“Legends like this one provide a foundation for understanding literature and storytelling”
The Legend Of The Cagayan River, Anna Lisa M. Gaspar, St. Matthew’s Publishing. Quezon City, 2017 (1st edition), 32pp (Illustration in color by Glendford Lumbao). ISBN 978-971-625-370-2. P150
LEGENDS, which help in passing down cultural values, beliefs and history from one generation to the next, on the whole embody lessons and ideals like courage, wisdom and perseverance.
One such may well be The Legend of the Cagayan River, a 34-page book written by Anna Lisa M. Gaspar who grew up at the foot of a mountain “and in the middle of rice fields” in her hometown of Piddig in Ilocos Norte and who studied business administration and accountancy at the UP Diliman..
A certified pubic accountant, she has quick preference in writing stories and poems for children to numbers.
The illustration, in complementary color, is done by Glendford Lumbao, a Philippine-based freelance illustrator, designer and photographer and a graduate from the College of Fine Arts, also in UP Diliman.
Gaspar’s Legend, legible and straightforward, talks about Amang Bathala, who separated the sky from water and asked Diwata Iraya to create the mountains, Diwata Laon the seas, and Diwata Nayades, the rivers and streams.
There was specific instruction that rivers and streams be rectangular. Here Diwata Nayades sought out help and launched a contest, with Diling, an elf, and Nuno Kagat, the old man of the mound, chosen as winners.
There was a division of labor, with Diwata Nayades telling Duwende Diling to make the streams and rivers in the southern part of the island of Luzon while Nuno Kagat was to finish the streams and rivers in the north.
Nuno Kagat started his chore at what is now called Pasig River, thought of adding curved lines, continued his work until he got to the lengthy river in Cagayan Valley – but Nuno Kagat was brought to the abode of Amang Bathala because the rivers and streams were not rectangle in shape.
For his open indiscipline, Nuno Kagat became responsible for the safety of those who would cross rivers, and all the old men in the mound became guardians of streams and rivers and built their mud houses beside the rivers, including the Cagayan River, the book’s prime focus, to warn them.
Except for some phrases, which would have appeared more appropriate and closer to the hearts of those breathing in the local scene, the book should be a good read for graders hungry for fantastical elements and exciting narratives, which can spark their imaginations and encourage them to think creatively.
We find it ill-suited to use, for instance, “tabi-tabi po” along the Cagayan River and other streams up north, where the Ilokanos would merely say “baribari” or “dayodayo apo” or the Ybanags’ “apuuuu…mattalebag kami bi.”
There are other words used that are alien to the neighborhood – like nuno sa punso, tikbalang, duwende, salakot – which, while they are not exactly wrong, they are not exactly right in the long run particularly if the book has to be read by northerners proud of their language and heritage.
The Cagayan River, also known as the Rio Grande de Cagayan, incidentally is not 350 kms long as the author said, but about 505 kms and a drainage basin covering 27,753 square kms that flows north to its mouth at the Babuyan Channel near the town of Aparri.
Nothing wrong in putting factual accounts even in legends.
Cagayan River’s headwaters are at the Caraballo Mountains, at the boundary between the provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, and Quirino and are connected to the southern tip of the Central Cordillera to the west and the central portion of the Sierra Madre in Aurora to the east, forming a connection between the two mountain ranges.
Legends like this one provide a foundation for understanding literature and storytelling, and can inspire children to create their own stories and characters before too long.
They transport children to faraway lands and times, allowing them to explore possibilities beyond their everyday reality.
Gaspar’s legend correctly included heroic figures, mythical creatures, and showed dramatic conflicts that capture a child’s attention and make them want to learn more.
Easily, the book provides a window into beliefs and values of northerners although it has its focus on the Cagayan River, sandwiched by the Sierra Madre and the Cordillera where Ilokanos and Ybanags and other minority tribes live.