The Leyte Ilustrados and

Their Durogas

Jay Neil G. Verano

PS 219
Second Semester, SY 2017-2018
•The Leyte Ilustrados and Their Durogas
from Jose Duke Bagulaya’s Writing
Literary History: Mode of Economic
Production and Twentieth Century Waray
Poetry
•is a study of four poetic forms - satire, radio
siday, modernist poetry and revolutionary
poetry - that developed in Leyte and Samar
during the twentieth century.
•It traced various factors - mode of production,
class, aesthetics, and the dialects of form -
that led to the formation of these poetic forms.
• It showed the complex interaction between
the determinants (mode of production) and
mediators (aesthetics) in the production of
specific poetic forms.
Jose Duke S. Bagulaya
• Assistant Professor, Department of English and
Comparative Literature, College of Arts and
Letters, University of the Philippines Diliman
• A columnist in Inquirer
EDUCATION
• Bachelor of Laws, University of Santo Tomas
• MA Comparative Literature, UP Diliman
• BA Communication Arts, UP Visayas, Tacloban
RESEARCH INTERESTS
• Law and Literature, Marxist Theory, literary
and legal theory (hermeneutics and statutory
construction, Chinese Literature, Waray
Literature
Lutod kita han mga taga-Asya, an at
kasurat diri na asya. – Eduardo Makabenta
(In Asia, we are unique, our writing is no
longer correct.)
"Waray poetry today lacks originality...is
devoid of character, bland and
undistinguished. And she suggests that
Waray poet must unchain himself and turn
to an "alternative tradition of verse
making" – Merle Alunan
Contemporary Waray literary critics are in
nostalgic mood. They feel that current
literary production has yet to match the
literature of the first half of the twentieth
century.
Waray Poetry’s Golden Age: 1900s
-1950s • This periodization (ilustrado period) has
never been used in Waray literary
criticism.
• The period refers to two levels: class
membership and mode of production.
• The period was practically dominated by
one group of writers "the Sanghiran San
Binisaya" - that included intellectuals and
bureaucrats (Leyte ilustrados).
• It also refers to what Jose Maria Sison
calls the colonial, semifeudal mode of
production (due to the entrance of
American monopoly capital).
Sanghiran: Pillars of Waray Poetry
• The pioneers of "Sanghiran San
(Literature) Binisaya“ (1909)- an organization
that aimed to cultivate the Leyte-
Samar language (led by Norberto
Romualdez Sr.)
• Notable traditional writers who are
members of the “Sanghiran:
Casiano Trinchera, Francisco
Alvarado, and Agustin O'mora
• These poets poets criticized corrupt
government officials, made fun of
people’s vices, and attacked local
women for adopting modern ways of
social behavior.
The Leyte Ilustrados
• Leyte ilustrados differentiate them from Manila ilustrados as they tried to reach
a status equal to the colonial masters. They wanted to be at par with the
Spaniards. The Leyte ilustrados did not aspire to become another Spaniard or
American; they did not want to be assimilated into the colonial culture.
• They refused the dominant culture and turned to the regional/marginalized
culture, viewing the latter as the only bastion of freedom untouched by
colonization. They tried to recover the dignity of their own culture.
• Against the dominant capitalist colonial culture: To some poets this
became a unique aesthetics. This was adopted by radio poets when they start
writing the contemporary siday.
• The issue on language: the emergence of Tagalog - the language of the
center; opposed by Waray( especially) Leyte poets/writers. Vicente de Veyra
wrote the Visayan Orthography that the Leytenon or Waray language had to be
purified. He proposed that one must not use any foreign words or expressions
when there are still equivalent words or expressions which are available in
Waray (Luangco, 1982)
The Waray Siday and the
American Domination
• The literary production of the early
twentieth century is the direct yet
mediated result of the contradictions
between dominant (ilustrados) and
emergent (comprador bourgeoisie)
classes, and between declining
(clerics-feudal) and rising (semi-
feudal/monopoly capitalism) modes
of production.
• The golden age of waray poetry
(1900-1950) is a product of
underdeveloped stage in the mode of
production and class relations.
Philippine Social Contradiction and
the Rise of Satirical Poetry
• Satirical poetry or durogas (written from 1920-1960) is
the strongest tradition in the literature of Leyte and
Samar. It is only rivaled by the popularity of lyrics, which
is, at its best, romantic live poetry. Makabenta and
Trinchera are considered by Merly Alunan as two of the
finest Waray satirical poets.
• Satire- for Marxist critic Walter Cohen is a form that
structurally excludes a positive moral perspective. It
transforms the formally didactic, allegorical, popular
morality play which shows the opposition between what is
satirical and what is didactic.
• Generally, the Philippine tradition of satire
emerged in the Filipinized zarzuelas of the early
years of the twentieth century, a time of violent
transition.
• Lumbera's characterization of the zarzuela as an
entertaining mixture of social comment and earthy
humor may be applied to the ilustrados satire.
• Satirical poetry in Philippine poetics must first be
understood as a dialectical synthesis of two
antithetical forms - religious didactic poetry and
comic poetry.
• Lucente, Romualdez and O'mora propagated this
form. This Waray ilustrados did not only apply
satire in their plays but also tried it in their poetry,
which later developed into the durogas or satirical
poetry.
The Targets of the Satires
• The ilustrados generally had three dominant targets of their
satire: the women, the Tagalized Bisayans, and the Chinese
merchants. This three were the social groups that clashed
with the ilustrados position of nativism.
“An Pagpalabi sa Isigkatawo, Kaaway San Pagpaubos”
Bisan an pagkwarta isda sa merkado/ diri gud makadto kun
kablas sin polvo/ kunta Kay lagas na diri na naasa/
bofanda...an angay na kunta sugad sa aton/….pagsingba
When she goes to market to buy fish/ she will not leave without
putting on powder/ being old, she should not dare sport/ the
bouffant hairdo...more appropriate to us should be/ going to
church, praying.
Reaffirming Male Authority

