A Postmortem of Ang Maghuhurno
by Cymbeline Villamin
With Ang Maghuhurno (8Letters Publishing, 2023), I wanted to write a romance with substance. It had to deal with a forbidden love. I had a problem with the “happy ending,” until I decided a happy ending did not necessarily mean “happily ever after” or “together forever.” A kind of discernment and acceptance of how things turned out would suffice, I thought, since conflict development and resolution create an eternal cycle.
One thinks a problem has been solved until another one emerges again—just like cancer cells in each of us. Everyone has cancer cells waiting to be activated. Just wait until your immune system weakens because of stress, and voila, the healthy cells are overpowered by carcinoma.
Which brings me to my nobela. The end is just the beginning. In the English version, a new ending will emerge.
Let me walk you through my path of discontent. I gave birth to a novel. But after the exhilaration came the anguish. I could have done better. I could have trimmed the excess fats, done a more meticulous proofreading. And so now, I do a postmortem. I will not rest in peace until I complete the better version. Bear with me.
1. Baking the Novel
Ang Maghuhurno tells the affair of a sexagenarian who is a 4th generation descendant of the obscure but skilled presidential baker in Kawit during the 1890s. The romance is whisked into a blend of history, politics, feminist theology, culture, and erotica. I chose to write the story in Filipino because it is my heart language—mellifluous, sensual and passionate like a song in the night.
Unfolding the narrative from the viewpoint of a woman past 60 years of age is meant to privilege women in the most exciting autumn of their lives when leaves are red and gold, when they remain fresh and continue to bear fruits of wisdom, just before winter comes and everything would be frozen, deathlike.
The novel starts, not in the beginning but, right in the middle where the action sizzles in the state-of-the-art fitness gym in Nuvali. Dawn arrives as the glass walls offer a panoramic view of the metropolis that slowly would be bathed in sunlight as Liz Virata, the baker-protagonist, negotiates the treadmill with Lancelot Yatco, trainer and future lover beside her. They are at the threshold of the sweet disaster that would coincide with the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19.
From there, I employ flashback and stream-of-consciousness, poetry, and the metaphorical bibingka that was contextualized by scholar Joi Barrios as a traditional yonic symbol in Filipino fiction (see her introduction for the novel).
The bibingka, listed as the 13th most delicious cake in the world by Taste Atlas, a tourist journal in July 2022, is used to insinuate treason in the 1890s. It is served in the merienda cena after the first president of the republic, Emilio Aguinaldo, proclaimed Philippine independence on 12 June 1898 in Kawit, Cavite. It brings together the lovers into a baking tryst that would forge their intimacy. His rejection of his wife’s rice cakes indicates their dysfunctional marriage. On the other hand, it does not take a genius to discern what is going on with Lance’s enthusiasm to help Liz in firing the terra cotta ovens, heating round-cut banana leaves over fire to make pliant for the batter, mixing ingredients as his free hand explores her breast, kissing her on the lips, and recording the scene on his mobile phone camera with her permission to replay over and over. When Lance feels nauseous from the repetitive serving of rice cakes by his fiancée, Nathanie, we become certain as to who really owns his heart.
Managing eroticism in the story is significant. I introduce sexual tension and sustain it. It seems the lovers lose interest to make love when their affair is exposed. But desire continues despite the outward show of stoicism and moving on. To comply with the “happy ending” convention of the romance genre, I oblige somewhat. But the truth is that this novel does not give a catharsis at all. The protagonists become living dead. One side cries out for freedom to fall in love passionately, while the other side whispers “Never let me go” within the safe context of the socially and morally acceptable institution of marriage.
2. Rescued from the Fall
The unique branding “Sixty is the new sexy” by 8Letters Publishing for this new release has boxed—a little less fortunately, though—this multi-layered sexagenarian romance, Ang Maghuhurno. The brand minimizes its salvific value, which was my major goal as explicitly expressed in my Foreword.
