2. As Tata Teban and Nana Tasyang speak to each other, what does the reader learn about their only son? What emotions do the parents demonstrate as they discuss their son? What is the prevailing tone in this episode?
3. What rituals and practices regarding childbirth and marriage, hospitality, for example, of a distant past are vividly recreated in the story? Are these details relevant? Explain.
4. The long wait seems over with the arrival of Aryong, the courier. What news does he bring? In what way is this news conveyed?
5. The abrupt change in the story’s atmosphere is noticeable after the sad news has been delivered. How would you describe the atmosphere prevailing in the house? How does Pineda paint the scene through language?
6. Nana Tasyang takes refuge in tears. What is Tata Teban’s response? How does the story show the man’s response to the news of his son’s death?
7. In the Old Testament, Job, a properous man, lost everything, even his family, and was reduced to beg at the gate of the city. In his anger and resentment, he challenged God to explain to him his horrible fate. Is Tata Teban a Job-like character? If so, what are the parallels in the two stories?
8. How is the mystery of death, especially the death of an only son, explained away in this story? Indicate the stages that lead to this epiphany, a revelation or a manifestation that leads to enlightenment.
9. What is the function of the natural world in bringing about this epiphany? What is the precise object that becomes the controlling symbol the meanings of which Tata Teban understands, perhaps imperfectly?
10. Why is it important that Tata Teban is finally able to shed tears? What are the functions of tears in our lives? What kind of relief and release do they bring? Explain.
11. Do we have this kind of abiding faith among Filipinos? If so, how is this shown?
12. Nature plays an important role in Pineda’s fiction. What insights about nature, especially in these days where massive and destructive changes in the environment threaten our existence, can we derive from the story?
“Ka Martin’s Heaven”
1. On the surface, this story reads like an ordinary tale because of its apparent simplicity and artlessness. But Pineda’s mastery of fiction transforms what could have otherwise been a simple tale into a great story that moves with its own heartfelt invitation to the reader to think and ponder on the “truth” the story unfolds. Who is Ka Martin and as the story begins, in what condition does he find himself?
2. Contrast this opening scene’s homey atmosphere and familiar surroundings with the next episode. Describe Ka Martin’s death and the initial encounter with the afterlife. What is the dominant feeling created by the details of his surroundings?
3. In the archetypal approach, the image of the shadow sometimes functions as a guide. In the story, who is the guide and what is his role in Ka Martin’s life, apart from guiding him to different sites?
4. What is the first vision that meets ka Martin in the city? What details are used to create a lavish spectacle? How does this image conform to what mass media has sold to the audience as the meaning of heaven? What are the general charactersitics of this heaven?
5. Discuss the function of the birds building a nest. Why is it important for Ka Martin to sit on the grass and wait until the birds have completed their task? Explain.
6. What is the next stage in the journey? Compare and contrast the two heavens.
7. How does Ka Martin respond to this new and much simpler heaven? With anger? With joy? With anxiety? Discuss.
8. What, for Ka Martin, is heaven? What role do his plain-looking but hard-working wife, the animals in the yard, the rich soil occupy in this heaven? Are these important details? In what way?
9. Discuss what you think is the most significant theme of the story. Explain.
10. What films have you seen or stories you have read that also explore this theme? How would you compare Pineda’s story and those works?
11. What implications does this story have on the manner we lead our lives now? What is the story saying about the modern world’s intense interest in wealth and power, in glitter and fame, its greed and its materialism? Give examples.
12. How then, based on this story, should we view death? Explain.
“Mother …”
1. This is a story about a young laborer. Like Pineda’s other stories, it probes what lies beyond death. Before Tonyo, the protagonist, dies, how does he strike you? Is he a likeable young man? How does he relate with his fellow laborers?
2. Describe the death of Tonyo and the events that transpire afterwards. What do you feel as a reader as you watch Tonyo looking at his blackened body? What does he think of his friends now viewing his body with shock and sadness?
3. According to Tonyo, what kind of knowledge does a dead person possess? How does he demonstrate this new knowledge?
4. In an early episode when Tonyo sees Uring by the window, what traditional beliefs about proper behavior in courtship and love are depicted? Are they practised today among the young?
5. In the village, Tonyo visits his mother, his father, his sweetheart, his cousins, and friends. How does each of them respond to him and his call that they do not hear?
6. How does Uring’s grief strike Tonyo? How does his mother’s reaction affect Tonyo?
7. How does his father’s response to Tonyo’s call differ from that of his mother? What does this show about the relationship between Tonyo and his father?
