by Rose Cruz Churma
August is the Philippines’ Buwan ng Wika. It is imperative to assess the impact of Philippine languages in the Filipino Diaspora, especially in the context of Hawaii.
Not so long ago, the Hawaii public library system’s children’s librarian inquired about children’s literature from the Philippines.
Some library patrons with young children wanted picture books for their preschoolers written in the children’s native language, or the language of their ancestors who came from the Philippines.
“What language would that be?” I asked. She looked at me blankly. “What do you mean, are there several languages we’re dealing with here?” she asked, a bit bewildered.
I explained that most of the bilingual children’s literature that is in the KB&T inventory is in Tagalog/Filipino and English.
The designated national language of the Philippines is Filipino, which is based on the Tagalog language; hence, I use both terms to describe it. Most of the books available for purchase use Tagalog/Filipino.
However, there are young parents of Ilokano ancestry who prefer to familiarize their children with the language of their grandparents, in Ilokano. The majority of Filipinos who migrated to Hawai’i are from the Ilocos region.
Procuring the books in the preferred language of the patrons is crucial if their intent is for their children to retain their culture and maintain ties with their extended families.
Aside from Tagalog and Ilokano, another Philippine language spoken here in Hawai’i is Cebuano, one of the languages from the Visayas—a cluster of islands in central Philippines.
Filipino/Tagalog and Ilokano are offered as college courses at the University of Hawaii system, but not Cebuano. However, informal classes in this Visayan language are offered at the United Visayan Hall located in Waipahu.
Two bilingual books in Cebuano and English are available for purchase via Amazon: Ang Pasko sa Balay ni Lola Sepha (Christmas in the House of Grandma Sepha) and Ang Kabakhawan Gabantay sa Atong Banay (The Mangroves Protect Our Homes), written by Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo, a professor of communications at Chaminade University of Honolulu.
Ang Pasko sa Balay ni Lola Sepha (Christmas in the House of Grandma Sepha) is subtitled as a “Visayan Counting Book” since the thrust is to familiarize children with the Cebuano numbers, from one to ten.
The book is in the form of a letter to Madi, who lives outside the country, from her two cousins, Jo-Pearl and Fil, who live with their Lola Sepha.
Ang Kabakhawan Gabantay sa Atong Banay (The Mangroves Protect Our Homes) promotes the preservation of the oceans for future generations.
The book describes how mangroves protect the islands they surround from strong winds and big waves.
The author, who was born and raised on the island of Negros in the Philippines, encourages environmental conservation efforts by protecting the hundreds of hectares of mangroves surrounding the islands.
Dr. Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo, the author of both books, is a professor at Chaminade University of Honolulu, where she teaches intercultural communication.
She is the director of the Cebuano Language and Culture Program under the Fulbright-Hays Grant of 2022.
In that capacity she produced the book Pamalandong (meditations) which was a compilation of Cebuano-English creative lesson plans designed for grade K to 12 classroom standards. These publications focus on immigrant and multilingual issues dedicated to amplifying diverse voices.
Both books were illustrated by Ionone Bangcas, a self-described free spirit and multi-disciplinary artist who runs his own video production outfit, SPI-Media Works, producing and directing commercials for broadcast television.
Animation is his other passion, so he and a friend set up BouncingBall, Inc., a 2D animation studio based in Cebu City, Philippines. He currently maintains a private music studio in Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental.
The books are available for purchase at Amazon.com. Children’s bilingual books in other Philippine languages (Tagalog & Ilokano), combined with their English translations, are also available via this online bookstore.
It would be wonderful to have bilingual books authored by local writers and illustrators represented in our public library system.
However, the public library system has a very limited budget for books available on Amazon.com, or other small independent book distributors, preferring to source their book purchases from a large book distribution company on the US Continent who can select, annotate, and catalog books for all branches at lower costs.
The centralized sourcing is an efficient way of acquiring books, however, this implies that the branches have similar demographics, that book patrons in one have similar book reading needs as the other, which we all know is not the case.
But as shown by the children’s librarian mentioned earlier, who was responsive to the needs of the system’s patrons, the only way to have the representation of our languages is to speak up and request access to these books.
ROSE CRUZ CHURMA established Kalamansi Books & Things three decades ago. It has evolved from a mail-order bookstore into an online advocacy with the intent of helping global Pinoys discover their heritage by promoting books of value from the Philippines and those written by Filipinos in the Diaspora. We can be reached at kalamansibooks@gmail.com.
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