Actually, there are various ways of parsing the novel since it has many layers, including historical and political. I was deliberate in my effort to record historical and political truths for future generations in this novel. But that is another matter. For now, I delve into its feminist theology, which posits that a woman connects with the rest of humanity and God through sexual actualizations and sublimations.
In this novel, the woman protagonist transforms into a better human being because of her fling at a particular time of her life, at age 64. In my virtual book launch Feb 19, 2023, I told my interviewer, Criselda Santos (who also designed my novel’s cover), that the sexagenarian protagonist serves both creative and practical purposes. I easily fleshed out the character of the baker, Liz Virata, since I am in the same age bracket; in addition, I attracted attention to my work since this is my first novel. A sexagenarian heroine is unheard of in the romance genre. But then, this is not your usual erotica. As novelist, I wanted to go beyond borders and explore immense possibilities.
I don’t rationalize the reasons for infidelity. My protagonist even scolds herself, “Taksil siya kasi taksil talaga siya. Huwag na niya isisi sa mga ninuno niya.”
People engage in fantasies because the world we live in is not satisfactory. We desire more because we are wired to aspire for the heights and depths and widths of it all. We would not settle for anything less—the mediocre, the mundane— because we are immortal beings, we are created for eternity. Here, I am operating from a Christian perspective. This is actually what my novel is telling the readers, in the passionately sensual Filipino language many of us are intimidated to speak, write, and read, when actually it is the 4th most used language in the U.S. and that it would soon be taught in Harvard University.
In the quest for a better reality, individuals may stumble and fall. Nevertheless, we, whose hands are seemingly clean and not caught in the act, must not judge those who are on the journey to build a better world for themselves and for others. Longing for love, though illicit, is actually an anguished longing for God.
Here comes the raging jealous fiancée who pulls down the lovers from their “Felice di stare lassu” world, thus opening the cruel Pandora box of obscenities, accusations, demonizing, succumbing to Covid-19, and death wish. I do not hate my antagonist. She was my trigger, my catalyst, my moving force. If not for her, I would have no story to tell.
The husband nursed his unfaithful wife back to health and saved her from depression—a metaphor for God’s merciful, forgiving, and perfect love. The heroine sees the path to light and life and renews the vow to honor the marriage covenant.
At this point, I wonder how to make the English version, The Baker of Silang, defiant—where Lancelot Yatco “raises up the dead” without jeopardizing the salvific triumphs of Ang Maghuhurno. Would I dare ruin my message of redemption? I call to mind Alexandre Cabanel’s painting, “The Fallen Angel” (Lucifer) that’s carnally alluring but anguished—a teardrop from the angel’s eyes speaks of humiliation, pain, and anger. But despair not—all those who have fallen will be rescued by the most powerful force in the universe.
3. Usaping Politika at Erotika
Nahimay na kung paano mang-akit, magpakilig at magpaibig Ang Maghuhurno, pati na rin ang istilo at estratehiya sa pag-suway sa hangganan upang maangkin ang salvific value di-umano ng obra. At mukha namang lusot ang nobela sa pamantayan. (Basahin ang “Baking the Novel and Raising up the Dead,” Health and Lifestyle Magazine Online, 27 March 2023 at “Rescued from the Fall,” Filipino Writers Facebook, 2 April 2023.)
Ano naman ang taya sa usaping kasaysayan at politika? Bagamat nagpakilig muna sa unang kabanata sa panahon ng adviento, agad namang bumalikwas at nagbalik gunita sa panahon ng Himagsikan 1896. Inilatag ang plataporma ng nobela sa “Maginoong Taksil,” tungkol kay Emilio Aguinaldo. Si Aguinaldo ay isang magiting at matalinong heneral ng pangkat Magdalo ng Kataastaasan Kagalang-galang na Katipunan ng mga Anak ng Bayan (KKK) na itinatag ni Andres Bonifacio. Si Aguinaldo ay tubong Kawit, Cavite. Lahat ng digma laban sa mga kawal na Kastila ay naipanalo ng kaniyang pangkat.
