The Mats

By FRANCISCO ARCELLANA

For my family, Papas homecoming from his many inspection trips

around the Philippines was always an occasion to remember. But
there was one homecoming - from a trip to the south that turned
out to be more memorable than any of the others.
Papa was an engineer. He inspected new telegraph lines for the
government. He had written from Lopez, Tayabas:
I have just met a marvelous matweaver a real artist and I shall
have a surprise for you. I asked him to weave a sleeping mat for
every one of the family. I can hardly wait to show them to you

After a few days Papa wrote again:

I am taking the Bicol Express tomorrow. I have the mats with me,
and they are beautiful. I hope to be home to join you for dinner.
Mama read Papas letter aloud during the noon meal. Talk about
the mats flared up like wildfire.
I like the feel of mats, said my brother Antonio. I like the smell
of new mats.
Oh, but these mats are different, said Susanna, my younger
sister. They have our names woven into them. There is a
different color for each of us.

A mat was not something new to us. There was already one such
mat in the house. It was one we seldom use, a mat older than any
of us.
This mat had been given to Mama by her mother when Mama and
Papa were married. It had been with them ever since. It was used
on their wedding night and afterwards only on special occasions.
It was a very beautiful mat. It had green leaf borders and gigantic
red roses woven onto it. In the middle it said:
Emilia y Jaime
Recuerdo
The mat did not ever seem to grow old. To Mama it was always as
new as it had been on her wedding night. The folds and creases
always looked new and fresh. The smell was always the smell of a
new mat. Watching it was an endless joy.
Mama always kept that mat in her trunk. When any of us got sick,
the mat was brought out and the sick child made to sleep on it.
Every one of us had at some time in our life slept on it. There had
been sickness in our family. And there had been deaths.

That evening Papa arrived. He had brought home a lot of fruit

from the fruit-growing provinces he had passed in his travels. We
sampled pineapple, lanzones, chico, atis, santol, watermelon,
guayabano, and avocado. He had also brought home a jar of
preserved sweets.

Dinner seemed to last forever. Although we tried not to show it,

we could hardly wait to see the mats.
Finally, after a long time over his cigar, Papa rose from his chair
and crossed the room. He went to the corner where his luggage
was piled. From the heap he pulled out a large bundle. Taking it
under his arm, he walked to the middle of the room where the
light was brightest. He dropped the bundle to the floor. Bending
over and balancing himself on his toes, he pulled at the cord that
bound it. It was strong. It would not break. It would not give way.
Finally, Alfonso, my youngest brother, appeared at Papas side
with a pair of scissors.
Papa took the scissors. One swift movement, snip!, and the
bundle was loose!
Papa turned to Mama and smiled. These are the mats, Miling,
he said.
He picked up the topmost mat in the bundle.
This is yours, Miling. Mama stepped forward to the light, wiping
her still moist hands against the folds of her apron. Shyly, she
unfolded the mat without a word.
We all gathered around the spread mat.
It was a beautiful mat. There was a name in the very center of it:
Emilia. Interwoven into the large, green letters where flowers
cadena de amor.
Its beautiful, Jaime. Mama whispered, and she could not say
any more.
And this, I know, is my own, said Papa of the next mat in the
bundle. His mat was simple and the only colors on it were purple
and cold.
And this, for you, Marcelina.
I had always thought my name was too long. Now I was glad to
see that my whole name was spelled out on the mat, even if the
letters were small. Beneath my name was a lyre, done in three
colors. Papa knew I loved music and played the piano. I was
delighted with my new mat.
And this is for you, Jose. Jose is my oldest brother. He wanted to
become a doctor.
This is yours, Antonio.
And this, yours, Juan.
And this is yours, Jesus.
One by one my brothers and sisters stepped forward to receive
their mats. Mat after mat was unfolded. On each mat was a
symbol that meant something special to each of us.
At last everyone was shown their mats. The air was filled with
excited talk.

You are not to use the mats until you go the university, Papa
said.
But, Jaime, Mama said, wonderingly, there are some more
mats left in the bundle.
Yes there are three more mats to unfold. They are for the others
who are not here Papas voice grew soft and his eyes looked
far away.
I said I would bring home a sleeping mat for every one of the
family. And so I did, Papa said. Then his eyes fell on each of us.
Do you think Id forgotten them? Do you think I had forgotten
them? Do you think I could forget them?
This is for you, Josefina!
And this, for you, Victoria!
And this, for you, Concepcion!
Papas face was filled with a long-bewildered sorrow.
Then I understood. The mats were for my three sisters, who died
when they were still very young.

After a long while, Papa broke the silence. We must not ever
forget them, he said softly. They may be dead but they are
never really gone. They are here, among us, always in our
hearts.
The remaining mats were unfolded in silence. The colors were not
bright but dull. I remember that the names of the dead among us
did not glow o shine as did the other living names

MAY DAY EVE

By: NICK JOAQUIN

LITERARY ANALYSIS

CHARACTERS:

Anastacia

Agueda

Aguedas daughter

Don Badoy Montiya

Voltaire the grandson

THEME:

Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have

when it is gone.
Love was blinded and it turned into hatred
Love cannot be based on passion alone.
CONFLICT:

External conflict, Man vs. Man.

We can see that Agueda and Badoy after having a bad married
life with each other, used to regret the past that theyve been
together and it is revealed with their hatred for each other and
how Agueda used to describe the devil to her granddaughter as if
it was Badoy and same way as Badoy describing the witch in the
mirror to his grandson as if it was Agueda.

LITERARY MOVEMENT:

GOTHIC FICTION with REALISM

The story happened in the year of 1847 and it has a little blend of
horror and fiction because of the superstitious belief of fortune
telling as well as the devil and witch that will come out in the
mirror if everything in the ritual will go wrong.

ANALYSIS:

Agueda and Badoys bitter marriage all began on that May night.
Agueda and Badoy are two, completely different people. Agueda
is a girl ahead of her time. She is bold and liberated unlike most
girls her age. She stands out from the broad range of followers of
her era. The tragedy is when Badoys heart forgets how much he
felt for Agueda. The tragedy is how both were not careful enough
to mend their drifting marriage. Both Badoy and Agueda
perceived their marriage to be a taste of hell. Instead of admitting
that they saw their spouses in the mirror, they claimed that it was
the witch/devil they saw for that was probably how each of them
was to each other during their life together. Their contrasting
attributes perhaps were what brought them together. But it could
also have been the root of the bitterness that concluded their
time together. Badoy harked back to the time of the girl who had
flamed so vividly in a mirror one wild May Day midnight, long,
long ago and refreshed his memory of how she had bitten his
hand and fled which surprised his heart in the instant of falling in
love with Agueda. But it has been a while and time has healed the
wounds of their relationship. The old love that was blinded by
hatred which brought pain has now resurfaced. The tragedy is
that it is too late. It is good that Badoy can live in the sweet past
he and Agueda had but it is sad that Agueda never found out how
much she really meant to Badoy all this time. She died not
knowing that what she and Badoy had was real. The love didnt go
away. It was just covered up in the dust of time.
GENERALIZATION:

Life is always full of regret, for we always realize what we have

when it is gone. For Badoy and Agueda Montiya, they both lived
and loved with hate, resentment, regret, but as the story ends,
Badoy realized how he wasted his time with Agueda, how he
could have loved her, so much more than he did. He realized that
he became the devil in Aguedas life, as she became the witch in
his life as well. In the end, they both blamed the superstition of
May Day Eve.
We must not put our lives in the conviction of fortune tellers and
superstitious beliefs because I believe that half of our fate
depends on how we do things and how we value them. Because
some beliefs are not been proven and it may lead our lives into
something that we are not supposed to be in.
Fate is defined in the dictionary as an inevitable and often
adverse outcome, condition, or end. The story is set under the
assumption that the main characters in the story both believe in
superstition, as well as fate. They believed that for they saw each
other in the mirror that fated night, which they are bound to be
with each other.
They chose to see the worst, but in the end, it can be seen that
they were in love. The worst in each other only came out when
they chose to see it that way, because we all know that happiness
comes out whenever we choose to be happy.

Transcript of "WE FILIPINOS ARE MILD DRINKERS"

CHARACTERS OF THE STORY
"One man's drink is another man's person."
POINT OF VIEW
"One man's drink is another man's poison."

II. Summary
SETTING
Theme
The story took place in a barrio, in the Philippines during the year
1945.
One late afternoon, in the nipa hut of the farmer.
The POV of the story is in the first person point of view.

This statement simply means that one's perspective cannot be

the same with the others'. One may think that a particular thing
may be helpful but that may be destructive to another man's
eyes. We are all unique, we all have our own beliefs and thoughts.
Wednesday-Thursday, July 9-10, 2014
Group 2-English
"Are Filipinos Really Mild Drinkers?"
INTRODUCTION
PLOT
This story is about an American soldier bragging about his ability
to drink all kinds of liquor to a Filipino farmer, but in the end got
drunk because of the lambanog that the farmer offered. Written
by
Alejandro R. Roces
, its setting is in the Philippines, during the Filipino-Japanese war
in 1945. It centers on the drinking habits and the cultures of
Filipinos and Americans and it uniquely showed the events that
happened during the war by making the atmosphere light and
humorous compared to ordinary stories with historical events
on it. Also, this story has a satirical feel in it since it was said in
the title that we Filipinos are mild drinkers, but when you read the
story, it implies the opposite meaning of the title.

This piece won the Best Short Story Award of the University of
Arizona, where Alejandro once studied.

It was a common sight to see American soldiers almost

everywhere because American troops helped the Filipino fight
against the Japanese. In the barrio, Joe, an American soldier asked
for liquor from a farmer.

"WE FILIPINOS ARE MILD DRINKERS"

by Alejandro R. Roces
-Farmer: the humble Filipino who invited the American soldier for
a drink.
-Joe: the American soldier who was proud and confident regarding
his experiences with alcoholic beverages.
MAIN CHARACTERS
OTHER CHARACTERS
-Mother of the Farmer: the woman whom the soldier thought was
his kimono girl.
-People living in the barrio: the people who brought out their guns
and bolos when they heard the scream of the farmers mother.
-Friends of the soldier: the people who offered the farmer to have
a drink with them.

CLIMAX
PLOT
Because he was drunk, Joe thought that the farmer was a
Japanese soldier and the farmer's mom as a Japanese kimono girl.
After hallucinating things, the soldier passed out and fell asleep.
CONCLUSION
PLOT
The farmer brought Joe back at the garrison because he was so
drunk at that time. After that, one of Joes friends asked the
farmer if he wanted to join them and have a can of beer, then he
replied, "No thank you, we Filipinos are mild drinkers."

PLOT
BEGINNING OF THE ACTION
CONFLICT
Since there were no bars in the barrio, the farmer invited the
soldier to his nipa hut and offered some "lambanog", the local
liquor of the barrio.

While Joe drank the lambanog, he felt a mind-blowing sensation

and started to feel dizzy. On the other hand, the farmer was
feeling normal.

1. At the beginning of the story, the farmer said that GI's or

American soldiers brought whiskey bottles everywhere they go, so
the farmer said that it was part of their uniform. This symbolizes
their culture, where his favorite drink was whiskey. In here we
could say that one can change their faces or personality but not
their origin. When Joe drank the "lambanog" he didn't feel right
because he wasn't being an American, he was being a Filipino,
which he wasn't used to. This is why he was drunk while the
farmer was sober.

2. The Americans named lambanog as jungle juice. The

Americans have whisky, rum, brandy, etc. which are high-end
liquors and when the soldier saw the lambanog, he knew that it
was not processed and it was only naturally made by Filipinos by
extracting the juice of a coconut fruit. This name also mirrors the
Americans perspective on Philippines. They see the Philippines as
a jungle, wherein the people living in it are still not modern and
civilized and they think Filipinos are still dependent to their
natural resources.

3. The coconut tree symbolizes the pride and humility of every

Filipino. Just like a coconut tree, it stays very high but its leaves
sway down to earth remembering the land that gave it life.
Filipinos are really achievers in life, no matter how many times we
fall down to the ground, we always have the courage to stand up
again and rise high. We dream and we do not settle seeing only
the big picture of our minds but when we dream, we act as if it is
our last chance of living but even if we such things, we still go
turn our backs to our homeland and remember the love that
made us grow brighter through the days.
III. Reflection
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
4. The farmer sliced the kalamansi and dipped it in unrefined salt.
This was done to prevent figuratively inflaming their stomachs.
5. When the soldier drank the lambanog for the first time, he felt
a mind-blowing sensation. As what the farmer said, the first shot
always acts like a mine sweeper. Even if the soldier felt that way,
he wanted to show the farmer that he can drink even the
strongest drink of other countries. On the second round, the
soldier again felt a strong effect of the lambanog that as he
exhaled, a moth flying around the thickening flame fell dead.
Lastly, on the third round, he completely lost his mind that when
the farmers mother came home, he imagined her as a kimono
girl and the farmer as a Japanese soldier, then he passed out.
III. Reflection
COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS
6. Filipinos are not mild drinkers. When the American soldier
mentioned that he used to drink different kinds of liquor and that
he was really fond of drinking such liquids but when he tried to
drink the lambanog, he felt like he swallowed everything he said
to the farmer. The farmer was acting very normal drinking the
lambanog while the soldier already felt dizzy on the third time.
Filipinos are really not mild drinkers. We drink when there is an
occasion, we drink when we are happy, we drink when we are sad
and especially we drink when it feels like we need to.
SYMBOLISM
Lambanog
1. Culture of the Filipinos
2. Problems of Man
In the story, the farmer was already used to drinking lambanog
that's why he was sober. The American on the other hand was
new to it that's why he got drunk. This symbolizes the culture of
Filipinos since the farmer was already familiar with it while the
soldier was overwhelmed by it. It could also symbolize the
problems of man since the people who are already used to the
events happening around them would still continue to live, while
those who arent might not be able to survive.
SYMBOLISM
Coconut Tree
Pride and Humility of Filipinos
It was explained in some of the lines in the story that the coconut
tree symbolizes the Philippines and its inhabitants because even
though it stands high to the sky, its leaves still sway down to
earth as if remembering the land that gave it life. And like the
tree, Filipinos nowadays succeed in various fields, but still, they
dont forget the land where they started from and they
acknowledge Philippines as their homeland and they are proud of
it.