A morning walk with E. San Juan, Jr.

Exchanging private messages on Facebook, E. San Juan, Jr. and I agreed to have breakfast at the University Hotel at the UP Diliman where he and his significant other, Delia Aguilar, were staying. I wanted to ask some questions for a paper I was writing. But after getting the answers I needed, I got so much more.

Sir Sonny (his nickname to friends and comrades) invited me to have a walk around the University of the Philippines Diliman campus. Now 73 years old and an internationally respected critic and writer, he went on self-exile in the United States during Martial Law. A staunch critic of Ferdinand Marcos, he was prevented from going home at the time but after the dictator was ousted, he started visiting the Philippines from time to time. He was more than happy to point to me the few buildings that existed in the mid-50s when he was a student of English at UP. We stopped in front of Palma Hall, the Liberal Arts Building of his time, to take pictures of the familiar façade. The state university transferred from Padre Faura in Manila to Diliman in Quezon City in the early 1950s. According to Sir Sonny, the new campus was a former military camp, which is why there were Quonset huts scattered all over the hills. Made of galvanized iron, many of these huts became housing units for faculty members. “It used to be cold here," he said, as we walked through the shade of century-old acacia trees. Sir Sonn graduated magna cum laude from U.P. Diliman in 1958. With Fulbright and Rockefeller scholarships, he finished his M.A. in 1962 and his Ph.D. in 1965 in English at Harvard University. His scholarly writings have tackled Third World culture, globalization, semiotics, ethnicity, and the Filipino diaspora. As a teacher, Sir Sonny chaired the Department of Comparative American Cultures of Washington State University. He was also visiting professor of literature at Leuven University in Belgium, National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, and of course in UP Diliman. Recently, he was appointed as a fellow of the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute of Harvard University. He is the author of more than 20 books of literary criticism, short stories, and poetry in English and Filipino. Sir Sonny’s first book, The Art of Oscar Wilde, was published in 1967 by Princeton University Press. Last year, he sent me his new book Toward Filipino Self-Determination: Beyond Transnational Globalization published by the State University of New York Press. During our breakfast, Sir Sonny gave me a copy of his latest poetry book entitled Sutrang Kayumanggi, which I loosely translated into “Brown Desire." After strolling around the Sunken Garden, Sir Sonny brought me to the UP Lagoon near the administration building. He wanted to show me the stage where dramatic performances and poetry readings were held in the ‘70s, and the sculptures by Napoleon Abueva. The stage is now in ruins and full of graffiti. The lagoon is dying and full of kangkong. Sir Sonny took a picture of a woman gathering young kangkong stems. In front of a beautiful balete tree is a crumbling sculpture of two students reading a book together. On our way to another artwork, this time the sculpture of three women sewing the Philippine flag, we passed by a family having a picnic in the middle of the greenery. We heard someone call Sir Sonny’s name; it turned out to be Danilo Arao, another writer whose radical works I also admire. Danilo, who is the newly appointed assistant vice president for external affairs of UP, was there with his family and some friends. We chatted a bit about UP politics, which I cannot write here. One of the things I admire about Sir Sonny is that he is not hambog in spite of his accomplishments, and is in fact mild-mannered. While strolling around the campus with him, it felt like I was walking with a favorite and loving uncle. Is this the man who, in his book Toward a People’s Literature published in 1984, proclaims, “In the Philippines today, art and literature are matters of life and death, serving either the liberation of the vast majority or the continued domination by the privileged elite," I mused. He poses a question which indeed is a matter of life and death: “Which side shall we choose?" I made my choice several years ago when I volunteered to write for Bandillo ng Palawan in Puerto Princesa City from 1998 to 2000, offering my young life to the cause of preserving the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples. That was not really a conscious choice, for it was only a youthful sense of adventurism that brought me there. But that Palawan sojourn became an eye-opener, making me realize I had a very sheltered childhood. It also shaped my consciousness as a writer. The fact that I was walking with Sir Sonny that morning is also enough evidence of my choice as a writer—i.e. to write poems, stories, plays, and essays to contribute, in my own little way, to the struggle to liberate the vast majority of Filipino people from the shackles of poverty and injustice.

Writers and teachers J.I.E. Teodoro and E. San Juan Jr. at the UP campus. GMA News

In a taxi from UP Diliman to my little home in Pasig after the extended morning with Sir Sonny, my heart was filled with gladness and my soul with contentment. Katipunan Avenue was heavenly on a Sunday, and passing by Miriam College, my academic home for almost two years now, I smiled as I thought of Miriam’s four core values: Truth, Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation. Yes, I said to myself, I am in the right school. I am in the right direction as a writer. And I remembered one particular day in December 2006. It was late afternoon and we were on a boat—Sir Sonny, Ma’am Delia, their daughter Karin, and I—traveling from a beautiful hidden cove in Guimaras Island back to Iloilo City. It was drizzling and lo and behold, a rainbow appeared before us! As our boat entered the embrace of its light, another rainbow appeared in the distance and soon we were traveling between two rainbows. It was a magical experience. My morning walk with Sir Sonny at UP Diliman last Sunday was also nothing short of magical: a priceless gift of a sacred and beautiful memory from the seasoned writer to a young writer. - YA, GMA News J.I.E. TEODORO is an assistant professor of Filipino at Miriam College. He has won several Palanca awards for his works and a National Book Award for creative nonfiction from the Manila Critics Circle and the National Book Development Board. He holds an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from De La Salle University-Manila.