22 Marso 1897 naganap ang Tejeros Convention na ang layon ay magkasundo ang pangkat Magdiwang na pinamumunuan ni Bonifacio at ang Magdalo ni Aguinaldo. Nagkaroon ng halalan para sa pinuno at si Aguinaldo ang nagwagi. Nagprotesta ang pangkat ni Bonifacio. Kinalaunan, naitala sa kasaysayan ang mga pagmamalabis ng pangkat ni Aguinaldo at wala siyang ginawa tungkol dito. May nagpayo sa kaniya na ipapatay si Bonifacio at kapatid nitong si Procopio at ito nga ay kaniyang ipinatupad.
“Taksil sa prinsipyo ng Himagsikan, taksil sa Bayan!,”
pag-uusig ni Liz Virata kay Aguinaldo. Si Liz ay ikaapat ng henerasyong apo ng mahusay na hurnera ng Kawit, opisyal na bibingkera ng presidente. Si Liz ang bida sa romantikong nobela na ito, na nakagawa rin ng pagtataksil sa kaniyang unang pag-ibig at kabiyak na si Enzo Virata, mula sa angkan ng mga patriots, tapat ang pag-ibig sa bayan, mga angkan ng Basa, sa panig ng kaniyang ina, taga Maragondon.
Mistulang sinulid na pula ang mga pagtataksil na nakahabi sa kuwento— mula sa Eden nang kinagat ng unang babae ang ipinagbabawal na bunga, Himagsikan 1896, panahon ng diktadura noong dekada ’70 hanggang sa panahon ni Duterte kung saan talamak ang tokhang at misogyny, kasuklam-suklam na korapsyon sa panahon pa naman ng pandemia Covid-19, pambansang halalan Mayo 2022, pati na sa kasalukuyan.
Ikinalat sa iba’t-ibang bahagi ng nobela ang mga katotohanang hindi dapat mabura sa alaala ng mga susunod na saling-lahi :
1. Pagnanakaw ng pangkat Magdalo sa taong bayan at panggagahasa sa mga kababaihan na kababayan nila
2. Pagpaslang kay Andres Bonifacio at sa kaniyang kapatid na si Procopio sa napakalupit na paraan sa Maragondon
3. Panghahalay kay Gregorio de Jesus, lakambini ng Katipunan at asawa ni Andres Bonifacio ng isang heneral ng Magdalo, si Col. Agapito Bonzon
4. Pagpapahirap at pagpatay kay Archimedes Trajano, estudyante ng Mapua noong 1972
5. Pagkukuryente sa maselang bahagi ng katawan ng mga lalaki at babae na ipiniit sa Kampo Krame noong panahon ng batas militar sa akusasyon na sila ay mga subersibo
6. Panggagahasa, paghpapahirap, at pagpatay nang panahon ng diktadura sa napakaraming biktima
7. Misogyny (nagsusumigaw na katibayan ang pagkakapiit kay Senador Leila Delima, na bukod sa pinaratangan na sangkot sa ipinagbabawal na droga ay nilait pa ang pagkababae), Tokhang / Extra judicial killings sa panhon ni Duterte
8. Pandaraya sa Halalan 2022 kung paano nangyari na sa isang bansa na napakabagal ng internet, nagawang magbato ng mga servers ng mga numero na hindi matukoy kung saan mga voting precints nagmula
Tila ba lihim na hiyas, ang pagtatala ng mga ganap na ito ang tunay na alay ng nobela sa mambabasa na may edad mula 16 hanggang 60 at lagpas pa; mga paalala na huwag marahuyo ng labis sa TikTok ng narsisismo at kapangyarihan, at utang na loob-- ibigin n’yo naman ang ating Lupang Hinirang, ang ating Inang Bayan.
*****
Cymbeline Villamin is writing her second novel, The Baker of Silang. Her nonfiction paperbacks and ebooks, Christian Writings (2013) and Precious in His Eyes (2018) published by Kindle Direct, are available online at Amazon.
No comments:
Post a Comment