Go, Pangasinan!

Well, I'm now working my way up the family tree to see if I'm related to Patrick Macaraeg. Even if I don't find a direct connection, I feel it safe to say that the connection is there somewhere. Macaraeg is not a common name. And, glad to hear Alex Trebek pronouncing it quite well. It's an easy name to just slaughter.

But, after that last post on looking for cousins, I find that Aimee is from Pangasinan too. Her mom, that is. Her mom is from way up past Hundred Islands on the west side of the Lingayen gulf, past where there is yet another statue of MacArthur standing on the shores completing his vow of "I shall return" in perpetuity rusting. Relic U.S. tanks guard the grounds of the provincial capital.

Carlos Bulosan is another Pangasinan writer. Pangasinan folks are creative types, at least the ones I've met so far. We also have a distinctive chin. That's what the SO says. (That's how I think we're related, Patrick, we have the same chin). We also have the best alamang or agamang as we pronounce it.

Several of the Philippine presidents hail from there. Though I'm not sure if I should be proud. We're certainly ambitious types. Current GMA and her daddy. Her mama is a Macaraeg.

Fidel Ramos is Pangasinan. When he was going to West Point here in the U.S., he stopped by my grandfather's cousin's house in the avenues in S.F. Auntie Adele's dad was a farm boy wanting to be Manila socialite in America. His house was Fil-Am socialite central in those days. When I researched a paper in college, his address popped up in all the Fil-Am community papers. Her dad wanted her to "meet" with this young military bound lad. Oh, how history might have changed. She ended up marrying this Fil-Am boy that didn't upgrade their social standing one bit. Nowadays, she croons 1920s songs to people in rest homes and is the designated den mother to a gay/lesbian church group for her retirement in Vegas.

Pangasinan is one of those provinces that just boarders 4 different languages and everyone in the middle speaks them all. That would be us. Ilokano, Kampamgpangan, Tagalog, and our very own Pangasian - the language (which some people call Pangasinensee or something like that) or the slangy term for the language, Pangalatok.

Pangasinan is actually pronounced like it has two g's (pang-gah-see-nahn). A lot of my friends from Pangasinan don't speak Pangasinan, it's one of the harder Philippine languages to learn they say. But we all know its distinctive sounds of the back of the throat nga sounds and the e's that sound like the u's in cut. So Macaraeg is pronounced mah-kah-rah-ug. With such a big family, I've been lucky enough to still hear it around me often enough. When I learned Tagalog, I realized my mother was switching between Tagalog and Pangasinan. Listening to her talk was like listening to radio with bad reception, understanding that fades in and out.

Learning Tagalog helped me learn Pangasinan by understanding what to listen for. Before it was all jumble-mumble. My older sister who didn't take Tagalog says she doesn't understand. But in truth, she does. Maybe not consciously, but instinctively.

ok, some quick all I know Pangasinan lessons:

latin niyo - where are you? where did you go?

inner - where? as in where is that place or object.

antoy ngaran mo? - what is your name?

shak met - me too

mangan tila - let's eat

ngarasen ak - i think means I'm tired. but also a reply to let's eat as in, "I'm tired of
eating"

bii - woman

laki - man

cho or cha - respectful title of older man or older woman.

wala - (and this is where the Tagalog speakers go nuts) - I have it or there is something here, the equivalent of meron in Tagalog. Which just goes to show, Pangasinan folks find something where Tagalog folks see nothing. We're just magical that way!

wadjai - it's here.

wadjara - it's here over there.

anggapo - is equivilent to the Tagalog "wala" of nothing.

talora - third/three

lima - hand (lima is five in Tagalog)

I know there are other words I know, like the word for second, as in "second child." That's how my mother introduces me.

I have this one younger cousin who was born here. She speaks and understands Pangasinan, being surrounded by it constantly since she was born. Though I was never able to learn it growing up, having had teachers who told my parents to speak in English. I've done what I can to tell my uncles and aunts to ignore the teachers who tell them that. You'd think teachers wouldn't tell people that anymore, but they still do.

During my birthday, a friend got my mother to sing a song in Pangasinan. Something she sang to us as children. It turned out the party was filled with Fil-Am Pangasinan folks, who don't speak it but have ears tuned to its melody. It was one of those moments I wish I had a video camera for. I can't remember the song anymore. But I remember the emotion. I remember how quiet we all got, looking off in different directions. The sound of the guitar and my mother's voice. They remembered the sound of family parties, of their mothers or fathers humming tunes. I remember the long slow breath everyone took after she finished as if breaking the trance we were all in. I would like to learn this song or at least record it even if it's the only Pangasinan I may ever know. To think, that the most touching thing I ever heard, was something I may never understand.