|
Bien Lumbera:
Activist, National Artist for Literature
Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera
� literary scholar, social commentator, librettist, and poet � has been
chosen as 2006 National Artist for Literature. He fully deserves the
award, and more so than many of those who had received it ahead of him.
BY ALEXANDER MARTIN
REMOLLINO
Bulatlat
 It is now official.
Dr. Bienvenido Lumbera, known as Ka Bien to friends, comrades and
colleagues � literary scholar, social commentator, librettist, and poet �
has been chosen as 2006 National Artist for Literature.
It had been an uphill
battle. Last year was not his first time to be nominated for the title,
which was first given in 1973 to poets Amado V. Hernandez and Jose Garcia
Villa. Insiders at the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA),
which screens nominees and gives the award, say he had been passed over
several times for the honor in favor of the likes of Edith Tiempo and Dr.
Virgilio Almario.
He fully deserves the
award, and more so than many of those who had received it ahead of him. As
the poets� group Kilometer 64 declared in a statement it issued in support
of his nomination last year, �Not only has Lumbera made a significant
impact on Philippine culture: he has contributed to the strengthening of
what is Filipino in Filipino culture.
�The removal of
identity from consciousness was invariably among the devices resorted to
by the Spanish, American, and Japanese colonizers in their bid to
subjugate the Philippines. The effects of this on the Filipino psyche have
stood in the way of genuine national development.
�Lumbera contributed
to the Filipinos� self-awareness by unearthing, through painstaking
research, the achievements of our nation in the field of culture for the
past several hundred years.
�Aside from this,
Lumbera has directly contributed to the further development of an
authentically Filipino culture by creating poetry and drama reflecting the
continuing Filipino quest for full independence, and by promoting through
his critical studies the works of other artists who work along this line.�
�Lumbera has not only
significantly affected Philippine culture. He has contributed immensely to
the formation of a truly Filipino culture.�
This, by the way, is
not the first award to be conferred upon him. In 1991 the Cultural Center
of the Philippines (CCP) gave him an award for cultural research. Two
years later, he received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalist,
Literature and Creative Communication Arts. In 1999 the CCP honored him as
one of the Philippines�
100 outstanding artists of the 20th century. In 2000, the
Ateneo de Manila University � where he used to teach � gave him the Gawad
Tanglaw ng Lahi (Light of the Race Award).
Besides being a
writer, Lumbera is also known as an activist. From his involvement in the
Filipinization movement as a professor at the Ateneo in the 1960s serving
as chairman of the Panulat para sa Kaunlaran ng Sambayanan (PAKSA or
Writers for People�s Development) in 1971-1972, to working as adviser to
the progressive poets� group Galian sa Arte at Tula (GAT or Celebration in
Art and Poetry) in the martial law period � and all the way to his present
activities � Lumbera has always been one who believes that the writer
should not stay in the ivory tower but touch the ground with the people
and those seeking to bring about a better society.
And �he is
everywhere,� as is often said of him. Aside from being a national council
member of the multi-sectoral Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan or New
Patriotic Alliance), Lumbera chairs the following groups: Concerned
Artists of the Philippines (CAP); Board of Directors, Kodao Productions;
and Board of Directors, Center for People Empowerment in Governance (CenPEG).
That he still finds
time, with all that, to write and to teach at the University of the
Philippines (UP) as professor emeritus is simply amazing � considering his
age of 74 years. Why, workloads that heavy have been known to stop far
younger men.
Let us hear from the
man himself as he shares his thoughts on receiving the National Artist
Award for Literature and other issues relevant to his field of work in
this interview with Bulatlat.
First of all,
how do you feel about receiving the National Artist Award for Literature?
Well, it�s a great
honor. People have been introducing me for some time now as a National
Artist for Literature even when I had yet to receive such honor. So at
least I now have no more need to correct such wrong introduction.
You are the
first activist writer to receive the National Artist Award since Amado V.
Hernandez, and you are also the first activist to receive the award while
still alive. What can you say about that?
It�s a rather unusual
situation, because the title National Artist brings with it a certain
power: your name becomes more prominent, and people will listen more
closely to what you have to say because it gains the weight of authority.
But it also brings in
a sense of responsibility. You feel that the position has given you
responsibility, that you should begin to remember when you exercise the
power I am talking about.
So this is an
instance which creates a problem for one who is an activist. Before you
had a great deal of freedom to express views against institutions, but now
you have to think rather carefully about your positions on issues � that�s
what I mean by responsibility...
So I think that�s how
the position makes me feel at present.
But do you
think it could unfavorably affect the advocacy of nationalism and social
justice for which you have become known?
It should not.
