Uswag Bicol  

(Go Forward Bicol)

When I think of Bicol, I remember the house on stilts that stood proudly by the creek where it bends on its way to the rice fields.  The upper part of the house evoked antiquity with wide solid wood walls and capiz window shutters.  The lower part had bamboo slats for its walls that hid the pillars of vintage hardness.  The flooring of the house was so high the farm hand would strut like a peacock with bails of grain on his head.  That house was sturdy, spacious and weird.  But when the typhoons came and the town got flooded, the bamboo slats would entrap all the creek overflows which included green and ripe bananas, pomelo, coconuts, caimito, santol, chicken, newly-drowned pigs, any casualty of the storm except human beings.  The old man of the house would call all his neighbors to partake with the day’s catch and they would come, frolic and cook- up edible and delicious dishes from the finds and share them all, like one big happy family.

            The house is long gone and so is the old man and the storms have taken new tolls.  Now the ‘hood is strange but we have all the good memories with us that made us better persons, responsible and resilient like the rustling bamboos by the creek.  Having been away from the old country, we bond together in Hawaii, hoping to enrich each other socially, culturally and yes, share those good memories that we take wherever we go.  Then we join a club, let’s say the Bicol Club and we find ourselves fostering what our forerunners started in 1978.  We salute the founding pillars and the officers and the more than 200 members represented by the past presidents of the Bicol Club of Hawaii - Ike Espiritu (1978-1979), Mike Filio (1980-1981, 1995-1998), Rick Lopez (1982-1983 & 1990), Mario Gaor (1984-1985), Grace Bautista (1986-1989), Virgil Nagrampa (1990), Juliet Ablan (1991-1994), Frank Cruzata (1999-2002), and Noni Panen (2003-2006), immediate past president, as we usher in Rose Filio, the incoming president of the club.

There is no doubt that the BCH lives by its corporate goal to promote social, cultural and charitable cohesiveness among its members, the local community here in Hawaii and our compatriots back home.  We can always do a little bit more and realize that we can only do so much and in the process, we have done it well.  The community knows and perhaps talks about the things that we have done.  With our deeds, which shall never remain unnoticed, we are at peace with the Lord and ourselves.

Uswag Bicol.  Go forward Bicol -- but to which direction?  Go forward Bicol to a level where we can say that the Bicol flame will keep on burning.  Then we can be at peace with ourselves that we have people to pass on our stories of hard work, camaraderie and resilience to.  Let us pass them on to our youth -- the scions of Bicol, the sakada of the new century.  Interestingly, these young professionals are socially and culturally Americans with Bicolano DNA in their soul and with utmost certainty, have not experienced nerve-wrecking typhoons, raising fighting cocks and gathering bamboo shoots after a thunderstorm.  If we succeed in telling them about their roots and usher them to the Bicol Club family, then and only then can we rest fulfilled.  Give a good life a chance to be remembered. Uswag Bicol. #jporias