8. What does Tonyo’s death mean to the community? What does the neigbors’ collective response show regarding life in the barrio?
9. Explain why the bond between a mother and her son is the tightest and the deepest. Do you feel the same in your own relationship with your mother?
10. The Blessed Mother at the foot of the cross is a controlling image in this story. How does this allusion deepen our understanding of mother’s love?
11. Without drama and excessive flourish, Pineda unfolds a story of a mother’s love. How does our contemporary celebration of Mother’s Day (in May) compare? To what socio-economic factors would you attribute this annual commercialized event?
12. What insights about death are imparted in this story? Explain.
“Why the Angels Are Sad”
1. What does the expression “from the mouths of babes” mean? How is this cliché given a new interpretation in the story?
2. Why is Pinong grief-stricken? What tragedies have befallen him?
3. In a series of flashbacks, the reader gets to see what happened in the past. What were the incidents when Tinong and his wife were perceived as showing no respect for beliefs held dearly by the communty?
4. Discuss these incidents in terms of a cause and effect relationship—making fun of traditional beliefs leads to unfortunate events. Can you cite other prevalent beliefs in today’s world?
5. What are the cultural bases for such popular beliefs? Do they have any rational basis? If not, why do people cling to them?
6. How does Pinong respond to the deaths? What emotions overwhelm him as he nurses his pain? How do his emotions affect his action?
7. What role do Pinong’s mother and his two daughters play as he grieves? Has his love for them diminished?
8. What is the incident that changes the way Pinong views his loved ones’ death and his terrible sense of guilt? Is this change realistic?
9. Explain how the conversation between the old woman and the five-year-old Lita has moved the father’s heart that leads to his acceptance of the tragedies and his own liberation from guilt.
10. With her own kind of logic, Lita explains why her mother has been taken up to heaven. What is the train of ideas that leads to this concluison? What biblical verse reminds us to be like children and retain their innocence and sense of wonder? Do you agree? Why?
11. Why is it important that in the end, Pinong is finally able to shed tears? Discuss.
12. Can you cite some anecdotes and stories about little children and the “tru
ths” that have come from them?
“The Nymph of Karuyan”
1. In several stories and in his novel, Gold in Makiling, Pineda has shown his interest in experiences that are beyond human understanding because they defy what is logical and rational. He does this by mining old legends and myths like the myth of Mariang Makiling. In this story, he deals with the strange encounter between a nymph and a mortal, thereby joining countless producers of fantastic tales from around the world. How does Pineda utilize the resources of fiction, as the story begins, to lay the groundwork of an unusual story? Pay attention to the time and the place where the story takes place and the introduction of Nano.
2. Who is Nano? How is he described? Based on his physical appearance and attributes, he can qualify as a dashing hero. Why?
3. What does he lack? What are the repercussions of this lack insofar as he relates to the people in the community? This image of the “fool” is a powerful one that appears in various cultures in different guises—the court jester, King Lear’s fool, the mad woman like Sisa, the sidekick of a prince, etc. Although people tend to laugh at them, these characters are beloved of the gods because of their innocence, and are, moreover, thought to possess certain mysterious powers like the power of divination, or to “see” what “normal” people cannot see.
4. What does the lengthy episode, when the narrator and his friend investigate the real identiy of the mysterious sweetheart, do to our interest in this strange being? What details about her emerge? What details about Nano’s character are revealed?
5. So far, the reader has been made to listen to the conversation between Nano and the two curious men. What is the role of Amang Roman in shifting the narrative from mere listening to actually seeing? Who is Amang Roman?
6. How does Nano communicate with the sweetheart? Where does this encounter take place? Describe the site of the meeting. Is there anything unusual in the site?
7. The reader is able to get a glimpse of the nymph through the eyes of the men as they peer through the diamond prism. The reader’s view is, therefore, thrice removed from “reality.” How is the nymph described? Provide the details.
8. What kind of a being is the nymph? How does she compare with ordinary mortals? What does she symbolize, according to the narrator? Do you agree? Explain.
9. The strange sighting ends abruptly. What is the reason, according to Amang Roman? Are you aware of similar stories revolving around strange beings interacting with human beings? Give some examples from legends and films, e. g., stories from Greece or Roman mythology.
10. The story presents a “truth” about the absolute need to persist in the quest for authentic beauty, purity, and innocence that both the nymph and Nano possess. This is a powerful drive found in human beings and serves as a foil to the brevity, ugliness and sinfulness of life. Discuss and illustrate this idea using what you have read or watched.
