Today is my mother's birthday.
The picture above is one of the few pictures we have when my mother was very young. It's the face that inspired the writing of Bataan New Jersey. While the heart of the novel is Bataan, it is about the impact of successive wars on Philippine soil on the characters, especially Lourdes.
One cannot write a novel without seeing the faces of the characters. They have to move, talk, cry, scream, and appear in the writer's consciousness in all possible ways. They have to be real in that alternative world of fiction. Their gestures are the language of fiction, the quiet moments that are often better than dialogues. When I started writing Bataan New Jersey, I already knew what Lourdes, Dominica, and Eugenia looked like. They are three generations of women with the same face. My mother's face.
My mother, Virginia Almonte Realuyo, is a Chavacana. She is a polyglot. I took that DNA from her. Because of her background, I studied in South America. I wanted to understand that colonial voyage from early on. I learned Spanish, but not the creole that my mother's family spoke for centuries. I headed to Argentina to study. Ferdinand Magellan landed in Patagonia, Argentina first before running into the "Philippine" islands. My mother is from Zamboanga, home to Fort Pilar, the Spanish stronghold in the south. Chavacano is the language and culture born to the interaction of the Spanish soldiers and the natives of the south. My mother is born out of that heritage.
I created a whole world from my mother's face. The stories of her people, so un-acknowledged in a country that embraced Americanisms over Hispanidad, will hopefully be a part of a moving literature. It is my heritage too. I am a Chavacano just like her.
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