From atisan.blogspot.com:
On "Cubao 1980" by Tony Perez
Cubao 1980 By Tony Perez (In Cubao 1980 At Iba Pang Mga Katha: Unang Sigaw Ng Gay Liberation Movement Sa Pilipinas, Cacho Publishing, 1992, pp. 1-89) Finalist in the Palanca Award, Cubao 1980 is Tony Perez’s first novel [sic] and one of the first attempts in Philippine literature to use skaz to depict a specific time and place, in the voice of Tom—the sixteen-year old narrator who got himself somewhat dislocated, mostly emotionally, in the evolving alternative urban site that was Cubao. Almost all of the familiar sites that used to occupy the spaces in Cubao were there, but readers are mostly defamiliarized with them when flesh trade and transactions happen in the most unexpected places, like in between shelves of books in a popular bookstore. Language is obviously the primary tool used by Perez to deepen the naturalism in the setting. The novel makes use of the colloquial language, in all its simplicity and truthfulness, in order to capture the spirit that animates each word. Some of the words used were “epa, alaws, sward, kets, tomguts, haybol, yos-a, lonta, yagbols, dehins, isplit, ema, spring tsiken, bagets, uring, sitak, siyota, sikyo, tumoma, durog, tsikas, dyakol, and datan” to refer to “father, nothing, homosexual, male, hungry, house, alright, long pants, scrotum, no, to separate, security guards, mother, virgin, young one, anal sex, cab, partner, to drink alcohol, drugged, female, masturbate, and old.” In all these, we get to understand Tom better: he wanted to desperately situate himself in the only place and time he thought he knew and understood.
Perez pushes further his experimentation with language, when we realize that he presents highly sensitive sexual scenarios that border on pornography, but do not just fall into it, by creating fully realized psychological complexity in his main character. In addition, his artistic rendering of the commonplace reveals that lust and shame in language might really be a function of intent and integrity, more than just signification.As mentioned earlier, the body is presented here as literally a commodity, and in Tom’s experience, his body’s monetary value improves as his knowledge of the trade widens, but is also inversely proportional to the amount of necessary innocence he thought he needed to continue to form relationships with his family, mostly his siblings, and with a prospective beloved—here, his classmate Amelia Contreras. His experience of dislocation was sudden but lasting: he’s rapidly no longer the person he used to be before he got into all these, and he realized that there was no way he could regain the sixteen-year old that he was, even when he attempted to salvage himself by seeking refuge to a faith that he vaguely understood but felt deeply, via Don Stewart. A naturalist novel would mostly likely end in tragedy, but in a doom not entirely similar to an Aristotelian peripeteia. Tom’s was a tragedy that recognizes its further disintegration, especially when he witnessed the murder of his friend Butch by Hermie, his ex-gay lover, in a highly tense scene that closes the book.
[A slightly similar version of this essay in Filipino may be accessed here; and a summary of the novel in Filipino was posted here.]
My leather-bound "Ichabod Crane" journal and brass-ferrule dip pen with peacock feathers on top of my "Virginia Woolfe" writing tablet, replete with ink holder, vintage ink bottle--and rose cyclamen ink! The tablet was especially created for me by antique dealer and restorer Gerry Esposo, father of Lady, a former college student of mine.
2006 Book-Signing at Tiendesitas, Pasig City, sponsored by Anvil Publishing, Inc. Photo by fellow-writer and colleague Boy Martin. My writing "paraphernalia," as Boy calls them, from Left to Right: portable neo-classical mahogany campaign desk organizer with miniature drawers and shelves; paraffin oil lamp; silver seal ring; goose-feather quill pen; brass Italian monogram seal; tin box of sealing wax sticks, Sailor ink bottle with orange fountain pen ink; and portable campaign writing box; all on top of my green satin gypsy tablecloth embroidered with gold stars. I bring my own cloth because co-sponsors are alarmed whenever I spill sealing wax and fountain pen ink.
In this photo I am signing a book for Boy, wearing my signature antique "vampire" bat ring with a black star sapphire from Khabul. A fan is reading a volume from my Sitio Catacutan Series in the background. Yes, I do wear glasses when I read, write, and paint, but I can manage without distance glasses.
After signing this book Boy and I had a long conversation about our country's current political and economic situation, and how the efforts of our classmates Emman Lacaba, Bill Begg, and company, who were tortured and killed during the early martial law years, seem to have come to naught.
In this photo I am signing a book for Boy, wearing my signature antique "vampire" bat ring with a black star sapphire from Khabul. A fan is reading a volume from my Sitio Catacutan Series in the background. Yes, I do wear glasses when I read, write, and paint, but I can manage without distance glasses.
After signing this book Boy and I had a long conversation about our country's current political and economic situation, and how the efforts of our classmates Emman Lacaba, Bill Begg, and company, who were tortured and killed during the early martial law years, seem to have come to naught.