11. What are the story’s themes? Discuss.
12. Nano is like the five-year-old Lita in “Why the Angels are Sad.” What are their similarities?
“The Looting in Longos”
1. Like “Dawn Breaking,” this story employs two parallel narratives—about the past and about the present. The difference is the presence of a prayer that acknowledges God’s presence and generosity throughout the past events. Give a brief summariy of each of the two narratives.
2. What do we know about the individual saying the prayer and narrating his past? What are his qualities as a husband, a father, a farmer?
3. How did the farmer and his wife manage to build a house, buy land, and improve their material condition? Give details.
4. What kind of community surrounded the family? Does this community show the same qualities of the communities in other stories of Pineda? What are these qualities? Do they differ from the community where you live? What cause the serenity and peace to be suddenly shattered? Who are the agents of destruction? Why are these men described as shadows throughout the attack?
5. Describe the way in which Pineda slowly unfolds the series of actions done by the shadows, as they fire the shots, walk furtively down the street, until they reach the door? What feelings are aroused by the acts of these evil men? On the part of the family? On you as the reader?
6. In the midst of confusion and threat of violence, the writer spends time focusing on the relationship between the mother and her yougest child. How does the author describe this relationship? What image of the mother emerges?
7. A section in the narrative details the family’s sufferings during the war and what the father thinks of the war. What are these suferings that they underwent? What was the effect of the devastating war on the family?
8. The brutality of the thieves expresses itself in numerous ways. What are the forms of violence they unleash? After the looting, what is left of the family?
9. Despite the brutal attack, what does the father say in the last paragraph of his prayer/narrative about the thieves that not only broke into his home but sought to destroy the family? Do you agree with the father? In the final analysis, what is the role of our Father in heaven in human affairs? Discuss.
10. Using the prayer “Our Father,” can you show how each of the prayer’s lines finds an echo in the story of this family? Do you find this technique effective? Explain.
11. That life and its sufferings must be accepted appears to be one of the story’s major themes. What are other people’s responses to the reality of evil and pain in our lives? Explain.
12. Can you cite an example in real life where the individual against whom a crime is committed willingly forgives the sinner/criminal? Is this the norm? Explain in light of the biblical saying, “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth …”
Glossary of Terms
apahap: silver sea bass
dulang: a low, dining table
guyuran: rein made of cord for a carabao
is-is: a shrub the leaves of which have a sandpaper-like surface, and, as such, are utilized for cleaning utensils
kamuning: small, smooth tree with very hard yellow wood. Its leaves are used in making wreaths and giving body to bouquets.
kiluwa: crushed mustard
kumpare: male sponsor in the baptism, confirmation, wedding, of one’s child. A term also used to connote a wide-ranging series of mutually beneficial relationships in society.
*looban: a term used to refer to one’s interiority; as a physical space occupied by adjoining houses surrounding a common space; and as an act of stealing or robbery where the looters also invade the person’s private space. Running through the various meanings is the idea of “space” that connotes something unique to an individual or shared by a group which must be respected.
luksong-tinik: a children’s game where a child jumps over the outstretched arms of two children
pamitik: steering rod attached to the nose-ring of the carabao
peseta: monetary unit equivalent to 100 centimos.
requiescant in pace: Latin for “rest in peace”
salambaw: fishing net in a crane-like contraption, with bamboo crosspieces mounted on a raft
suyuan: an act of asking neighbors to help out in some activity such as moving houses or tilling the soil; a request for help. The common meaning refers to the courting or wooing process undertaken by people in love. The meanings are shaped by the idea of unselfish sharing.
tagunggong: a coin bank made of coconut or bamboo shell
tubigan: a children’s game through “enemy lines” marked by water on the earth floor
*The original title of “Looting in Longos” is “Looban sa Longos.” Thus, the aforementioned explanation.
The Translator
Soledad S. Reyes is Professor Emeritus at the Ateneo de Manila University. Her work on Macario Pineda began when she wrote her thesis on the writer in 1970. Her Gold in Makiling (Anvil, 2012) is a translation of Pineda’s Ang Ginto sa Makiling (1947). She has also edited and introduced anthologies featuring the novels and short stori
es of Pineda. Her translation of What Now, Ricky? by Rosario de Guzman Lingat won the A. L. Becker Southeast Asian Literature in Translation Prize for 2016.
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