Kun diri pagisol iya pamatasan/bubuhaton ko gud lain nga

paglarang/ An taya San korot, akon boboogan/Kay bis
maghilos iya kalawasan.

If she does not change her habits/ I will go on with my plan./

the sap of the korot I will squeeze / so rashes will fill her body.

[This is] the patriarch, who is losing power over his wife, has
only one refuge, physical violence. A reaffirmation of male
authority.
• There are also poems that accused women
as mere followers of American fashion. In
Trinchera’s “Panhapyud”:
Aada pa in butkon nga mga ulaton/kulaong
kanan sangra sugad hin pisita/ kundi Kun
bukikion mga kukatihon/ ulat hin
kabutihon...may man kalagasan na nga harus
manyukam/nagagad man gihapon pagsul-ot
hin islevles/ ay pastilan Mana, huboa it nga
duros! It ka na nangunguros!
There are arms which have scars like those
from smallpox vaccine, large as pesetas/ but
if you really examine the blemishes/ they're
really smallpox sears....there are old women
who are almost toothless/ who dare to wear
the sleeveless dress/ Oh, Mana, take off those
garments/ For you are already wrinkled.
• There were satirists who are nostalgic for that time when woman was
chained to the house and the man served the family to gain the woman's
hand.

An makabibigit, an makaoorit/ Kay pinurot dayon ini nga lahignit/hin gwapo

nga tawo nga Waray panarit/ ngan largo hi Mana ha butkon kinmabit.

What's irritating, what's maddening/was when another man sought this

flirt/ one so good looking, who just dragged her off- / to his arms, Mana
quickly clung.
Poem by Luro, "Kolitog kan Mana Juana" (1939)

“Men were afraid of a woman's choice. Men had always been the
ones who choose. They courted the women they like and they
ignored the women they find unattractive. However, bourgeois
relations gave this opportunity to women too.”
• Ilustrados through their satires came into conflict with the
people of the center of those who identified with the city man.

Nganiya ha akon: bakit ka nandito?/ Nganakon ha iya: hino hi

Man Dito?/...Hi Pepe Codilla, danay man bumakit/ Guin iinagaw
Kun oras hin sakit/ Hi Pepe Veloso masukot mag wala/ Wala gud
ngan wala nga diri magsala/....An angay ha ira di gud payaknon/
Pagsiring nga bakit layon buyayawon.

He says to me: bakit ka nandito?/ I say to him: who, Man

Dito?/ ...Pepe Codilla who sometimes says bakit/ Denies it in
times of trouble/ Pepe Veloso frequently says Wala/ He keeps
saying wala so he doesn't err/...Better not allow them to speak/
They should be cursed the moment they say Bakit/
• Caroline Hau (2091) in her essay "Chinese money" stressed
that this position of the Chinese in the Philippine society is
actually an effect of the specific nature of merchant
capitalism.

Makabenta (1960) " An Bayad han Akon Luget"

"Salbahe ka nga insik/ An timbangan mo nalabtik; / Usa ka

sako nga luget,/ Naggaanay im ginmadyek.

You scoundrel of a Chinaman/ Your scale clicks fast/ One sack

of copra lightens by your magic.
 The rise of satire or the Durogas as a dominant form
was paralleled by the rise of the ilustrados of Leyte
during the early semifeudal, colonial period. Satire
became the weapon of the new class fraction
composed of the intelligentsia and the bureaucrats
like Lucente and Makabenta. The ilustrados , who
found themselves the defenders of the native ethnic
culture, contributed so much to the formation of
twentieth century Waray written literature. Their
semi-nativist position, which was the result of their
ambiguous position, vis-a-vis the new economic base,
after the shift from the Spanish feudal-colonial order
to the US semifeudal, colonial rule, served as the
aesthetic basis of their property.