Tertulia

There are events of the present that remind us of the past and they make us relish those wonderful moments that had helped shape our lives and our fortunes. Such was the Huling Tertulia held by the La Consolacion College Alumni Association in cooperation with the Circulo de Bacolod last Sunday at the LCC Little Theater.

The occasion was the inauguration of the improved Little Theater that was tendered in honor of Luisa Medel Reyes Howard who died last year. It is in her memory that the Tertulia was held as well.

What is a tertulia and why was this connected somehow with Luisa Medel? This is a common event of the wealthy and the prominent during the Spanish period in our history. It is an informal gathering for conversation, a party, akin to the English tea party. We do this quite often but we call it merely a “party” though not in the sense of a birthday or an anniversary. Just getting together to talk and take little food and drink on the side.

The name disappeared during the American period because we had a “party” – just being American by the educated and the rich.

When we celebrated the 100th anniversary of the declaration of our independence from Spain in 1997-1998 the Philippine Centennial Commission organized local committees and Mayor Evelio Leoanrdia, then in his first term, organized the Bácolod Centennial Committee and Mrs. Reyes-Howard was chosen chairperson. One of the activities that she suggested and which we did hold was the tertulia with a little twist – it was accompanied by formal entertainment.

This is not unusual, though, because in Bácolod, tertulia of the Spanish period was also a showing off of the host family, the presentation of a child’s skill in piano or in singing. A drinking party of the ordinary people that we still see today is usually accompanied by showing off with songs or, in earlier times, skills in poetry or composo. It is their kind of tertulia.

The tertulia last Sunday was a presentation by the students of Mrs. Howard during her many years of teaching Speech and Drama in LCC until she took refuge in the United States when martial law was declared. She was the organizer of Christian Socialist Democrats in Bácolod during the constitutional convention in 1970 and was active in the protest movement through theater.

She introduced Street Theater which depicted the life of the poor and the oppressed. The actors were students of LCC and they used Hiligaynon. They wore no costumes but the clothing of the poor and they staged their play wherever ordinary people gathered. It was an effort to prick the conscience and raise the level of protest.

She continued to be part of the anti-martial law movement in the US and got married again. She came to home once in a while, among them those years when we celebrated the centennial.

By the way, the Luisa Medel High School in Tangub is named after her mother and the Rodolfo Medel Sr. Elementary School was named after her father who donated this large span of their hacienda land that had benefited thousands of children and their families.

The Sunday Tertulia featured readings and soliloquy of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be” by Angelito Paguia, “The quality of mercy” by Atty. Benilda Abrasia Tejada, ‘Medea” by Edwina Fuentes Javier, and “Antigone” by Gloria Angeles Melocoton.

As they spoke, I remembered the days when we had to memorize lines and more of Shakespeare’s plays and of Greek tragedies. Then English literature as “Faustus,” and American literature as those of Edgar Allan Poe, and many other classics. I still memorize some of them and as our readers will recall I used some of the lines in this column. The new generation is poorer by the schools neglect of classical literature that still explains human behavior.

Arousing a lot of laughter was the Chamber Theatre that Dr. Lilia Tacardon, another protégé of Mrs. Reyes and who practically took over from her when she left for the US. She translated from Tagalog to Hiligaynon a brief drama “Ang Gugma ni Virgil kag ni Cely,” which were acted by LCC students, Shylyn Artes, Princess Mendoza, Maristel de la Cruz and John M. Toquiro. I wonder if Chamber Theater is still being used because it is an inexpensive way of training students to act.

Ricci Reyes Adan staged “Nowadays from Chicago” a modern song a dance of Broadway while another daughter, Greer Medel thanked the Sisters and the sponsors headed by Ma. Elma Gerasmo, president of the LCCAA. Mayor Bing spoke of his training in dramatics under Mrs. Reyes.

What is remarkable is the pledge of her family to help finance the reopening of speech and drama course in LCC as a legacy of Mrs. Reyes. The renovated theater will serve as a venue.*

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