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Paghihintay sa Chuvatienes…
ni Michael Ian Lomongo, August 18, 2006

Hindi maikakailang malaki na rin ang naging impluensya ng salitang bading o gay lingo sa pang-araw-araw na pananalita ng madla. Sa pinoy gay lingo, kapansin-pansin ang mala-chopsuey na paghahalo ng iba’t-ibang wika (Tagalog, Japanese, Spanish, English, atbp.) at sari-saring alusyon sa pop culture (gaya ng mga pangalan ng mga artista). Kadalasan, dahil na rin sa dami ng variations at pagpapalamuti ng mga salita, halos ‘di mo na makilala at malaman kung saan hinango ang mga ito.

Halimbawa, san kaya nagmula ang katagang “chuvatienes”? Maaaring ang “chuva” ay variation ng “chever/cheber,” na maaari namang pinaikling “whatever/whichever” (o posible rin sigurong updated version ng salitang Tagalog na “keber,” na mula naman sa Spanish “que ver” ); ang “tienes” naman (kung saan hinango ang “chenelyn”) ay Spanish ng “you have.” Kaya, kung tutuusin, ang “chuvatienes” ay Spanglish ng “what-have-you.” Sa madaling salita, “anuman”… “whatever.”

Nitong nakaraang Hunyo, napanood ko ang produksyon ng Tanghalang Pilipino ng “Waiting for Godot” ni Samuel Beckett. Bilang pagdiriwang sa ika-isandaang taon ng kapanganakan ni Beckett, nakipagtulungan ang CCP, Alliance Francaise, Embahada ng Pransya at NCCA para imbitahan ang isang direktor mula Avignon, si Alain Timar, na idirihe ang isang adaptasyon ng nasabing dula (sa panibagong salin ni George de Jesus III).

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Tags: Art, Filipinos, Gender Issues, Philosophy, Samuel Beckett, spirituality, Theater, Translation
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Will keep posting old articles until they are all archived here. Will post something new every now and then.

best regards,

ian

Writing in Tongues

By Michael Ian Lomongo, April 29, 2001

(Thoughts on Actors’ Actors Inc.’s production of Paul Stephen Lim’s “Mother Tongue” — with Bart Guingona, Nieves Campa, Miren Alvarez, Ed Feist, Richard Cunanan, Bobbie Greenwood, Kate Fernandez; directed by Chris Millado)

The day I watched AAI’s production of Stephen Paul Lim’s “Mother Tongue,” I had just finished reading Amy Tan’s “The Joy Luck Club.” I’ve long wanted to read the novel after seeing the movie years ago. Some of the people I’ve talked with, who have both read the novel and seen the movie, preferred the novel. As they say, much is lost in any translation (whether it be from one medium to another or from one language to another). For me though, much of the narrative’s visceral impact in the watching wasn’t there in the reading (probably because I was no longer encountering it for the first time).

Anyway, I mentioned “The Joy Luck Club,” because like it, “Mother Tongue” is about finding and defining one’s identity and home in the Land of Promise. The former is about immigrant Chinese mothers and their American-born daughters, and how they try to bridge the breach in understanding caused by two disparate cultures; the latter, about a Chinese mother who’s an immigrant to the Philippines and her writer-son who migrates to America, and how this son seeks her mother’s understanding in his freely causing (and embracing) the breach.

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Tags: Desire, Filipinos, Gender Issues, identities, Languages, Power, Writing
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