There�s no question about that. I�m thinking more of views expressed as
regards specific issues. You have to think more seriously, more carefully,
more circumspectly.
Hernandez was
given the National Artist Award � albeit posthumously � at a time of open
state repression, and you are being given the award also at a time of open
state repression. What challenges do you see the Filipino literary writer
having to confront in such a political climate?
A Filipino artist who
is involved in a movement to counter the views of those who are in power
needs to recognize the power I�m talking about, and use that power to
advance the cause that he�s advocating.
Now those Filipino
artists who are not in the movement might ask themselves, �Did I tend to
be overcautious in taking up a position on national issues?� If he has
been overcautious then perhaps he should begin to consider his position.
If you want to gain a
national honor, you don�t have to be overcautious about your political
views. Because the National Artist Award is not given by the president of
the Philippines: it is not she who picked you out to be given the title
National Artist, it is fellow artists and academics who pick out nominees
for the title. That gesture by artists and academics is in a way
representative of the general public�s feel.
During the
martial law period, you were jailed for some time and so were a good
number of other writers. Those writers who were not jailed experienced
censorship of some sort or another. Do you see a similar scenario coming
at present?
Martial law under
Ferdinand Marcos set very clear parameters for artists, so that the artist
then knew what he can do and what he cannot do.
Under the present
quasi-martial law condition, the parameters are not clear. In such a
situation, the artist has theoretically the freedom to express himself but
the parameters are not certain and therefore, it makes an artist
apprehensive on how far he can go.
So can we say
that the circumstances right now are more difficult for artists � in a
way?
Yes, I think so. Then
everything was in black and white. But now it is not the case because what
we have is an undeclared martial law.
Much of your
work, especially the critical essays, is about the definition of the
Filipino identity. How would you in a nutshell define what is meant by
Filipino identity?
In the case of the
Philippines, when we talk about national identity, I believe the artist
must be aware of the history of his country; specifically the
revolutionary history of the Philippines, about what those who fought
against Spanish and American colonialism went through. That consciousness
is a weight that the Filipino artist at present should recognize. What we
call the Filipino identity, therefore, is working in one�s field to assert
the freedom of the Filipino people.
About culture, the
artist should recognize what comes from the past that damages the unity
and awareness of the country. If an artist has cultural awareness � if he
is aware of history and the culture that came here � it is important for
him to be able to weigh what the natives already had and what reached the
country from outside and what the Filipinos were able to achieve in terms
of molding the old and the new to form an identity that is genuinely
Filipino.
And that does
not lose its relevance, does not become �passe,� even in this so-called
�global age,� when national boundaries are said to be disappearing?
Ah, no. It�s all the
more necessary that the artist be so aware of the identity of his people
because that�s the only way to be authentic. You have to be faithful to
the culture you�re part of. If you�re faithful to that, you would assert
the identity of your country. And it�s not even consciously resisting
globalization: you simply have a duty as an artist to be true to what your
country has done, to what the culture of your country has become, and
you�re going to come up with works that are truly nationalist in a time of
globalization.
Could you share
some of your thoughts about postmodernism which appears to be the trend in
intellectual circles all over the world these days?
Postmodernism should
not be regarded as a philosophy of the individual. Postmodernism to me is
a manifestation of the temper of a world which is undergoing rapid change.
So when we speak of what is postmodern, we are aware that there is no
fixed way of looking at things. Given all the changes that the world is
going through, everything is tentative; everything has not yet reached its
fixed form. So postmodern means you are no longer going by rules that were
promulgated by the academe, the standard way of doing things. The
postmodern simply tells us that nothing is permanent, everything is in
flux, and the artist does his best to draw from the flux of things, stuff
that he believes in, stuff that he thinks should be preserved.
Given
postmodernism�s seeming emphasis on the momentary, would you agree that
there are still things that remain timeless in the sense of not losing
relevance, like the struggle against oppression?
I agree. The
individual artist always is trying to hold on to what is useful, what is
important, and that means he is always struggling to keep what he believes
in alive. So there�s no stopping the efforts of a writer to keep his
commitment to a particular issue burning.
As one who has
seen Philippine literature go through various phases in the last 50 years
and more, what do you wish Filipino writers would achieve in the coming
years?
The only thing I can
ask for is that there be more writers with consciousness of our country�s
history and culture, and that such consciousness paves the way for them to
create works that would link with the people�s conditions. Bulatlat
Related article:
https://www.bulatlat.com/news/5-2/5-2-poet.html
BACK TO
TOP ■
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION ■
COMMENT
� 2006 Bulatlat
■
Alipato Publications
Permission is granted to reprint or redistribute this article, provided
its author/s and Bulatlat are properly credited and notified.
|
