ALOYSIUSI LIONEL POLINTAN Reviews
WRITING NAKED: A MEMOIR by Arnie Quibranza Mejia
(University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, Manila,
2016)
IMMIGRATION AND INDIVIDUATION AS MEMORY'S
SMORGASBORD
"What does it say about me when I ask for asylum
in places where people wish to
leave?"
—Eileen Tabios, "The Empty Flagpole"
This impelling question from Eileen R. Tabios's verse
perfectly fits the overarching theme of Arnie Quibranza Mejia's WRITING NAKED: A Memoir (USTPH, 2016).
What's unique about this memoir is its production of
fragmentary reminiscences of a man who identified himself as a
"happy" individual and who back then hesitated about returning to the
Philippines from the United States. It is in latter territory he found solace
coupled with the courage to live life garnished with profound joy, rather than
living a life expected of a man. "How was I supposed to know that I would
assimilate so well that I would never leave?" It is in foreign land he
found means of embracing his sexuality and pondered questions of pleasure and
relationships.
With a big backdrop of family history, Mejia laid out on
the table, as if a smorgasbord waited to be enjoyed and consumed by one and
all, a chronicle of events surrounding his Marcos-supporting family's search
for political asylum, leaving the homeland after the 1986 People Power
Revolution. Arnie was too young then to grasp the oddities of immigration, the
peculiarities of assimilating to American life, and the subtleties of dealing
with Filipinos and homosexuals. But through a matured Mejia's memory and
imagination, he was able to write down his adventures in the metropolis with
gay men, his schooling frustrations, and his perceptions against friends,
in-laws, and the neighborhood.
If we were to conform to William Zinsser's description of
a good memoir—"a work of history, catching a distinctive moment in the
life of both a person and a society" (1995)—we could acclaim Mejia having
done a good job.
This writing down was all the way fearless, as he
enumerated events we might not be able to imagine as happening in real life.
But this did not end up as a braggadocio's audacious remarks, for gentleness
presented itself between paragraphs and frame narratives. Needless to say, this
memoir was Mejia's constant reminder to readers that sexuality does not limit
its definition to how one views himself or how he distinguishes himself from
the strata. Sexuality, as implied while one reads, ranges from getting in touch
with the body—all curves, edges, flaws and blemishes—to reaching out to people
of same and/or different preference.
Mustering the courage to tell his parents of his being
gay and the infeasibility of marrying a woman to secure a green card resonated
in Mejia's scribbles of immigration and individuation. This was the recurring
theme, the smorgasbord's piece de résistance. However, at the near end of the
book, with assurance of gentle acceptance from his parents, he wrote: "The
years I spent without my parents were a gift since I was able to spread my
wings and accept who I was."
In her breakthrough research on creative nonfiction,
Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo said: "Stories—be they fiction or nonfiction—satisfy,
not much because of the experience they depict, but because of the insights
into that experience which they offer." (2005) Just like how excellent he
is in cooking, Mejia chopped and minced his heartbreaks and let treasured
moments simmer so we could cherish the smell they spawned and the tastes
lingering in our buds and our consciousness.
*****
Aloysiusi Lionel Polintan is
a Senior High School Coordinator of Divina Pastora College in Gapan City, Nueva
Ecija. He loves reading and writing poetry, and everything that ranges from Bob
Dylan to Hozier, and from Mahalia Jackson to Christina Aguilera. He is doing
research on intangible cultural heritage of Southern Novo Ecijanos. He
maintains a blog: /react-text http://renaissanceofanotebook.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment