Letter To Pedro, U.S.

Citizen, Also Called

Pete
by Rene Estella Amper
Pete, old friend;
there isn't really much change
in our hometown since you left.
This morning I couldn't find anymore
the grave of Simeona, the cat we buried
at the foot of Miguel's mango tree,
when we were in grade four,
after she was hit by a truck while crossing
the street. The bulldozer has messed it up
while making the feeder road into the
mountains
to reach the hearts of the farmers.
The farmers come down every Sunday
to sell their agony and their sweat for
a few pesos, lose in the cockpit or get
drunk on the way home.

The mayor owns a big sugar plantation,

three
new cars, and a mansion with the gate
overhung
with sampaguita. Inside the gate
are guys who carry a rifle and a pistol.
We still go to Konga's store for rice
and sardines and sugar and nails for the
coffin.
Still only a handful go to mass on
Sundays.
In the church the men talk, sleep; the
children play.
The priest is sad.

Ang Pagiging Bakla ay Pagkabayubay

Last night the storm came and blew away rin sa Krus ng Kalbaryo
the cornflowers. The cornfields are full of by Rolando A. Bernales
cries.

A steel bridge named after the

Your cousin, Julia, has just become a
congressman's wife
whore.
now spans the gray river where Tasyo, the
She liked good clothes, good food, big
old
money.
goat, had split the skin of our young
That's why she became a whore.
lizards
Now our hometown has seven whores.
to make us a man many years ago.
The long blue hills where we
used to shoot birds with slingshot or
spend
the summer afternoons we loved so much
doing
nothing in the tall grass have been
bought
by the mayor's son. Now there's a barbed
wire
fence about them; the birds have gone
away.

P.S. Tasyo, the old goat,

Sends your lizard his warmest
congratulations.

Pete, old friend,

every time we have good reason to get
drunk
and be carried home in a wheelbarrow
we always remember you. Oh, we miss
both Pete and Pedro.
Remember us to your American wife,
you lucky bastard. Islaw, your cock-eyed
uncle, now calls himself Stanley
after he began wearing the clothes you
sent
him last Christmas.

Ang pagiging bakla ay habambuhay

Na pagkabayubay sa krus ng kalbaryo.
Papasanin mo ang krus sa iyong balikat
Habang ngalalakad sa kung saan- saang
lansangan.
Di laging sementado o aspaltado ang daan,
Madalas ay mabato, maputik o masukal.
Mapalad kung walang magpupukol ng bato
o
Mangangahas na bumulalas ng
pangungutya.
Kailangang tiisin ang matatalas na sulyap
O bulung- bulungan at matutunog na
halakhak.
Di kaialangang lumingon pa, di sila dapat
kilalanin
Sapagkat sila'y iba't ibang mukha: bata,
matanda
Lalaki, babae, ina, ama, anak o kapatid,
mayaman o mahirap,
kilala o di kilala.

Sinong pipigil sa kanila? hindi ikaw

Anong lakas meron ka upang tumutol?
Makapaghihimagsik ka pa ba kung ang
iyong palad
At ang iyong paa'y ipinako na ng lipunan
Sa likong kultura't tradisyon at bulok na
paniniwalang
Nagdidiktang ang pagiging bakla ay isang
kasalanan
Na nararapat na pagdusahan sa krus ng
kalbaryo
Kahit na ika'y magpumilit na
magpakarangal?!

Word meanings are not only restricted

to dictionary meanings. The full
meaning of a word includes both the
dictionary definition and the special
meanings and associations a word
takes in a given phrase or expression.
For example, a tiger is a carnivorous
animal of the cat family. This is the
literal or denotative meaning. But we
have certain associations with the
word: sinuous movement, jungle
violence, and aggression. These are
the suggestive, figurative
or connotative meanings.
FIGURATIVE/CONNOTATIVE
DEVICES
1. Simile is the rhetorical term
used to designate the most
elementary form of
resemblances: most similes are
introduced by "like" or "as."
These comparisons are usually
between dissimilar situations or
objects that have something in
common, such as "My love is
like a red, red rose."
2. A metaphor leaves out "like" or
"as" and implies a direct
comparison between objects or
situations. "All flesh is grass."
For more on metaphor, click
here.

DENOTATION AND CONNOTATION

3. Synecdoche is a form of
metaphor, which in mentioning

an important (and attached) part

signifies the whole (e.g. "hands"
for labour).
4. Metonymy is similar to
synecdoche; it's a form of
metaphor allowing an object
closely associated
(butunattached) with a object or
situation to stand for the thing
itself (e.g. the crown or throne
for a king or the bench for the
judicial system).
5. A symbol is like a simile or
metaphor with the first term left
out. "My love is like a red, red
rose" is a simile. If, through
persistent identification of the
rose with the beloved woman,
we may come to associate the
rose with her and her particular
virtues. At this point, the rose
would become a symbol.
6. Allegory can be defined as a
one to one correspondence
between a series of abstract
ideas and a series of images or
pictures presented in the form of
a story or a narrative. For
example, George
Orwell's Animal Farm is an
extended allegory that
represents the Russian
Revolution through a fable of a
farm and its rebellious animals.

7. Personification occurs when

you treat abstractions or
inanimate objects as human,
that is, giving them human
attributes, powers, or feelings
(e.g., "nature wept" or "the wind
whispered many truths to me").

o Paradox: usually a literal

contradiction of terms or
situations

8. Irony takes many forms. Most

basically, irony is a figure of
speech in which actual intent is
expressed through words that
carry the opposite meaning.

Irony may be a positive or negative

force. It is most valuable as a mode of
perception that assists the poet to see
around and behind opposed attitudes,
o Verbal Irony: saying one
and to see the often conflicting
thing but meaning another interpretations that come from our
examination of life.

o Situational Irony: an
unmailed letter
o Dramatic Irony: audience
has more information or
greater perspective than
the characters

Overstatement
(hyperbole)
Understatement
(meiosis)
Sarcasm