... aytu tau = "Let's (activity)"
20. man ilo aj' si ihar = Literally means "go and scratch yourself with a coconut grater." It is expressed when someone believes that something will never happen
21. man-sor a! = "Wait!"
22. mangan tau = "Let's eat"
23. mawawa' = "I'm thirsty!"
24. meyasa! = Similar to "Oh my!", but with a negative connotation
25. meyo^ amot = "Go to sleep."
26. naveyanduj = a swear-word closely related to "darn it"
27. naveyangit = a swear-word closely related to "darn it"
28. navitila^ = "I'm hungry!"
29. poha! = expression directed at someone who seems to be daydreaming/hallucinating, or does something wrongly
30. punyemes = a swear-word directed at someone who is not behaving properly
31. sanat' sinot'tom = "That's what you know." Expressed when reproaching someone who constantly participates in abominable or dishonorable acts.
32. sayang = "It's a pity"
33. sibijbihat = "Good morning"
34. si-ejaw = "Good day"
35. silawi = "Good evening"
36. udi = "There"
37. udiet' si ... = "There is (name)"

FEEDBACK 

CHING DARAN: That is awesome to hear Rica. You are such a very authentic and a beautiful heart. Yes, indeed you are very international in your blood and you made us so proud of you. I keep you in my prayers and Nina too .

RICA: Hi lola Ching! Thank you! Since you are a member of the last generation of fluent Isinay speakers, could you please correct the Isinay words I wrote?

CHING DARAN: Adday,de-e mot tuwa di amtamar an ba^ba^ an Isinai a. Here are some minor corrections: 

am'ma-i (instead of am'mai) 

mahuv 

matava, 

maveveha (use V instead of using W), 

nay-yir, 

umat'tay instead of tumak'ki (this is Ilokano) 

addu payla. 

ayan yu? -where are you going? 

meyo^ mot - go to sleep! 

amoy tau mot - come let's go. 

poha! - means are you daydreaming, or are you hallucinating? (or say to someone who does things wrongly?) 

si bi^bihat - good morning. 

mara^da^waw - liar. 

In our dialect we also use this punctuation (^) a lot. It sounds like an abrupt breaking. Otherwise, you are doing well Rica. Keep learning our dialect. Am'ma-i on addawi ri maratong di bilay muar, Eteng. Mav'ves podda ri ap-apyomar. Keep smiling too.

HAYDEE ESQUIOJA-TUCAY: I am proud to be an Isinay!Spread it that we are genuine!!!!!!

MARITES JALLORINA: Wow, Rica. I am proud of you and i am proud to be an isinay. Maserot podda di inapyamar. Mari min kaya an apyon di inapyamar.

SHAZEEN KARIM: Rica this is sooooo cool! spread the indigenous culture that are being blanketed by globalization. Once we lose something by time then for sure we will be saying "why didn't we do anything about it!" i hope you are successful in your journey to preserve this wonderful aspect of who you are and family's history. ♥

RICA: Hi Shazeen, I'll continue this "project" in June, once I'm done with IB exams. I'm trying to set up a Google site where I put together all sorts of information related to the Isinai.

LALA TUSCANO: ANTIGO!!!!!!!

NIDA GRUTAS BASTERO: Wow, I'm so impressed Rica!!! Here you are, half-Belgian yet so proud of being an Isinai and really making an effort to trace her roots and living up to it by embracing the culture and speaking its native tongue. Isn't this a big insult to some of us who easily could say… I couldn't speak the language anymore because I have no one to converse in Isinai with? And so we pretend not to know anymore and easily make an excuse to speak other languages. Of course, this is not bad as long as we keep in our heart the truth that we are Isinais and part of being so is embracing the culture as I have previously mentioned and most importantly knowing how to speak the language... so no excuse please!!! And thank you so much, Rica, for the awakening!!!

RACHEL ZAMORA DUCHATEAU: Yap! Sobrang proud yang anak ko na may Isinay root siya.Somehow yong every day na nakakausap ko siya ay laging may nakasingit na Isinay words kaya lahat ay tinatandaan niya yan and grabe ang memory niya.I am really so proud of her!Ayan sinabi ko sa kanya na lola ka niya.Thank u auntie for encouraging her!

NIDA GRUTAS BASTERO: I salute you Eteng as well as your husband for the very good up-bringing of your kids... so impressive really!!! Congratulations again, Rica!!!

CHARLZ CASTRO: Eh, Rica, sangkanan besan u lojom navatar tiyen nabalitu-an an in-itnur mu? Bendisionan daa otyat Apu Tauwar an Namalsa, Eteng... And may there be more young people like you who are not only proud of their Isinay roots but also make the effort to contribute to the revitalization of the Isinay language (yes, it is a distinct language!). Rachel, manpagayjayam podda toy sinalinuwam tiye mariit muar Rica an mangita^doj si puli tauwar an Isinay.

Constantino's ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS (Part 3)

Dear friends and supporters of Isinay Bird, are you still with me? I have been out for a while, sorry for that. It's sort of bad for business -- blogging business, that is. But I had to pause for a while and I'll tell the whys for this a little later in one post. I assure you they are good reasons, or excuses if you may, and they will most probably more than make up for the half-month hiatus I gave for this blogsite. OK then, to those of you who have been so patiently waiting for the continuation of our series on Dr. Constantino's Isinay book, here's Part 3:

GIFT FROM AN ANGEL

NOT SO LONG ago, after sensing that I would never get personal hold of a volume of ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, I tried to apply the "Control A + Control C" technique of getting copies of books for free via the Internet.

