ANGELES CITY—Anything and everything Kapampangan—the term that describes the people and language of Pampanga province—moves the Holy Angel University (HAU) and its Center for Kapampangan Studies (CKS) to action, either through research, documentation, or advocacy.
Preserving the Kapampangan cultural heritage has been its motivating force these past 20 years that saw the publication of several books meant to keep intact the language of Pampanga despite Tagalog-speaking provinces surrounding it.CKS published the “1732 Vocabulario de Pampango y Diccionario” by Fray Diego Bergano, as translated by Venancio Samson; “Arte y Reglas: the 1621 Kapampangan Grammar and Rules” by Fray Francisco Coronel; the “1699 Arte de la Lengua Pampanga” by Fray Alvaro de Benavente, and the “1729 Arte de la Lengua Pampanga” by Fray Diego Bergano, all translated by Fr. Edilberto Santos.
That the comprehensive Kapampangan dictionary by Samson, published in 2006, is now out of print only underscores the necessity of the task that CKS has undertaken.
It has launched a mobile app of the Bergano dictionary, and is now working on a Wiki-Translator showing the Kapampangan equivalent of English words. The Kulitan, a precolonial way of writing, is introduced as well through an interactive translator on a computer kiosk in the main lobby of the center, which is located in a building named after its founder, Juan Nepomuceno.
To popularize the language, especially among the younger generation, CKS produced the movies “Ari, Area, and Aria,” and sponsored short film projects and competitions. With the blessing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, CKS and 12 archbishops and bishops recorded the “Angelus” in eight regional languages to revive the tradition of family prayer. Copies of the recording were distributed to the province’s dioceses for airing.Film projects
CKS is currently pushing for the beatification of Felipe Songsong, the first Kapampangan candidate for sainthood; the official recognition of the heroism of Huk guerrillas during World War II, and the declaration of Tarik Soliman (Bambalito) as the first Filipino martyr for freedom.
The pandemic failed to stop initiatives of CKS to save the language, says its executive director Robby Tantingco. “We went fully online, and held webinars, online competitions on spoken word poetry and songwriting, gave online tributes to poets who died of COVID-19, and celebrated our 20th anniversary online,” he explains, adding that the center “converted its materials into digital format, with many publications turned into e-books and e-magazines. The center also offered a virtual museum tour.”
The first edition of “Kapampangan Ku,” an encyclopedia of biographies, was launched in March 2022.
Such projects inspired enough trust in CKS that some of Pampanga’s most respected families donated or loaned their collections of the works and personal effects of National Artist Vicente Manansala, E. Aguilar Cruz, and even Inquirer columnist Ambeth Ocampo’s 6,000-volume Filipiniana books and manuscripts.
Also found in the center are John Larkin’s manuscripts and materials on Kapampangan studies; the Songco-de la Paz-Limlingan clan’s portraits and personal effects; Don Mauro Gomez’s over 100 relics of saints that were blessed for veneration in HAU’s Oratory of Sacred Relics, and National Artist Jose Ma. Zaragoza of Guagua’s mural painting of San Lorenzo Ruiz used during the beatification of St. Pope John Paul II.Growth and expansionThe council of Barangay Pampang here also donated a 3,000-year-old prehistoric tree trunk unearthed from the riverbed of Abacan during the lahar episodes that followed Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruption. The trunk is now part of the Pinatubo museum.CKS international conference on Kapampangan studies in 2001 started what Tantingco describes as the “nucleus” of the library and network that has since grown since the cnter opened in 2002.
Getting the province’s oral history straight from the people who lived it, doing field research and linking with community-based advocates have expanded the reach of CKS as well.
Tantingco also reveals that when La Union Gov. Raphaelle Ortega David went with 30 people on Nov. 11 to benchmark practices, “the best models for putting up a regional center for culture and the arts (was found to be) a center based in a local school rather than in a government facility.” This, he adds, avoids political appointments, with the appointees being coterminus with their patron. It can also take advantage of the school’s available personnel and logistical resources, and their talents and skills.
One-stop shop for research
Tantingco says people like the HAU founder and his wife Teresa, CKS administrator Myra Paz Lopez, and the center’s go-to-guy Leonardo Calma were not trained for the job, and were just “a motley group of rank-and-file employees” who “immersed ourselves in the everyday lives of our ‘cabalen.’ We drove around the province, visiting barrios we never knew even existed, and documenting the way they cooked, sang, danced and told stories.”CKS has since helped a number of public schools, local governments and parishes put up their own Kapampangan corners or museums. It has also evolved into a one-stop shop for researchers.
Aside from a library for the found documents, the center has put up a theater, an art gallery, a section devoted to Pinatubo and a place for seasonal exhibits, says Tantingco.
“Right now, we are upgrading our exhibits by installing augmented-reality apps and digital kiosks, and will also feature seasonal poetry and ‘basulto’ performances, and a school of living traditions where we will hold workshops on how to make ‘pukpuk’ (aluminum ornaments), ‘burarol’ (kites), parol (lanterns), and other vanishing Kapampangan crafts,” he adds.
“From publishing books, journals and magazines, we have responded to the rapidly changing times and tastes of our clientele by making music CDs, and being on other popular media like radio and cable TV, until we stumbled on the most popular but challenging medium of all—film,” says Tantingco.So far, the works of CKS have been recognized, with a dozen National Book Awards to its name, as well as corresponding awards for film from Famas, Metro Manila Film Festival, Gawad Urian, Young Critics Circle, and several international film festivals. INQ