You see, I applied that downloading technique earlier -- with satisfactory results -- to two books that I was willing to shell out part of my allowance for blood-pressure maintenance tablets, had they been available at National Book Store.

One was a beautifully written book on biology by a scientist who certainly knew how to inspire lay people or non-technical readers. The other was probably the best reference on writing for scientific publications I ever encountered.

I needed the books so much, not only to nurture my self-imposed mission as a forester writer but also to stay fully armed, as occasional lecturer at DENR and as Editor-in-Chief of the Ecosystems & Development Journal, with the latest hows and wherefores of science writing and editing technical articles.

In the case of  ISINAY TEXTS AND TRANSLATIONS, however, even as I wanted to peruse it so much I was thinking to go shoot even only a few of its pages in the lone copy said to be available at the museum of the St. Mary's University in Bayombong, the Ctrl A + Ctrl C magic didn't work.

Indeed, I was only able to reach the foot of the hill insofar as going to the pages that I wanted to read in full or to closely inspect. Except for a few discordant snippets of paragraphs that would appear on my laptop's screen, there was not much I could extract from the 561-page book even with the combined forces of Google and Yahoo.

When I say it hit me like it was the end of the world, you better believe it.

Like staring and salivating at a smiling, fragrant and seductive lechon enclosed in a restaurant's display counter, I thought I would content myself with being able to catch only an Isinay word here (like teyantah) and a couple more there (like sinungop and pingsanean).

But just as I was beginning to forget about the book, just when the thought was starting to gel in my subconscious that there was nothing much to it (meaning, no need to salivate for it), an angel came down from Heaven, as it were, to come to the rescue.

Her name was Dr. Analyn V. Salvador-Amores, a social anthropology professor of UP Baguio.I met her through my daughter Leia.

How I came into the picture was not clear. It could be that Leia (who also teaches in UP Baguio) mentioned something about her Isinay roots or my doing an Isinay dictionary, or that Dr. Amores (Ikin for short) sounded off her plan to do research on the Isinays.

Or whatever.

Ikin and I met one afternoon last April. It came out that she's interested in a kinuttiyan cloth that is said to be made by Isinay weavers and is called uwes pinutuan.

Yes, she said, she heard of the Isinay dictionary I was working on and we could probably do a joint research project.

I could not contain my excitement at having a Ph.D. graduate from the University of Oxford conduct research on Isinay culture, and in Dupax at that.

But equally exciting was her words that she has a copy of Dr. Constantino's book.

And so, I forgot most of what we were discussing. But I do recall Ikin mentioning something like she found THE BOOK lying in one library at Oxford (probably gathering dust and awaiting a trip to the trash bin) and she just picked it up.

So that was it. She gave me a folder containing Celina Marie Cruz' "Revitalization Challenge for Small Languages: The Case of Isinai" and The Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project small grants information pack.

And a day or so later, Leia came home with a paper-bound photocopy of THE BOOK.

COMPLETOS RECADOS

I SPENT THE whole night and long, long hours the days and nights after that voraciously feasting on and savoring every page of Constantino's Isinay book.

If it were a food item and you're going to ask me to describe it, the least I could say is that it is completos recados. It has all the ingredients -- nay, the items -- I was looking for, including even some juicy bits about the exploits of an Isinay playboy of yesteryears.

What I was looking for, mainly, were words in Isinay -- particularly authentic Isinay words and ways of articulating thoughts and weaving them into coherent language all of which I needed to enrich and substantiate my already around 12,000-strong collection of Isinay words as of April 2012.

Again, I'm not stretching it when I say I got much, much more than I prayed for.

Not only were the book's Isinay pages packed with Isinay vocabulary, expressions, songs, mottoes, riddles, stories, and prose many of which I barely remember hearing or coming across before -- the author also did a wonderful job giving their English equivalents. And on a one-on-one or paired-pages format at that. Thus, there's no need for me to squeeze some other people's brains or to second-guess what they meant.

What's more, the book did not only focus on Isinay Dupax but also contained equally golden items on Isinay Bambang. For one whose i-Bambang vocabulary has not gone beyond takallo (corn), bansing (matches), mangaw (cat), dadak (frog), ansisinno (dragonfly), and masing-aw (delicious), the book would save me from pilfering words from the Facebook postings of friends from Bambang.

As for Isinay Aritao, the book is also certainly a windfall as it contains very generous samples of vintage documents -- such as patayav and testamento -- written in unadulterated Isinay. The Aritao Isinay customs concerning marriage and those concerning death are certainly enlightening as well as entertaining reading for one concerned not only with the language but also now vanishing practices.

For children or even those who want to be equipped with bullets to tell their kids or grandkids bedtime stories, the book has a generous menu of legends, prince and princesses stories, fairy tales, and even ghost stories.
 
For the more serious language students, the inclusion of Isinay prayers from the first Isinay book ever to be published -- the Catecismo de la Doctrina Cristiana de la Lengua de Isinay o Inmeas reportedly printed in 1876 -- should be interesting. In fact, even a fluent Isinay speaker like me would find the prayers challenging to read and to understand as their author/s used an orthography that looks alien compared to today's largely phonetic Isinay wayof spelling words.

As if the above items were not enough, the book is also a treasure trove of bits and pieces of history as well as tidbits on local geography and natural resources that should not be side-stepped by history buffs worth their salt. For instance, the three Isinay diaries are a very absorbing read for one who wants to know how the Spaniards subdued the Bugkalots -- already known then for their headhunting prowess -- using Christianized natives such as Isinays and imported warriors from the Ilocos.

(To be concluded)